How to guide for Halloween

I am sure I have mentioned many times that I am off Halloween weekend because of my first anniversary with the boyfriend and because we're going away. Now technically we'll still be around on Halloween night itself but while we were making plans, I didn't fancy being stuck in work until 9.30 that night. This is all well and good and I'm sure we'll have a great time but one knock on effect of this weekend away is that for the second year in a row, I won't be in work on Halloween and not to sell myself a cornerstone to the store but in my absence, the children's section can get a little messy and of course no Halloween party gets thrown. Mostly this is good as Halloween parties in a bookshop can get a little manic at best. However I then feel bad for not celebrating it particularly when you have parents asking what's planned in the shop and my eyes dart around nervously as I look for something pressing that needs doing while I mutter nothing and promptly run away.

 So that's the long answer to why I am throwing a Halloween party by myself in the shop, the day before Halloween. I will be dressed as a witch again and not out of laziness or lack of imagination but sadly there isn't a Halloween costume budget and I still have the black dress and stripey tights, all I had to do was buy a witchs hat and boom, I'm a witch. That was the easy part. The thing most people don't realize is planning a party inside a store like the one I work in actually takes a ridiculous amount of work. 

 This is what planning  this Halloween Shindig involved. Now bear in mind despite all my planning, it could well be chaos once it gets going with children running excitedly about the shop and me wondering what on earth I've gotten myself in for. Firstly I had to pick a date and time and then I sent off an email to a list of schools with all the details. I keep everything bar the time, date and location vague because at that stage I haven't actually worked out what we will be doing for the party.

 Next step is giving the party details to the printing/graphic design service in store and requesting a poster. They usually do a great job but this can take a few days. 

 After that I plan the party itself and that's the really fun part. With an open invitation party like this, you could end up with 5 kids or 50 but you just have to wait and see on the day. 

 I pick some stories that are suitably halloweeny and I might change these two or three times before the party. Then I find pictures online for colouring and save those as I will need to print them off later. Next I try and find activities online for the party. This is the hardest part because you don't know how many kids will turn up or what the age variation will be and we have limited space plus I wont be able to use anything that requires making something or lots of props or that needs you to run around. After many hours perusing I have come up with three games that will hopefully work.

 Then I get it posted on the shops Facebook account and today I used the posters in a Halloween window I put in front of the shop. Tomorrow all I'll need to do is run out and buy some sugary treats for the little ones and put out a stand advertising my party with some  balloons tied to it. 

 Meanwhile I will pace about the shop in my witch's costume half panicked about no one showing up and half panicked that I will be hosting to the whole city. Hopefully I will pull it off and learn my lesson, waiting a while before the next one.

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