Create a spooky fantasy land in your own home this Halloween. A Vitamix blender helps you prepare ghostly treats and drinks for guests to enjoy in a hauntingly fun atmosphere rife with pumpkins, ghosts, and other creepy creatures. Follow these tips for throwing a kid-friendly Halloween party and you’ll have a house full of giggling little ghouls.

Food for Halloween Fun

A Halloween party is not complete without a spread of whimsically scary foods. Balance sweet and savory so as not to overload the kids with sugar. Use your Vitamix machine to make a goblin dip by pureeing a can or two of pinto beans with cream cheese and salsa. Pour into a bowl and decorate with a smattering of black olives and shredded cheese. Serve the dip with homemade bone-shaped chips made by cutting the shape out of flour tortillas, spraying with non-stick cooking spray and baking in a 250°F oven until crisp — about 30 minutes. Frost pumpkin muffins with vanilla icing and dot decoratively with candy corn. Place hummus in a hollowed out mini pumpkin and serve with cut-up veggies. Make round sugar cookies hued with green food coloring and bake with a candy eye in the center for easy monster-eye cookies.

Eerie Decor

Place glowing jack-o'-lanterns throughout your home to put people in the Halloween mood. If you don't have time to carve the pumpkins first, buy an assortment and arrange them in clusters near the front door or by the fireplace. Candlelight and black lighting create a mystical mood; a candelabra heightens the Halloween experience. To delight kids, hang cut-out bats and ghosts made with cheesecloth from the corners of your ceiling.

A spooky punch bowl serves as a centerpiece for a Halloween table. Whip up a fresh fruit punch in your Vitamix machine and hang gummy worms off the sides for effect. Add dry ice to the punch bowl to create eerie fog tendrils; the ice sinks to the bottom so no one ingests it.

Scarily Fun Events

Plan games to entertain kids while the adults converse. Have kids "bob" for hanging apples outside without the watery mess. Tie a string between two trees or set up a clothesline. Secure more string around the stems of the apples and hang them from the elevated line. The kids then must try to get an apple using only their teeth — no hands allowed. Create a sensory haunted house by having kids enter a dark room and feel bowls filled with monster eyeballs (peeled grapes), ghoul brains (cold, wet noodles) and maggots (cooked white rice doused with warm water). A costume contest and scavenger hunt for spooky items you've hidden around the house are sure to entertain kids of all ages.