It’s October, so we’re celebrating Halloween every living moment. So brace yourself for every #SundayFunday until November to be Halloween themed. We kicked off our Halloween celebrations with a girls night in, featuring a good ol’ game of Ouija and enough candy to put us into a coma.
We hadn’t played Ouija since we were a kid, but we remembered it fondly. I think the last question I asked a Ouija board was whether the boy I liked actually liked me back. I was maybe 11. Why a ghost would know the answer to that question is even more baffling than how a Ouija board works.
And Ouija does work – just maybe not the way you think it does. Some people are totally freaked out by Ouija (ahem, Rachel), but others see it as a cool science project. Vox has a great Ouija board explanation you can read here, but in short, they explain it like this: the mechanism that powers the Ouija board is called the ideomotor effect, and it’s basically a way for your body to talk to itself. It’s an example of unconscious, involuntary physical movement — that is, we move when we’re not trying to move. Mind = blown!
If you’ve ever experienced the sudden feeling of jerking awake from sleep (which I think we can all agree is terrifying), you’ve experienced a more abrupt version of the ideomotor effect: your brain signalling your body to move without your conscious awareness. When you’re awake the reflexive movements you make are much smaller. In the case of Ouija, your brain may unconsciously create images and memories when you ask the board questions. Your body responds to your brain without you consciously “telling” it to do so, causing the muscles in your hands and arms to move the pointer to the answers that you — again, unconsciously — may want to receive. Like that my 11-year old crush totally has the hots for me too.
As a kid, Halloween was all about obtaining as much candy as possible, am I right? Did you guys also trick or treat with a pillowcase? It’s hands down the best candy vessel because it doesn’t weigh a thing and can hold a shit ton of candy. We literally used to run between houses because our parents would only let us trick or treat until about 8:30pm. So needless to say there was substantial cardio involved, which was a blessing because we needed to offset the candy binges that were about to go down nightly for an entire month.
Halloween celebrations as an adult still require a substantial amount of candy. We put an “adult spin” on our Halloween candy binge by creating a board – think charcuterie but candy. Putting together a good candy board is an art, especially if there’s a theme involved. You want a good mix of consistencies, colours and in the case of Halloween, some nostalgic or novelty items.
We’ve broken down how we’ve made ours below, along with what you’ll need for this epic Halloween night in.
- Ouija Board (you can buy one here)
- Candy board
- Gummy eyeballs (obtained from the Dollar Store)
- Gummy brains
- Gummy worms
- Gummy fangs
- Giant gummy snake
- Halloween Kisses (those chewy molasses candies – I think I’m the only person on the planet that actually likes them)
- Black liquorice ropes
- Candy corn
- M&M’s
- Caramel cubes
- Gumballs
- Halloween lollipops
If you’ve never used a Ouija board, the concept is pretty basic. You’ll need at least two people to place their hands on a triangular pointer – which actually has a name! It’s called a planchette. The planchette should be placed on the board, with everyone’s fingers touching it in some capacity (at least two fingers is recommended). You’ll also want to be touching each other in some way, so get cozy – either knees or elbows is probably the easiest. The idea is to summon the spirits you want to communicate with, and they’ll move the planchette around the board to spell out answers to the questions you ask — until they or you finally say goodbye and the spirits go back to wherever they came from. No big D right?
Before you start you’ll want to set the mood. It’s very similar to a hot date – you’ll want darkness, candles and a knife nearby just in case (that was a joke). You’ll also want to nail down some questions in the meantime, especially if you’ve got a big group, just so your Ouija experience isn’t a hot mess with everyone yelling at the spirits.
We scoured the internet for the best questions to ask, and here’s what we came back with:
- How many of you are in the room?
- Are you always with me?
- Did I know you while you were living?
- Were you alive during this century?
- What is your name?
- Where are you from?
When it comes to the candy board, there’s no real right or wrong way to arrange it, you’ll just want to ensure it looks full. We started by placing the giant gummy snake across the board and then arranged each type of candy in a number of small piles around it. We then tied a number of the liquorice ropes into knots and placed them around the board. Then we devoured it (true story).
The night obviously demanded a cocktail. We concocted something pretty crazy using beet juice, which produced a vibrant purple hue. We’re into it. Grab the recipe here.
Looking for other spooky activities, games or cocktails? Check out some of our other ideas and recipes below:
- Hocus Pocus Movie Drinking Game
- How to Throw an Epic Halloween Party
- The Ultimate List of Halloween Cocktails and Shots
- Our 31 Favourite Scary Movies
- How to Host an Addams Family Dinner Party
- Scream Movie Drinking Game
- Zombie Baby Pumpkins
- How to Host a Virtual Pumpkin Carving Contest
- Host a Halloween Trivia Night (with a free 50-question download!)
This playlist will get your girl’s night going and those ghosts a’ haunting.