Gardner: I don’t care what guests choose as their costume or how they wear it. I applaud the effort, from Raggedy Anne to Icy Queentini.
What should be on the food menu of a Halloween party?
De Givenchy: Devils on horseback, pigs in blankets, caviar on potatoes, smoked salmon with rye bread. Guests will come and go throughout the night, so make it a lavish buffet served by silver candlelight.
Wearstler: Halloween is all about the sweets. I love cookies with dried edible flowers embedded, chocolate-dipped apricots, pineapples, and oranges, and a bowl of black M&Ms.
Newman: A fun thing to do is look at an issue of Gourmet magazine from the ’70s and recreate the recipes. They’re not what you typically see today and are very visually arresting (and delicious).
Gardner: Halloween includes trick-or-treating and usually children, so plan a menu that is easy and delicious and feels good in fall. I serve a cocktail buffet with chicken pot pie, a big green salad, and roasted vegetables. Then, I barter with the kids for Reese’s peanut butter cups and mush them on scoops of vanilla ice cream for the adults.
What should be on the drinks menu of a Halloween party?
De Givenchy: Cosmopolitans, old-fashioneds, vodka.
Wearstler: Champagne is my go-to for getting into a festive spirit.
Newman: I do love a punch bowl. A signature drink pre-batched and served in a dramatic vessel is the way to go.
Gardner: Halloween is the perfect time to serve a cocktail in a big silver punch bowl with dry ice. I make big pitchers of Earl Grey bourbon punch (it’s like a bourbon sour) that I pour over a floating ice ring with orange slices, springs of thyme, and maybe floating eyeballs. Then, I convince a friend to jump out from behind the curtains in a clown mask.
What decor should you incorporate? Can you skip the pumpkins and ghosts?
De Givenchy: Pumpkins are for entrances, ghosts are for the children. Think gigantic branches of interesting blossoms, willow, fall leaves, and thorns (painted or not), ivy, hellebores, cyclamen, mosses, and rare tiny orchids. Low lighting is essential—ideally, candlelight and lamps only. Waiters in full livery, gruesome makeup, and a deadly soundtrack.
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