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The Little Witch’s Valentine Book

The Little Witch’s Valentine Book by Linda Glovach, 1984.

Like other Little Witch Craft Books, this one gives holiday-themed craft instructions, party tips, and recipes.  The book starts out with a brief explanation about the purpose and origin of the Valentine’s Day holiday and then gives a section about Valentine-themed crafts.  Some of them also relate back to the witch theme of our craft hostess, like Valentine-themed witch hats, which is a little odd, but fun.

There is a section of crafts that you can make as small gifts for people or prizes for some of the party games given later. The small crafts include finger puppets, a box decorated with an owl with a heart-shaped head, and a butterfly pin with heart wings.  There are also instructions for a Valentine-themed rag doll with a witch’s hat, and the instructions recommend that boys make an old man version of the doll by adding a beard.  The dolls have heart-shaped faces.

Under the party suggestions, the book recommends having a Queen of Hearts Tart Party for an Alice in Wonderland tie-in.  It gives instructions for making playing card costumes that are kind of like sandwich board signs. 

There are two party games described in the book, both based on the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.  One of the games is the “Off With Your Head Hunt” where players have to find missing heart halves with matching symbols on them that are hidden somewhere in the room.  The name of the game comes from the person who will be playing the Queen of Hearts, who gives the players their instructions and shouts “Off With Your Head!” while the players hunt for the heart halves to appease the queen.  (Yep, really.) The second game is the “Pass the Queen’s Red-Hot Heart Game.” It says that “The Heart is red-hot because it belongs to the queen.” It’s similar to the game Hot Potato. The players stand in a circle, passing a paper heart very quickly from one person to the next while someone plays music. When the music stops, the person who is holding the heart is out of the game. The game continues until only one person is left, and that person wins.

The recipes section offers treats that you can make for your Valentine’s Day party or just for fun, including Queen of Heart Tart Biscuits, Heart Cookies, Strawberry-Banana Valentine Monster Mash, and strawberry pancakes.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Little Witch’s Halloween Book

The Little Witch’s Halloween Book by Linda Glovach, 1975.

This book is part of the Little Witch series of craft and hobby books.  This one is all about Halloween activities and suggestions for Halloween parties. The book is divided into sections for cards and decorations, parties and celebrations, and trick or treat.  The Little Witch’s Code in the beginning has rules for Halloween safety such as having an adult inspect Halloween treats before the child eats them and going trick-or-treating in a group instead of alone. It also advises collecting for charities while trick-or-treating and not playing tricks on people.

The section about cards has Halloween card designs in different shapes. The party section also has a pumpkin card design to use as an invitation, but really, any of the cards could be invitations or party decorations.

The party section has instructions for games and decorations. One of the games is a pumpkin cake eating contest and a recipe for a pumpkin cake, which oddly does not include any pumpkin, only the spices that are typically included in pumpkin pie. It’s more like a spice cake or gingerbread, and it’s decorated to look like a jack o’lantern face.

Other games and party treats include traditional ones, like dunking for apples and toasting marshmallows, but there are also some original games, like the Wicked Witch’s Candy House. That game involves party guests taking candy from a tray on top of a cardboard playhouse made from a large cardboard box while the “witch” inside tries to guess who they are. There is also a cute fortune-telling game.

The section about trick-or-treating has more recipes and instructions for making a treat bag and making jack o’lanterns out of oranges.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Ghosts, Witches, and Things Like That

GhostsWitchesThings

Ghosts, Witches, and Things Like That by Roderick Hunt, 1984.

This is a collection of information about the history of Halloween and other things related to Halloween, like folklore, games, recipes, crafts, and poems.  There are sections about specific topics, starting with the section about Halloween itself (spelled Hallowe’en, this is a British book).  The section about Halloween talks about the origins of the holiday and has tips for holding a Halloween party, including how to make costumes and decorations, the rules for games to play (including some old traditional games), and recipes for various Halloween treats.

Other sections of the book focus on various monsters and mythical creatures associated with Halloween, such as witches, ghosts, fairies werewolves, and vampires.  There is a section of ghost stories and some fascinating historical information about spiritualists and how people have faked ghosts in the past, including the Pepper’s Ghost illusion that is still used in the haunted house in Disneyland.  The sections about witches, fairies, and monsters also include a mixture of history and folklore along with some jokes and poems about the various creatures.

GhostsWitchesHistory

This is a fun book to read around Halloween.  It’s a mixture of historical background, folklore, party-planning tips, games, and recipes.  I think that the information about traditional games is still my favorite part.

GhostsWitchesApples