Easy Halloween Kleenex Box Cover

Materials: thin cardboard (old cereal boxes work well!) printer paper something to color with (if using B&W template) scissors glue Instructions: Print out the templates of choice (you can use all the same template so you have the same picture on all sides, or you can mix and match!)  — you need 4 templates to make one kleenex box. Colour pieces, as necessary. Glue the pieces onto squares of thin cardboard (old cereal boxes).  Using a glue stick instead of white glue keeps the paper from wrinkling.  If you are using white glue, put the glue onto the cardboard, not the template and then spread it around so it’s a very thin layer. Cut out the pieces.  This step may require adult assistance.

	OPTIONAL:  cover with clear contact paper (this makes it water proof).  Contact paper can be purchased in rolls at your local office supply store.
	Optional:  Score the tabs — to do this, flip the template over so the cardboard is up.  Put a ruler down to help you keep a straight line.  Using scissors or a butter knife, run along the ruler pressing hard to make it easier to fold the edges.  This step may require adult assistance.
	Fold the tabs
	Use glue or tape to attach the tabs of one template to the untabbed side of the next to form a box.
	Slip it overtop a square kleenex box!  (it squashes flat for easy storage so you can pull it out next halloween)

	Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
	Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Halloween Food & Drink Tips

• Waiter there’s a fly in my drink! — Freeze ice cubes with faux insects inside by filling a tray half full and freezing, then adding a gummy critter or a couple of raisins, fill the rest of the way with liquid and re-freeze.
• Fill a new plastic household glove with lemonade, limeade or other liquids to create an eerie floating hand in your punch bowl. Use heavy duty rubber bands to secure the top of the glove, leaving a little room for expansion. Use a small plastic dish to prop up the secured end of the glove in the freezer. Freeze until solid, peel away the glove and float the hand in the punchbowl.
• For a realistic looking eye frozen in a cube, see our recipe for Bloody Eyeball Cocktails.
• You can use a ring mold or bundt cake pan to freeze a creepy ice ring for you punch bowl. Fill 1/3 with liquid and freeze, arrange a layer of gummy worms on frozen ring, fill to 3/4 full and re-freeze. To un-mold, simply run hot water over ring for a second to two.
• Consider using Mountain Dew soda in your drinks and punches, nothing else has quite the same green glow.
• A wonderful tip we got from the fine folks at the House of Blues, is to use plastic light sticks as swizzle sticks, it gives the drinks an eerie, mysterious glow.
• Make Halloween shaped tortilla chips by using cookies cutters to cut shapes out of tortillas, then deep fry until crisp. You can also make low fat tortilla chips by baking your cutouts in A 350° F oven. In either case, sprinkle with salt. Chips made of blue corn tortillas look especially spooky.
• Use cookie cutters to cut out small sandwiches in Halloween shapes.

The Story of Halloween

Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands of years. The holiday we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries. From the Roman’s Pomona Day, to the Celtic festival of Samhain, to the Christian holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days.

Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts. The Celts worshipped nature and had many gods, with the sun god as their favorite. It was “he” who commanded their work and their rest times, and who made the earth beautiful and the crops grow.

The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st. It was celebrated every year with a festival and marked the end of the “season of the sun” and the beginning of “the season of darkness and cold.”

On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred). The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they danced around the the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin.

When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.

The November 1st festival was called Samhain (pronounced “sow-en”). The festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. This festival would become the first Halloween.

During the first century the Romans invaded Britain. They brought with them many of their festivals and customs. One of these was the festival know as Pomona Day, named for their goddess of fruits and gardens. It was also celebrated around the 1st of November. After hundreds of years of Roman rule the customs of the Celtic’s Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona Day mixed becoming 1 major fall holiday.

The next influence came with the spread of the new Christian religion throughout Europe and Britain. In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church would make November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint’s Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.

But the spread of Christianity did not make people forget their early customs. On the eve of All Hallows, Oct. 31, people continued to celebrate the festivals of Samhain and Pomona Day. Over the years the customs from all these holidays mixed. October 31st became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow’s Eve, Hallowe’en, and then – Halloween.

The Halloween we celebrate today includes all of these influences, Pomona Day’s apples, nuts, and harvest, the Festival of Samhain’s black cats, magic, evil spirits and death, and the ghosts, skeletons and skulls from All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day.

Another Day Along the Way

some dress up, some dress down,
one resembles a ghost,
one resembles a clown,
they like the colors dark,
they like the candy sweet,
stores await financial gains
to come with trick-or-treat.

but i’m not into halloween,
the newest mask or latest scene.
i wish we honored all-saints-day
and allowed the Light to
shine our way.

so what?
what for now, for us?
should critique and debate
become our own methods
of dressing?
should anger and hate
become our real selves
in hiding?

think about the masks,
our masks.
through tasks of triumph
and chores for trophies,
through religious performance
and imaginary imagery,
who are we
trying to be?
while hating masks and candy,
have we also chosen
to hide behind our crusades,
our causes or our curtains?

maybe we should pause
before we party.
maybe we should pause
before we preach.

if we take a moment,
if we take off our masks,
if we forget the tricks and treats,
if we forget our list of tasks,
maybe a pause is possible,
and productive.

and purifying,
if instead of our denying,
we breathe life into our dying,
and stare. if
looking at ourselves,
with a mirror’s reflection,
with no masks allowed,
with a Maker already aware,
we stare.

all saints?
saints at all?

today, let us pray.
not pretending, but confessing.
not hiding, but being healed.

what if our Holy Observer
has gifts of life to give today?
what if all we need to do is knock?
while throwing away masks
and admitting our hunger,
while confessing away wrongs
and admitting our needs,
what if all we have to do is knock?

Pure Surrender: Want to know more about how God accepts us through Jesus? Want to find out how to take off the masks? Read Chris Maxwell’s book, “Beggars Can Be Chosen.” Check the website www.beggarscanbechosen.com, or order through www.Amazon.com.

www.beggarscanbechosen.com

www.chrismaxwellweb.com

Jack –O-Lantern

The jack –o-lantern chuckled
Then winked his funny eye,
“I would rather be a pumpkin-face
Than be inside a pie!”

Jolly wolly pumpkin face
You’re happy tell us why.
I’d rather be a pumpkin face
And not a pumpkin pie!