Spooky, But Make It Glam: Second Annual Galloween Party
October 31, 2026
If you know me, you know Halloween at our house is Galloween. Last year my girlfriends and I did the very first one, and if you read that post, you already know Lily declared it a tradition on the spot. Welcome to the second annual Galloween!
This year, I made a decision early and I stuck to it: less homemade food, less time in the kitchen, more time actually at my own party. So I built the food around one big, glorious cheese plate and let everything else be easy. Grazing was the whole strategy.
The Tablescape
I love creating a beautiful tablescape. Sitting down at a pretty table with friends and family is one of my favorite things, it just makes everyone want to gather around it and stay a while.
Sometimes the inspiration starts with the centerpiece, and other times it comes from something as simple as a glass, a placemat or a charger. This time it was my purple plates and these autumn-inspired flowers I found online. I almost always bring in my favorite color palette, purples and lilacs, since they match my house and my chairs, and then I build another color accent off of that. For Halloween, the warm tones in the arrangement set the palette for the whole table.
Layering is my favorite tablescape trick, because a stack of plates does half your decorating for you. The gold charger is the frame: it gives every seat its own little moment, and the beaded edge catches the candlelight so the whole setting sparkles before anyone even sits down. The black plate goes on next, and black is doing real work in this stack. It grounds all the pastel and makes the plate on top of it POP. And the top plate is the lilac one, the personality of the whole table. It is the first thing your eye lands on, it ties straight back to the plates that started this party, and the coral napkin beside it pulls out that little bit of orange and warms the cool purple right up. Cool lilac, warm coral, moody black, glam gold. It should not work and it SO does.
Every setting also got a mini pumpkin, because it is October and I have no restraint, plus iridescent goblets with little pumpkin charms on the stems that shimmered every time somebody raised a glass. My pink snake glasses from last year came back for year two, and so did the mini cauldron bowls. Galloween has returning cast members now.
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The Decor Details
The mirror moment might be my favorite thing I did this year. I framed our big mirror with pink, purple and silver disco balls and scattered black bats all across the wall and ceiling around it. A plain mirror became the photo backdrop of the night, and yes, I took full advantage.
The disco ball ghost from last year is back too, because at this point he is family. The disco ghost was probably one of my favorite Halloween purchases ever. So obsessed I bought 2 of them.
On the console, I set up a little drink and dessert station: pink skull runner, ceramic ghosts, a black Halloween tree with lights, a glass pumpkin, the mini cupcakes on their tiered stand, a whole plate of macarons, and the punch bowl fogging up her corner like she owned the place. More on her in a minute.
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The Food
Like I said up top: grazing, not cooking. One big spread, a couple of warm things, dessert. I spent this party with my people instead of in the kitchen, and I regret nothing.
The cheese plate was the anchor of the whole thing, and I went all in: brie, manchego, smoked gouda, a cranberry cheddar, cubed muenster, green olives, crackers and crisps, and a jar of fig spread that I will put on literally everything. It all went on the wavy white ghost board with the little stacked pumpkin spreader, because even the cheese knife was in costume.
Around the board: a whole stand of mini cheese balls rolled in pistachio (cute, poppable, gone in an hour) and a big gold bowl of burrata drizzled with balsamic glaze and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and cranberries. The burrata disappeared first. SO good.
For the salad, I picked up a fregola salad instead of making one, which fit the whole assignment. It looks like couscous, but it is a teeny Sardinian pasta, and it is delicious. The dips were a trio, because one dip is never enough: pumpkin pie hummus, maple cream cheese dip, and a caramelized onion dip I made for the ghost chips.
The one warm thing was the soup, an Autumnal Harvest situation kept cozy in the slow cooker and served in the mini cauldron bowls. It was there last year too, and at this point it is not Galloween without it.
And the plot twist of the menu: the plan was coffin sandwiches, but the mummy dogs won. Hot dogs wrapped in crescent dough bandages with little dot eyes. Nobody was mad about it.
Plus all the little grazing things that kept everybody circling the table: pretzel sticks standing up in the mini cauldrons, the dark fruit (moon grapes, black figs, blackberries, blueberries, dark plums), strawberries, a bowl of candy corn mixed with peanuts that is salty sweet perfection, Cheez-Its, and mini cupcakes for dessert.
The Sips
The punch was the main character. She is a cranberry pomegranate punch with raspberry sherbet melting into her, and she has a frozen HAND floating in her. The hand is my favorite party trick: fill a disposable plastic glove with water, freeze it overnight, peel the glove off, and float it. Then, once everyone arrived, I dropped in the dry ice and let her smoke. A moment, every single time.
Recipe
Galloween Punch
The main character of Galloween year two: cranberry pomegranate punch with raspberry sherbet, a frozen hand floating in the bowl, and dry ice smoke once the party starts.
Ingredients
- 1 bottle ginger ale
- 1 bottle cranberry-pomegranate juice
- 1 tub raspberry sherbet
- lemon or lime juice to taste
Instructions
Pour the ginger ale and cranberry pomegranate juice into a big punch bowl.
Add the raspberry sherbet and let it melt in until the top gets frothy.
Add lemon or lime juice to taste.
Float the ice hand in the bowl.
Right before serving, drop in dry ice and let the bowl smoke.
Notes
The ice hand: fill a disposable plastic glove with water, tie it off, and freeze it overnight. Peel the glove away and float the hand in the punch. Dry ice safety: handle dry ice with tongs only, never bare hands, and let it fully dissolve before drinking the last of the bowl.
For the girls, a green drink: club soda with green apple sparkling syrup (the Wicked one, but any green apple syrup works), with a green apple gummy worm hanging off the rim. They felt very fancy, which is the whole point.
Galloween-Inspired Outfits
A few purple and orange party pieces in the Galloween spirit:
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For the Little Ghouls
The kids got their own table again this year: spiderweb tablecloth, purple spiderweb placemats, haunted house plates, and plastic skeleton hand goblets that were a whole hit. I added craft kits this time, little suncatchers and BOO kits, so they had projects to bounce between snacks. Tbh the crafts bought the grown-ups a solid hour of cheese time.
And because last year's fashion show energy was unmatched, I rolled a red carpet runner down the hallway for the kids to strut. London made his runway debut in his Halloween candy onesie, with Lily right behind him in her sparkle dress and cat ears. A star is born.
That is Galloween, year two. Lily was right, it is a tradition now, and traditions apparently only get more extra. Same time next year, and if you missed year one, it is right here: Drop Dead Gorgeous: The Glam Halloween Party That Started a Tradition. Boo la la!
The Galloween girls, year two:
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