The Ultimate Hocus Pocus Party Menu: With Extra Puns!

Happy Hocus Pocus Fri-yay, y'all!

This has been... quite a week.

So, once John and I realized hurricane Ian was going to blow away our Hocus Pocus watch party tonight, we did something a little drastic:

We set up the entire party spread the night before Ian hit, just so we could photograph everything for y'all before we lost power. That included a late night trip to buy candy eyeballs while everyone ELSE in Orlando was stockpiling water and bread. It was actually a fun project, though, and a nice distraction to keep the storm anxiety at bay.

Anyhoo, we finished taking the last of these photos around 5AM, and the power started to flicker by 9. JUST MADE IT. I'm also happy to report our house survived undamaged, and John & I are safe staying with friends who do still have power.

So without further ado, please enjoy the post that almost didn't happen, and that I'm SO glad came together, because I had a blast and a half coming up with these ridiculous puns.

The Ultimate Hocus Pocus Party Menu:



First a quick moment to appreciate my tablescape, which I cobbled together from things we already had and a few last-minute Dollar Tree items.


Remember this 3D skull DIY? The lights still work!




I hand-cut the letters from card stock that we spray-painted gold, then taped to pieces of twine. Those are my awesome plastic wall bats on each end of the twine.

Now to the treats!


First some easy ones: licorice strips for Sarah's Lucky Rat Tails.


The Dollar Tree rat skeleton was too cute to pass up.


It'd be fun to add a little tombstone in the peanut bowl, if you have one.

Not gonna lie, this is the worst pun, and also my favorite:

We couldn't find rum balls, so we made our own with chocolate brownie mix, cream cheese, rum extract, and chocolate sprinkles. SO TASTY.


Alternate label that made my friends laugh: Billy's Willies. Heyoooo.
(I'll include printables for both!)


I'm most proud of our Black Flame Candle Cookies, even though they're not a pun. We stuck rolled wafer cookies to baking chips for the bases, globbed on melted white chocolate for the "wax," and used thin shards of milk chocolate for the flames.


This was definitely tedious to assemble, but they are DELICIOUS and ended up looking pretty dang cool! I may have to re-visit these for Christmas.



Winnie's Mini Sliders were the easiest to make, and made me the most happy; I can't look at those olive eyeballs and NOT smile.



Here's the first movie pun I came up with, and what kick-started this whole menu:

:D
Love how the cup bottoms give them frownie faces!


We didn't have time to make our two drink punches, so instead we faked them:


"Another Glorious Morning" was going to be an orange, vanilla, & cinnamon punch. If you've ever had the orange drink in Wizarding World, that was my general idea.



By contrast, "Makes Me Sick!" was going to be a lime and gin concoction. (Hit me with your recipe suggestions in the comments; I'd still love to make these!) I stuck rainbow gummi worms around the inside of the bowl for color, then we used our old Pensieve Potion stand to add lights underneath.



A few more pics of the whole spread, since I took about a zillion:

I hope to recreate this spread for more than just us and the cats next time.

Most of this didn't go to waste, btw; we ate the sandwiches by flashlight during the storm, and are still snacking on the cookies and rum balls. Only the Jell-O was lost, and we appreciate its sacrifice.

And now a quick video tour, because when we throw a party for no one, we are VERY thorough:

But wait, there's more! These are just the things we were able to make in time. Now let's get to the REST of my menu, while I'll illustrate with pics I found online:

Hocus Pocus "Char-boo-terie"

(Megan Yang)

You can find a ton of variations of this online, and it's so cute! Start with cheese faces, then fill in the colors with fruits, veggies, crackers, candies, etc. The Book brownie is a great touch, too.

Witches Brooms

(One Little Project)

We tried to make these ourselves, but our cheese slices kept cracking instead of bending. Maybe they were too thick? :(

Mary's Scary Berries

(Pizzazzerie)

If you don't want to make your own, you could buy white chocolate strawberries and add sugar eyeballs.

Sand Witch Fingers:

(The Hungry Waitress)

The pun was right there!
These "fingernails" are olives, but you could use almonds instead.

Deviled eggs

 (She Keeps A Lovely Home)

These look like so much work, but c'mon. The little horns!

"Come, we FRY!" 

No photo, but works for anything fried: chicken, tater tots, etc.

And finally, a gem John came up with: cover your water bottle labels with "Max's Burning Rain Of Death."

We didn't have time to make the water bottle labels, but we DID make labels for everything else, which of course I'm about to give you as free printables. Ready?

Ta-daa!

Right-click to embiggen, then save each graphic to your desktop.


EDITED LATER TO ADD:
Spotted one more making the rounds on Facebook today!

(Stephanie Shaeffer Willett)

Hee! I can't believe I missed this one, love it.

I hope this inspired you to play more with your food, and to throw more themed parties! In fact you could message some friends right now to plan one this weekend. Eh? Eh?

As for us, John and I will be having a more casual watch party at a friend's place tonight... but we'll at least bring the rum balls. :D Please send happy thoughts of electricity our way, since our old neighborhood often takes up to 4-5 days to get the power restored. If that's the case I may take next Tuesday off, just to rest and cope with being away from home so long. I hope to be back very soon, though, with our next Haunted Mansion build!

Thank you for all the love and prayers through the storm, and please keep 'em going down South to the folks who were hit hard. Thinking of you, my fellow Floridians, and everyone currently in the path of the hurricane. Be safe, and please, check on your neighbors.

*****

If you like the projects and printables I offer here and would like to help out, you can support me directly by giving through Paypal! Whether it's a one-time tip or a monthly donation, every dollar helps me and John keep pouring our time and passion into this community, so thank you, truly.