# Attempting a Voodoo Bayou Theme



## redheadarn (Aug 27, 2010)

Hey everyone, sorry if this is redundant but, I'm new here and didn't want to hijack someone else's thread...

This year will be my first year hosting a Halloween party. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I'm totally stoked! I decided on the swamp/voodoo/bayou theme because well.... I love it, though I've never been to New Orleans.

Living in the SF bay area I can do an inside/outside party because the weather is usually conducive. So, my idea is to keep the swamp/bayou elements outside. The inside is what I need some help with. I want to do an old abandoned southern mansion that's being used on the d/l by crazy voodoo practitioners (emphasis on crazy). So basically inside of the house I want to try to have the old southern classy elements but with like the dusty sheets on the furniture, abandoned feeling with the crazy voodoo elements all over.

Anyone got any idea for things I should get/do to achieve this for the inside of the house (preferably cheaply)?


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## BooBoo (Jun 14, 2010)

How about a old wet sign that says: for Goverment Flood Assistants call 555 - Dated 2005
Wa Wa Wa.


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## Blumpkin (Aug 5, 2009)

Skulls, rubber chickens and a Ouija board for props.


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## kallie (Dec 4, 2007)

BooBoo said:


> How about a old wet sign that says: for Goverment Flood Assistants call 555 - Dated 2005
> Wa Wa Wa.


that seems inconsiderate in my humble opinion.


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## MrsNightmare (May 6, 2010)

For the abandoned look, I would throw drop clothes over the furniture as though the house was a summer home, that was closed up for winter...


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## sarahtigr (Jun 16, 2010)

kallie said:


> that seems inconsiderate in my humble opinion.


I have to say I agree, especially being from New Orleans and not seeing my home for 2 & 1/2 months after Katrina. 

But on the up side! Try to find some sort of recording of cicadas (locust), you hear them all the time and make creepy background noise. They've been driving my dog crazy for the past 3 weeks. Also moss cause its everywhere in the bayou. If you could do a busted pirogue (like a canoe) maybe like an alligator got to it. If you do a Marie Laveau tomb make sure you put X's all over it. They are for good luck. O and don't make anything stand straight up cause everything sinks here and it's a pain! I'll let you know if I think of anything else!


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## Maxiboots (Aug 31, 2010)

I just found a link to poisonprops.com, they have a CD called "hillbilly swamp" seems to have a nice creepy swamp ambiance, you can hear a clip on the website. 
Also, find a store near you that sells real chicken feet. Hispanic or Asian groceries may carry them. They are cheap, and you can hang them up - early the day of the party, they start to stinkin' quick. Or put them in jars filled with tonic water which fluoresces under black light. Add a little rubbing alcohol to the mix to hold off the smell.


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## Pirate Chris (Aug 20, 2007)

We did voodoo in our bathroom 2 years in a row. Key elements that really set it off. Lots of candles, skulls with homeade runes (black rocks with symbols painted on them). We had a rubber chicken, some rubber snakes. Homemade voodoo dolls. Those were fun to make. A couple of shruken heads. Oh, and the part that threw it over the edge for us. A hidden cd player that played chants. had one guy who came out of the bathroom and said it was too creepy, he couldn't pee with the chants playing. WIN!


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## Tannasgach (Nov 1, 2009)

I'm also planning a voodoo/bayou party. It's such a fun, fun, theme! I don't know if I can help you with the crazy part but I can share some of the ideas I'm planning.

I'm doing a mambo kitchen with potion jars and bottles, eg frog hearts, lizard gizzards, snake oil, etc... I've been saving all my chicken bones in a ziplock bag in the freezer. When I get enough I"ll boil them down and bleach them for props. I have a fake feathered chicken and an animal sacrifice - a rubber chicken and I found a white feather boa at the dollar store which I'll cut up and bloody.

I'll also have an altar with candles, incense, shells, stones, skull, salt, mardi gras beads, religious figurines, some old looking boxes, and anything interesting I can find. For party favors I'm setting up an area for guests to make their own "gris gris" bags (homeopathic charms). 

I have a wall with family portaits on it right behind my dining room table where the buffet will be. I didn't want to cover up the pictures or replace them so I printed out veves (symbolic drawings of voodoo loa/spirits) to put in the frames. Some of the images are really beautiful but in a eerie voodoo sort of way. http://altreligion.about.com/od/symbols/ig/Vodoun-Veves/ Also goggle image: brigette and erzulie's veves - very pretty.

For that old mansion look use lots of ripped up lace curtains, tea stained tablecloths, lots of cheesecloth or creepy cloth, tarnished silver and lots of skulls, snakes and voodoo dolls.

What ideas are you using for your swamp/bayou area?


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## Maxiboots (Aug 31, 2010)

Just saw a string of dragonfly lights on clearance at Target for under $7. Might add a nice touch to the outdoor portion of the them. I'm getting lots of great ideas for another year's party from this thread!


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## printersdevil (Sep 7, 2009)

I was just on ebay looking for some witches stuff and found a new to me ebay store. It is called Curts Novelty And Gift. It has evidently been a store on ebay for a long time. I am not affiliated with it in any way nor promoting the store. 

That said, they had some cool voodoo shrunken heads that were pretty reasonable. They also had pirate heads and other things that you might be able to use.

You can probably do a search there for the store name. If not, PM me cause I bookmarked it.


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## HauntedHorror (Aug 8, 2006)

Lots and lots of moss for outside.

I would make a voodoo "altar"/cabinet inside. If you have a...I'm not sure what you call them, like a cabinet/shelving thing with double doors? Maybe it's a sort of liquor cabinet. I have seen a bunch of movies and tv shows where they have one of those with the "altar" inside. If you don't have something like that you could use a shelf or sideboard.
This is close to what I mean by the cabinet:
http://evminiatures.tripod.com/voodoo_cab.htm

If you have open shelves in your kitchen or living/dining room, I would suggest having a lot of voodoo-esque things displayed such as vials and jars of dried herbs and other things like skulls, animal parts/feet, feathers, candles, etc... Make sure to have candles which are partially used. A gator skull would be a nice touch.


I actually just saw dried or roasted chicken feet for sale at a pet store (as a dog chew/treat.) That would avoid the issue of spoiling. 

Chicken feet:
http://www.auntjeni.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18


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## ter_ran (Jan 14, 2006)

This was a nearby local haunter a few years back in Rancho Cucamonga, CA that hosted this yard haunt. Maybe it can help you with some ideas..


http://www.sinisterpumpkin.com/main.html


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## Monroe58 (Sep 13, 2009)

Hi Redheadarn! We're also doing the voodoo bayou theme. Tried to be original with the title of the party, but the whole voodoo on the bayou thing just sounds so good!

Anyway, much like everyone else, we're also doing voodoo in the kitchen with jars/candles/voodoo artifacts everywhere. Making shrunken heads from apples, using chicken bones, twig/twine voodoo dolls, etc. Dining room will be a little more old southern plantation themed (a la interview with the vampire), with little touches of purple/green/gold (PGG) throughout. Bathrooms will be bayou themed with croc-filled tubs, plant life, fireflies, and swamp sounds (even hoping to steam up the bathroom with hot water prior to the party in order to get that humid feel). Basement will be back to the southern mansion look in the movie room, along with a voodoo alter and more candles/jars.

We're playing Interview with the Vampire and The Skeleton Key. We've got a mix of New Orleans music and jazz, as well as songs written about the crescent city.

We're serving cajun food (hubby grew up in New Orleans, so he's got this down!), beignets, pralines, and we've already ordered our Pat O'Briens hurricane mix!

Oh, and we're handing out PGG beads at the door. 

I'm sure I'll be back with more detail, but sounds like we're all doing very similar things! Good luck and hope you've collected some good ideas.


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## airmanjerm (Sep 8, 2009)

Monroe58 said:


> Hi Redheadarn! We're also doing the voodoo bayou theme. Tried to be original with the title of the party, but the whole voodoo on the bayou thing just sounds so good!
> 
> Anyway, much like everyone else, we're also doing voodoo in the kitchen with jars/candles/voodoo artifacts everywhere. Making shrunken heads from apples, using chicken bones, twig/twine voodoo dolls, etc. Dining room will be a little more old southern plantation themed (a la interview with the vampire), with little touches of purple/green/gold (PGG) throughout. Bathrooms will be bayou themed with croc-filled tubs, plant life, fireflies, and swamp sounds (even hoping to steam up the bathroom with hot water prior to the party in order to get that humid feel). Basement will be back to the southern mansion look in the movie room, along with a voodoo alter and more candles/jars.
> 
> ...


Hi Monroe (and others)!

My wife and I are also doing Voodoo as our theme this year (small world, huh?). I love your ideas! Only thing I'd recommend is: be VERY careful with the Pat O'Briens hurrican mix. We have a fairily mature ("tame") crowd, but I still decided against the Pat O'Brien's because of one word: carpet. That stuff tastes great and fits the theme well, but is murder (yuk yuk!) to get out of the carpet. 

My wife and I live in the Bay Area as well, but we're both from the South. (She's from southern MS, near New Orleans, and catered weddings for nearly 10 years, so she's got the food stuff DOWN. lol). 

As far as decorations, our main decorating now is centered on our ideas for our living room. We plan to cover the walls with black - either a cheap cloth or even several of those black plastic tablecloths from a dollar store (doesn't matter since you won't see that part). On top of that we're covering all the walls with moss, vines, and all kinds of greenery. We'll also drape some from the ceiling. Some fake trees in the corners and a few strands of purple and/or white "Christmas" lights in the ceiling will complete the decorations. Then we're gonna run a good fog machine in there and play swamp sounds. This should make this large part of our house seem fairly swamp like. We'll probably also cover the couches with drape cloth.

Anyone looking for Swamp sounds...look for the nature sounds in iTunes, they're great and relatively inexpensive.

Our kitchen will probably be a Voodoo lounge, and the dining room (where most of our is served) will be a Headhunter's Cafe. Haven't made too much leeway on decoration ideas for these two rooms yet except for the standard: potion jars, shrunken heads, an "altar" to Marie Laveau, etc. Also, lots of skulls/skeletons, etc. 

Feel free to steal any ideas I've had...and I would LOVE to hear any suggestions for my own rooms. 

Thanks!


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## Monroe58 (Sep 13, 2009)

airmanjerm said:


> Hi Monroe (and others)!
> 
> My wife and I are also doing Voodoo as our theme this year (small world, huh?). I love your ideas! Only thing I'd recommend is: be VERY careful with the Pat O'Briens hurrican mix. We have a fairily mature ("tame") crowd, but I still decided against the Pat O'Brien's because of one word: carpet. That stuff tastes great and fits the theme well, but is murder (yuk yuk!) to get out of the carpet.
> 
> ...



Luckily, airmanjerm, we just moved into a place with all hardwood floors...that's why we're feeling okay about the hurricane mix and all the red wine we'll serve! 

We're lucky to have spouses with experience with the food...makes things so much easier!

Your plans sound really great; hopefully we'll see pictures soon after Halloween. Oh, and thanks for the iTunes tip. We will definitely use that!


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## airmanjerm (Sep 8, 2009)

Hey, I meant to add that if you had hardwood floors then I'd be 100% jealous that you get to serve Pat O'Brien's! lol

Yeah I saw someone posted links somewhere else to a $15 CD that had one 3-minute track of swamp music...the things on iTunes aren't Halloween-related (I just typed in "Swamp sounds"), but work pretty well.

We haven't made up a menu yet, although I'm sure it'll consist of lots of cajun-themed foods. We should share "menus" here to help each other with our Voodoo theme!


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## Monroe58 (Sep 13, 2009)

Haha! We are very thankful for this home's flooring...the best part is that when the kids spill something it's an easy clean up! Can't wait to get the hurricane mix in...we ordered the concentrate; hope it does the trick. 

With the swamp sounds, I didn't plan on making it Halloween-y, just as authentic as possible, so that's fine. Hubby is in charge of music/sounds, so he's on iTunes right now.

Here's our current tentative menu:

Jambalaya
Gumbo
Red beans and rice
Muffuletta dip
Crawfish boil (if we can get ahold of any crawfish here)
Breaded catfish nuggets
Beignets
Pralines


How 'bout you guys?


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## airmanjerm (Sep 8, 2009)

Hey, 

Well honestly you're further than we are with menu decisions. Needless to say ours will be similar to that, but I'm sure we'll have some non-Cajun stuff also. A couple other things we'll probably have is a shrimp-and-grits station, and "Mississippi Caviar" (you can find recipes online...it's a dip). Here's one I found real quick:

http://www.relishmag.com/recipes/view/37838/mississippi-caviar.html

(My wife knows how to make this so I may try to get her to write down her own recipe for me).

I'm allergic to seafood so we'll probably make shrimpless jambalaya (chicken and sausage only), but that's a "gimme" for a cajun party. Beignets are also a plan here, and pralines. 

As for crawfish, I had a friend here a few years ago (I'm in the military) who had run her own restaurant in Shreveport, LA before joining the military. She had a large amount of crawfish flown in to have an old-fashioned Boil here, and I remember her going on and on about the nightmare she had getting it into California. So, it may be worth it but it could also be more trouble than it's worth. If you work it out though, be sure to boil it with some corn and serve the corn on the side! 

If you want some extra drink ideas, look up "Old New Orleans Rum" and order some of their Cajun Spiced rum. It's spiced with cajun spices and has a great flavor. Plus, it mixes well with sweet tea! Don't make the Pat O'Brien's with it though, you wouldn't want to waste it as a mixer. OH: I've learned to add a little orange juice to the powder mix to make it a little better...your call of course, but made according to directions makes it a little watery to me.

(Speaking of....if you're gonna have an authentic party set in the South....Voodoo or not....you gotta serve REAL sweet tea. By "Real," I mean you add a good cup of sugar to it while you've got the tea bags boiling on the stove, then add more water (to get it to the size of your pitcher) and then ice. Southern Sweet Tea secret: you GOTTA add the sugar while it's hot! No adding it later when it's iced down...hee hee.) This would make a good non-alcoholic drink, but if you're not from the South it can be a little sweet.

I'll post more menu ideas as the wife creates it.


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## dustin2dust (Aug 19, 2008)

Do you have room inside to do a raised tomb like they have in New Orleans graveyards? 
Would it be rude to put an X on your door like they did when checking houses after Katrina? That would say spooky abandoned house to me! 
Like this: http://photos.nola.com/hurricane_ka...ark_1.html?fromentry=4904379&fromblog=8000910


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## airmanjerm (Sep 8, 2009)

Dustin:

No I don't have room inside to do that....I probably could, but it would take up lots of room and time to build. Although, if I had space and time, it would make a fun "table" to put all the food/etc. on! 

As for the X...yes, that would be rude. I don't mind the suggestion, but it's important to remember that Halloween is all about fun and even though some of us go to great lengths to be over-the-top and "authentic," it's never fun to be insensitive. I have several friends stationed with me here in CA who are from New Orleans and the surrounding area, and believe me...they wouldn't find that amusing or "fun." That was a very real, very recent tragedy. Ghosts and skeletons are all fun because they are vague and we don't really associate them with real people....but those "X" marks represent real people that died just 5 years ago. So I'm not offended by the suggestion, that's just my own opinion.


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## Monroe58 (Sep 13, 2009)

airmanjerm said:


> Hey,
> 
> Well honestly you're further than we are with menu decisions. Needless to say ours will be similar to that, but I'm sure we'll have some non-Cajun stuff also. A couple other things we'll probably have is a shrimp-and-grits station, and "Mississippi Caviar" (you can find recipes online...it's a dip). Here's one I found real quick:
> 
> ...



Yeah, I'm really thinking the crawfish may be out...we'll see.

Thanks for the sweet tea idea! And, the orange juice added to the mix. I want it to be nice and rich, not watery. Unfortunately, we aren't doing any other drinks (other than some cider/wine/beer). I think the only major alcoholic drinks we'll have are the hurricanes...because we live in UT, we have a bunch of friends who do not drink, so no point in buying a lot and not using it up.


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## llondra (Sep 29, 2004)

There was a site I used a few years ago that had great instructions for creating potion/apothecary labels and bottles. I can't seem to find it again, but I think it might have been here:

http://lovemanor.com/blog/archives/29

Still can't find the instructions, but awesome labels! And making the labels and bottles is easy enough and there are rampant ideas on the Internet - I seem to remember that a big tip was varnishing the labels to help them keep their aged look.

********

If you have or build a wood coffin, you could put one of those motion door knockers inside so that when people are near, it sounds like something inside the coffin is knocking wanting out... not sure how strong the sensor is, so not sure if this would work. You could also attach a block of wood or such to a fan motor like they use for the inexpensive animatronic props (see the project forum on this site) and that might provide a thrashing around inside effect? You might even look into making one of the animatronics - they're easy to make (as long as you don't do the hands IMO lol) and total cost for materials on those is under $10... and they're pretty darn cool. 

Creepy cloth, moss, spiderwebs, anything swampy. Maybe cover the entryway so guests have to move through... being careful of how much this might either mess up their costumes, or how difficult it could be for some to move through in costume. Maybe not actually low enough to touch, but hanging above.

Someone posted an idea for a bat cave at one point - covering the walls and ceiling in black contractor bags and adding moss, spiderwebs. I think they used it for the bathroom. You could augment the setting with candles so that it's not too dark and adds further creepy. Maybe a secret altar in a cave type thing?

***********************

Drink suggestion - Swamp Slime Surprise (the recipe is for a single drink, but I increase to make a punch bowl full)
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=988249

Start by making: Ectoplasm

1 pkg. Lime Jell-O
1 Cup boiling water
3/4 Cup Rum, Vodka, or Tequila

Dissolve Jell-O in boiling water, mix in the alcohol, and set in freezer. Just before it gels up, whip it with a whisk and then let it set.

Then Make: Swamp Water

1/2 oz. Blue Curacao
1/2 oz. Peach Schnapps
Splash of Orange and Pineapple Juice

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Then, spoon Ectoplasm carefully into a glass of Swamp Water. It will float, giving an eerie effect.

********************************

Did someone already make the suggestion of having someone do Tarot or Palm readings? We have a friend who has done this for us several years and people really enjoy it.

I think the Tempt Your Fate game goes along particularly well with a voodoo theme.

*******************************

I made shrunken heads the year we did a voodoo theme - they turned out not great and were too much work IMO... but, I can accept that was probably operator error lol Just a note in case you were thinking of going that route - next time I'll buy and know for a fact what I'm getting as opposed to taking the chance.

Hope your party is a blast!


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## alltogetherdead (Sep 8, 2009)

Lots of moss as suggested by another user is a must. You can buy it in bulk at some craft stores or online. I have even found it in roll form and it makes great table covers, place settings, and more. 

Voodoo bottles, jars, etc. , Skulls & Ouija boards. 

This was one of the shelves in our china cabinet last year. 
http://alltogetherdead.blogspot.com/2009/09/voodoo-bottles.html

You can create your own voodoo spell book out of an old thrift store book. Mason jars painted with a mixture of watered down brown paint on the outside to give them a "dirtied" effect then wrap wire around them, put votives and small pillar candles inside and hang them from the trees will give an errie glow.


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## repo_man (May 26, 2009)

"Echolalia," "Chant of the Paladin," and "Mother Tongue" by Dead Can Dance are creepy voodoo-ish songs.


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## JUSTTINK (Sep 12, 2010)

llondra- LOVE love love those labels. thanks for sharing that link!


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## redheadarn (Aug 27, 2010)

Pirate Chris said:


> We did voodoo in our bathroom 2 years in a row. Key elements that really set it off. Lots of candles, skulls with homeade runes (black rocks with symbols painted on them). We had a rubber chicken, some rubber snakes. Homemade voodoo dolls. Those were fun to make. A couple of shruken heads. Oh, and the part that threw it over the edge for us. A hidden cd player that played chants. had one guy who came out of the bathroom and said it was too creepy, he couldn't pee with the chants playing. WIN!


Sweet!! Where did you get the cd of the chants? I was thinking of doing something like that where I am planning on putting the voodoo altar...


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