This year, Jason and I planned our 20^th Halloween party together. After two decades, even unexpected blasts couldn’t undermine our eternal rest. Here’s how we made our crypt doors extra creaky.

Our theme this time was Disney’s Haunted Mansion, which is celebrating its 50^th anniversary in Disneyland this year. The décor, crafts, and party favors were all geared toward this morbid motif. Even our catering, San Diablo Churros, was a nod to the ride. There is, after all, a churro stand right outside the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland.

As usual, our preparations for this event started early in the fall. We began working on our 81-item to-do list sometime in August. A portion of our prizes, decorations, and costume accessories arrived by mail. In total, we received 54 packages filled with party supplies. You’re welcome UPS.

As with any large event, our party is always accompanied by unforeseen complications that have to be handled at the last minute. This year, they came in a bluster. We bought a 10×15 tent to house the catering and provide extra room for our guests. We rented space heaters to keep this area cozy and borrowed tables to make it perfect for chowing. But our tent endeavors were ill-fated. The wind picked up to 24 MPH with gusts over 36 MPH just hours before our party commenced. No canvas was holding that at bay. We had to disassemble the tent about an hour before the party and move San Diablo Churros into our already crowded kitchen. The graveyard Jason had cleverly constructed in the backyard didn’t get appreciated due to those gusts… or stay entirely upright.

Since the weather impeded most attendees from venturing into our yard, the body count inside our house exceeded any previous year by a dozen or two. Although not quite 999 happy haunts, somehow we fit over 100 humans in our home. I wouldn’t say there was room for one more though.

It was my turn to choose our costumes this year. I decided to go with something theme-related, and Jason and I came as the Dutch boy and girl from the It’s a Small World ride. Our costumes were a little heavy on both ends. My wig incorporated nearly a full pound of yarn, and our clunky wooden shoes felt as solid as tree trunks. We were committed to our costumes though, so we wore those shoes all night. Incidentally, I would not recommend hosting a party stretched over two entire floors of a house while wearing wooden clogs. My right foot was swollen on top for days despite my makeshift fabric wraps, and two of my toes are still healing from the arboreal rubbing they received. At least our cheery costumes provided colorful contrast to the stark monochromatic motif. Jason even convinced forty or fifty of our attendees to sing “It’s a Small World” to me. Maybe because it’s a world of laughter.

There were five craft options this year including portrait chamber bookmarks, ghostly couture bracelets and earrings, and spiderweb wreaths. Thankfully, craft ideas befitting our theme were rather scarce, which saved me from an insufferable but irresistible craft overload.

The party favors required less assembly this year, but buying and putting over 90 of them together still felt like it might take me until the afterlife. Did they all hitchhike to new homes? All but one of the kid bags were taken, but about 20 adult/teenager favors remained. Why so many extras? I had no idea which options would be most popular, so I filled a few supplemental coffins.

We had more help this year than ever. What a difference it made! With four decorating sessions and two undecorating ones, putting up and putting away everything was much more manageable and fun. Plus, an adult volunteered for kitchen duty during the event and several helped tidy up the sticky scourge afterward. To all our helpers, thank you! Your assistance not only sped up the process tremendously but bolstered our expired spirits.

Despite the meddling wind, our party was a swinging wake after all. The Haunted Mansion can accommodate 2,100 guests per hour. Our mansion, apparently, can accommodate 100 guests per evening. That’s more than we thought. And the smell of churros lingered long after the stickiness subsided. I guess that’s about as much as you can hope for with any hosting undertaking.