May this autumn bring you a harvest of fun times and laughter with family and friends!

Five Party Ideas to Celebrate Oktoberfest

It’s the world’s largest beer festival, but you don’t have to travel to Munich to celebrate Oktoberfest. Or for that matter, you don’t have to host guests for 16 days, which is how long the German folk festival typically lasts!

What you can do is host a fun fete for your closest friends full of traditional foods, colors, and music. Plan your own Oktoberfest celebration with these five tips.

Create a Biergarten.
Of all the varieties of brews in the world, only six pass the Reinheitsgebot or “purity” law passed by Germany in 1516. These biers all come from Munich, and you can find some of them in your local stores: Paulaner, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, Augustiner, Hofbräu, and Löwenbräu.

However, you can go slightly less traditional and select some Oktoberfest-style beers from other breweries, which are increasing in popularity.

Serve the beers in traditional steins, or simply host a tasting with smaller glasses and let your guests enjoy small samples of each.

Serve German foods.
Oktoberfest fare consists of pretzels, bread, and meat (although you can find substitutes for your vegetarian guests). So pre-heat your oven and try your hand at these delectable treats:

• Large soft pretzels (you can also serve the small, crunchy kind on strings for guests to wear around their necks)
• Sausages
• Sauerkraut
• Bratwursts
• Potato dumplings
• Potato pancakes
• Bierock, German bread with meat and sauerkraut filling

Add fun to traditional decorations.
Although bold colors are on full display at Oktoberfest, the main colors are light blue and white displayed in a diamond-checkerboard pattern. It’s easy to make your own bunting, stamp table cloths, and create place mats using these colors, but why not get more creative?

Use well known elements of Oktoberfest to add flair to your celebration. Beer stein, pretzel, and lederhosen shapes can easily be cut out of paper and incorporated into table designs, hung from strings, and even painted on shirts.

Share the celebration with a selfie station.
No doubt your guests will want to share the fun on Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat. Arm them with the hastags #prost, #käse, and #Oktoberfest and give them a place for perfect pics.

Props like traditional German hats, oversized beers, and German sayings can be made out of paper and taped to sticks for easy posing. Or you can visit your local party and craft stores and find a wealth of themed props for a low cost.

Make the mood with music.
It isn’t Oktoberfest without German tunes. You can find preset playlists on Pandora, Youtube, and Spotify. Or if you’re feeling confident, you can always create your own. Many websites offer free downloads of Oktoberfest music.

Your apartment may not be in Munich, but you can still throw a memorable Oktoberfest for you and your friends. With a little bit of planning, the best of Germany will come to your home.

Enter today to win a $125 gift card to the Container Store for your Oktoberfest party goods
Click here for rules and entry details.

Ends 12/31/16.

Jack-o-Lantern Shenanigans

Not all jack-o-lanterns are created equal, but don’t worry. You don’t have to be a French sculptor or even a good artist to create funny, spooky, or beautiful jack-o-lanterns and pumpkins.

If you’re feeling crafty, grab a knife, some glue, and maybe some glitter and try out some of these pumpkin decorating tips.

If you want funny …
Some people don’t like digging out a gourd’s innards with their hands, and that’s okay. A simple solution is simply using the yucky to your advantage! Cut out some eyes and a mouth, and let the seeds and slime slip out of the mouth like your jack-o-lantern has had healthier days. You don’t have to touch the seeds, and your pumpkin basically decorates itself!

For those who want to use that same “sick” sense of humor at the table, empty out a small pumpkin, give it a face, and replace the seeds with guacamole. It’s up to you, however, to convince diners that the joke is in good taste!

If you want kid friendly …
Avoid knives and get some pumpkin decorating items from your local craft or dollar store. Stickers, pom poms, googly eyes, rubber bugs … The list goes on. If it can be glued, taped, or pressed onto pumpkin skin, it’s fair game.

You could even let kids simply paint pumpkins with puffy or latex-based paints. They can paint faces or Halloween scenes, write their names, give their jack-o-lanterns stripes, and so much more. Let their imaginations do the work.

If you want pretty …
In recent years, designers and pumpkin professionals have turned jack-o-lanterns into a classy affair, decorating pumpkins with lace, beautiful ribbons, and jewels.

Paint your pumpkins with black chalk paint, or spray them silver and then add glitter in patterns. Or keep the pumpkin orange and glue on buttons so they spell out “boo,” “spooky,” and other Halloween phrases.

You can even carve patterns into your pumpkin—forget faces! Carve out circles or triangles in a pattern and have a pretty jack-o-lantern. Scrape the pumpkin, don’t pierce it through with the knife, and you can make intricate tattoo-like patterns that light will shine through.
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When it comes to creating a memorable jack-o-lantern, your options are endless. With a little creativity—and maybe some glue—you can turn an ordinary pumpkin into a personalized masterpiece.

Enter today to win a $125 gift card to The Container Store for all your Halloween decorating needs.

Click here for rules and entry details.

Ends 12/31/16.