‘A Grimm Evening’ Halloween theme gives you a chance to twist and play on a few of our most famous childhood fairy tales and their beloved characters with a bit of humor thrown in. In truth, many of the Grimm’s tales are pretty scary all by themselves but let’s just see how we might serve them up ‘with a twist’!
The fun of this theme is taking well-known Grimm’s fairy tales and twisting them into unhappily-ever-after-endings or playing up on the wicked elements that are already a part of the versions most of us grew up hearing. Miss Party intends this theme to be used only for a teen or adult party, when it is fun and appropriate to add wicked twists or a splash of campy humor to children’s stories. Here are some of the most well-known Grimm’s fairy tales:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Sleeping Beauty
Little Red Riding Hood
Rapunzel
Hansel & Gretel
Cinderella
Rumpelstiltskin
The Raven
In each of these stories you will find a hero/heroine and a villainous character who can be: included in your scenes (or imply they have been there); used as costumed characters, or help drive your food choices (for example: Snow White’s evil stepmother, the Queen, poisons an apple to give Snow White. Hence, any sort of apple drink or dessert would be perfect to pretend it was prepared by her. See this idea used below with “The Evil Queen’s Mulled Apple Cider”). For Halloween party decor, imagine the aftermath if the villain succeeds in his/her mission in any particular story. In your version of Hansel & Gretel, maybe the Wicked Witch does cook Hansel and Gretel in a cauldron to make soup or perhaps Hansel and Gretel cook the witch. Another idea is to take a well-known ‘good’ character from one of the stories and put an unexpected twist in that character’s behavior–Cinderella might become ‘Sin’derella after dark or give Little Red Riding Hood an anger management issue.
Miss Party will get you started with a few ideas she used for this theme, many of which you’ll see in the pictures above:
- ‘Creeping’ Beauty death scene: ‘Creeping’ Beauty (a dressed skeleton) has been laid to rest forever and spiders are creeping all over and around her.
- ‘Sin’derella scene: Create a scene at a fireplace hearth with these sorts of items. ‘Sin’derella’s broom (appropriately tagged), stool, skull, handcuffs, man-killer high heels, etc. (go as far with this as is appropriate to your audience).
- Hansel & Gretel: Create a death scene for Hansel and Gretel either because of starvation or because they were added TO the dinner menu as soup in a giant cauldron soup pot. Alternatively, Hansel and Gretel might cook the wicked witch or their stepmother for dinner.
- The Evil Queen’s Perfectly Poisoned Apple: Make one very red candy apple with a natural stick. Plate the candy apple and place a small “RESERVED” tent card on the plate. Cover the apple with a glass cloche and set the whole piece on a cake platter to display in a prominent place at the party, perhaps on your food table. You might also rename apple desserts or drinks as if they were made by the evil Queen (see picture above).
- ‘Dead’ Red Riding Hood scene: Either insinuate Red Riding Hood has killed, or been killed by, the Big Bad Wolf. Either way, make it appear a smack down has occurred and one of them was the victor. Come to think of it, a real twist would be that Granny killed them both!
- Black Forest Cemetery scene: Create a classic graveyard scene and add painted wooden signs that point the way to: “The Black Forest”; “Wicked Witch’s cottage”; “Big Bad Wolf’s lair”, etc. You might put ‘Creeping’ Beauty or Snow White in this cemetery scene also. Have a gravestone for Red’s Grandma, Snow White or any other famous fairy tale characters that have met their demise. Add cobwebs and a fog machine –instant drama!
- Rupunzel’s princely death scene: Make a very, very long natural rope ‘hair braid’ (rubber band both ends of the braid) to hang out of an upper-story window with her skeleton Prince, hanging on for dear life. Or, ‘bloody’ one end of the braid and coil Rupunzel’s ‘hair braid’ all over Rupunzel’s skeleton Prince to suggest he pulled her hair off her head or the witch cut it off and he fell to his death.
Need more details on party details from the pictures above, continue on to Part Two of this post – “‘A Grimm Evening’ Halloween Party – The Devil’s in the details!” Want to know what Miss Party served for a light dinner, desserts and drinks? Go to “Behind the Scenes of ‘A Grimm Evening’ Halloween Party!”
Now, Miss Party is sticking strictly to Grimm’s fairy tales in this interpretation of a ‘Twisted Fairy Tales’ theme. There are lots and lots of other non-Grimm fairy tales, however, such as Jack and the Beanstalk or Goldilocks & The Three Bears, and all manner of Nursery Rhymes. There are also all the classic children’s stories, like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland” that you might want to include if you want to go with a broader ‘Twisted Fairy Tales’ theme. No rules, it’s all good.
Have a wickedly twisted evening!
(While this theme could certainly be made age-appropriate for a younger audience, Miss Party does not suggest using all the decor ideas listed here for a young children’s party. Good judgement should prevail.)
Sources:
Witch hands black bowl and platter from Grandin Road
Black and white striped lanterns from Target
Paper and plastic party goods from iParty
