Bonfire Night - please can we get your tips for successful parties

Don't do a party. Find an organised display (fire brigade are always good, you get to chat up to the firemen too.

Fireworks at home really rock
You need a torch or two
You should toast marshmallows & have a LUDICROUSLY ENORMOUS bonfire and make your own guy to look like someone you know
And take photos
You need at least 3 generations of your family there for max enjoyment
We go very stereo typed in our family over this - the men light the fireworks and the girls ooh and aah at the pretty ones

oh yes and sparklers sparklers sparklers

You never buy ENOUGH sparklers

Have loads and loads

everyone loves 'em

don't forget a camera with a slow shutter speed so you can write filthy words with them

TIMING has no one mentioned TIMING?

It gets dark by 4pm, but people start parties at 8pm, which means that small children are crabby and knackered

Start family firework parties EARLY - then you get more time for drinking mulled wine

Get the kids to draw the fireworks next day while you stomp round the garden picking up the dead ends and nursing a headache from all the bangs.

I think you need to have a realistic number of fireworks - if you have too many, people get bored and more importantly careless. IME this is when accidents occur.

If guests are bringing firworks with them ask them to bring a maximum of three (for instance) so you don't end up with heaps of them to let off.

Invoke the 'no getting pissed till after the final psst' rule!

i.e. you can only get tiddled when all the fireworks have been set off.

Buy noise reducing headphones for kids under three to avoid damaging their hearing. We got ours for under £10 a pair each and they come in cool neon colours (keeps their ears warm too).

Custardo - you win - am nicking that idea!!

Don't have one, go to an organised community one.

Oh, here's a tip.
DON'T let menfolk go up to corner shop for more sparklers after a drink has been taken.
They will stagger back with a giant firework - the sort which would take out a small continenet.
The sort which requires clearance of around 100feet. When you only have a grass patch of around 12ft square....
You will end up swearing and sheltering behind neighbour's cars.
All the childrenw ill be crying.
Neighbours will never speak to you again.

The men will have forgotton the sparklers.

get invited to someone else's!

For mini toad in the hole I buy little cocktail sausages, our local deli does lovely herbed ones, but if you can't find any cut normal sausages into thirds.

Use bun tins, put a sausage in each and oven cook for 10 minutes, add batter and finely chopped onion, cooks for 20 - 30 minutes.

Serve with a dollop of onion chutney or onion marmlade on each (sainsburys do a lovely one with balsamic vinegar)

For butternut squash risotto I roast small chunks of butternut squash, onion and garlic, then add to a normal white wine risotto. I often add grated squash towards the end too as it gives it a lovely colour.

we don't have bonfire night just Halloween in NI

We have a party most years
we always have
1 a fancy dress competition
2 a witchy den- someher in the garden for the kids to hang out in done up with spiders web and spooky music a cauldron and scary snacks
3 we put the tent up in the garden and light a BBQ/brazier- this way the adults have somehere to shelter and sit and keep an eye on the kids
4 dh does a pathetic firework display accompnaied by loud Carmina Burana style music.much hilarity ensues
5 we have a pumpkin carving competition
( all voting for the compettions is done by ballot- everyone votes for the one you want to win in a jamjar)
6 we have food- usually stuffed baked potatoes, bangers on the bbq and a big pot of spicy beans
My speciality of the evening is Pumkin Bhajias- i can provide the recipe as required served with HELLish Relish
7 DH makes a big cauldron of Mulled Cider to get things going. We also usually have a few bottles of sloe gin on the go.
8 We have a few organised games for the kids
Mummy wrap
Pumpkin Bowling
A Pinata in the shape of a Pumpkin
Ghost hunt ( round the garden)
9 we have a 'rained off' standby which is Spooky Bingo which can be printed off the internet
10 we have a video of all the Halloween Simpson's specials/Harry Potter
Adults and children are always included
we finish the evning with Dh as THE GRIM REAPER giving out the prizes.

Custardo, you wouldn't win, because the question is asking about Bonfire Night, not Halloween.

Though your idea is splendid.

Oh madaboutcake your bonfire night sounds similar to mine!

I'm getting worried about all the cooking!

Devilwearsprimark - pls could we have your recipe for mini toad in the hole, plus your risotto?

They sound delicious. We are hosting a fireworks party for c30 people, half of whom are kids.

Everyone is bringing a bottle plus a firework, but we're providing the supper. I love your ideas!

Thanks

Toasted marshmallows.
Baked foil-wrapped bananas with chocolate inside.

that should be eating doughnuts off a string .

ok

my mum used to dip chillis in chocolate and offer them as a trick (don't think she really understood the concept that they did the tricks and she did the treats).

obviously not to be offered to very small children.

dead mans fingers (sponge square made with green food colouring and cut into strips)

eating doughnuts off a sting. get round sugary doughnuts with a hole in the middle. tie them on strings and strings to washing line at different heights. have to be eaten with hands behind back.

what about that coke and mentos thing instead of a firework.

But no fireworks at home I'd say.

Sparklers certainly, but have a bucket of wet sand to put them out in.

Bonfire cake - use red food colouring in a chocolate cake, then red food colouring butter icing to cover (flames) and stick over the top chocolate flakes (logs)

mini toad in the hole with onion chutney

butternut squash risotto

ginger beer for the kids, ginger beer and vodka for the adults.

in a similar vein to HumphreyCushion: get various adults to dress as scarecrows and take the kids for a ghostly walk through the fields. Take a route right past a "scarecrow" which suddenly comes to life and terrifies them. We've done this with the youth group many times and they do find it hilarious.

Bobbing for apples

home made candy apples

flapjack

barbecue

custy it's about bonfire night me dear, so you lose.