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

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Kids, adults, fireworks - it's a combustible mixture. So how do you make your bonfire night parties work? We need your ideas for games, food, safety, what to do with pets, and anything else we've forgotten. Thanks

that should be eating doughnuts off a string .

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

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

Oh madaboutcake your bonfire night sounds similar to mine!

I'm getting worried about all the cooking!

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

Though your idea is splendid.

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.

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.

get invited to someone else's!

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.

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

Custardo - you win - am nicking that idea!!

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).

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

If holding a bonfire party and eating afterwards in your home

DO NOT forget to take down the indoor washing line down and only realise weeks later when you look at the photographs that you and your guests were standing among swathes of shirts and boxer shorts to eat your 'dogs

I like morningpaper's idea of sparkler word (filthy or not) pictures taken by a camera with a slow shutter speed.

Lots of other fab ideas here, too!

Can I please be very dull and sensible and drone on about pets?

IME it's the homes with kids where the pets really suffer - people running in and out, doors being left open, lots of excitement etc

Pets should be shut in the house in a room with music or the TV on fairly loud and the curtains closed.

If your pet is frightened of fireworks please see your vet for advice. The little yellow pills that were once widely used to sedate pets are a really, really bad idea when they are noise-phobic and so you need to get advice about other ways to manage the problem.

The golden rule is to act normally and to avoid punishing or comforting a frightened pet. Just make them a comfortable soundproofed den (cupboard under the stairs/old duvet thrown over a space between furniture/bathroom etc - wherever they'll go willingly), close curtains, put telly on and give dogs a big meal of pasta or rice at dusk, and let them get on with it.

Lecture over

yes good point Davina

I put a large blanket over my dining room table for the cat to use as a den

Davina - what do you think of bach rescue remedy? I swear by it myself by also heard it is helpful for animals - have you heard of any animals who have been calmed by it?