# Nightmare Before Christmas Circus



## LadySherry (Oct 4, 2011)

Ask your daughter for her input. Let her help you with coming up with the games. This will gage her level of scary and you can go from there.


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

I have been, but she tells me to do my best to scare her and her friends, and she has come up with some adorable doodle ideas. Most games are like ring toss and balloon darts, typical backyard carnival games. I'm just trying to really figure out how to incorporate the awesomeness of Tim Burton's classic into this party. But good tip!


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## Immortalia (Nov 2, 2009)

Hmmmm, you've actually just inspired me to do something similar, so tell your kids thank you!  

I would say build the mayor and Boogie, and then dress up skellies to look like the ones in the movie. I would definitely consider doing your own scene setter style backdrops for inside the house, and then with some creative lighting that matches the feel of the movie your yard haunt would look awesome!


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

Boogie is one of our number one things on a to do list. I bought my husband a ton of burlap and said have stitching that. He's made a few snips, but nothing yet. I'm still flipping back and forth if I want it to be massively circus like skeleton clowns and zombie animals ran by Jack and Sally or more Halloween town feel with the dark grays and blacks and shadows. I'll have to post some of my daughters doodles when I get home from work.


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## ScaredyKat (Jul 22, 2013)

I would say, definitely bring out the good old Christmas tree. Maybe have some boxes with semi creepy things under it. Like altered dolls, or skeletons. Again, not overly creepy. I would also make some bottles, worms wort, frogs breath, deadly night shade, and have those on display.


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## ScaredyKat (Jul 22, 2013)

You could do a ring toss, and just paint all the bottles black and white. Or maybe jack's face on a few.


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## Immortalia (Nov 2, 2009)

The Mayor has a swivel head don't forget...it would be cool to make him with a motor hooked up to IR that spins it to the Evel side! Hmmmmm, now can someone please tell me how the best way to do that will be? LOL I guess we can be Haunt Buddies since I am completely sold on it this year. 

My daughter is 5 this year and she usually does her trick or treating with my Mom because her neighborhood is really kid friendly. However, I seem to have given my child my affliction....she's already asking about the Halloween haunt!  So, I can't do my norm or else she will never sleep again since she wants to help out this year. She loves TNBC as much as I do so it seems like a good compromise.


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## lanie077 (Sep 2, 2009)

heres a website with some great nightmare before christmas how tos

http://diynmbcprops.blogspot.com/2011/09/diy-antique-book-halloween-prop.html


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

Ha, yea, I'm trying to figure out how to do this on a minimal budget. (My Husbands a stickler with the checkbook on holidays)
I wish our neighborhood was kid friendly, that's why I agreed to have a party for her class.
But I lvoe the idea of the mayor with the swivel head, and saying "Happy Halloween" on the good side, haha.

I can't wait to see what you come up with for your haunt this year!


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

Lanie,
I love the website, THANK YOU!!!!!


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## lanie077 (Sep 2, 2009)

your welcome, hope it helps with some ideas. Im working on sallys spellbook right now. Hope to have it done soon.


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

I haven't started on any decorations, just have three or four games set up and waiting for decorations. 
My husband and I have a bet on if I will be a last minute decorator or acutally have stuff prepared for the party... With the way my ideas keep pouring out...I may lose the bet, haha


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## Immortalia (Nov 2, 2009)

Yeah, that website has definitely given me some good ideas. As for budget-freindly, don't forget that a lot of scenes are black cut-outs against an orange-red sky. So, if your hubby is handy with hand tools he could do some plywood cut-outs, ala Tim Burtonesque for back drops.... Don't forget about the witches too, they should be fairly simple to throw together.


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## lanie077 (Sep 2, 2009)

I did a carnival outside last year. We did a bean bag toss and i painted a clown head on it. You could do jacks face or oogie boogie. Everybody seemed to have fun with it.


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## Immortalia (Nov 2, 2009)

Okay, tee-hee, I just informed my husband of what he will be helping me with this year!  He likes it and came up with a neat idea for Jack. Instead of making him since we're short on time/money too...he suggested creating the cover scene (Jack standing on the hill during his big song in front of the moon) as a cut-out and painted plastic background on our garage door or front wall...

What do you think?


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## lanie077 (Sep 2, 2009)

that sounds like a great idea


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## Immortalia (Nov 2, 2009)

How cool would this be to make????


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## mamadada (Aug 18, 2008)

i certainly hope u r actually going to showTNBC outside! we did when they were 5.


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## GobbyGruesome (Sep 14, 2005)

I think you can get away with a lot if you keep things kind of cartoony. I mean corpse kid would be extremely disturbing in real life - but he manages to be cute in the movie because he's exaggerated.

I wonder if you could do the ring toss idea using the "face in the jar" technique for the bottles...using faces of the characters?
http://www.halloweenforum.com/request-tuturials-go-here/71195-head-jar.html


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

two of the pictures my daughter thought up...
I love the zombie barrel of monkies!


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## Immortalia (Nov 2, 2009)

WOW! How old is your daughter again?!? Great ideas, I love them!


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

Haha she's turning 8 this year. Because its a circus she wants a zombie giraffe and elephant and I'm going to try and make them for outside. The barrel of monkeys won't be to hard. 
I have had a lot of ideas today too. I'm excited that after our sons birthday on the 23rd I will be in full halloween mode


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## seattlerags (Aug 15, 2013)

Jumping to party treats, I saw some really cute ideas for cupcakes for this theme in an article recently. One was a simple chocolate cupcake, white frosting, and drawing Jack's face on it with black gel icing. Pretty easy yet really cool. They also do one for Oogie Boogie by stacking a marshmallow on the top, then piping green frosting over the whole top and ending with the top of his hat, then drawing his eyes on it. I can't post the link b/c I don't have two posts on this forum yet (darn rules) but it is at spoonful.com/Disney/top-nightmare-Christmas-crafts-recipes


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

We did a Cirque du CarnEVIL theme last year, I made all my banners from sheets (FYI you can get them for free at hotels) and used loads of Dollar Tree goodies. Feel free to take a peek at my stuff for inspirations...

First thing I thought of was the duck game, I don't really remember NBC but isn't their a duck pull toy...u could paint the duck as part of the game booth, maybe make it a duck shooting gallery game (there is a shooting game comes with gun and 3 targets u can hide in your display, I saw it last year on eBay for $15-20)
http://www.halloweenforum.com/members/pumpkinpie-albums-carnevil.html a bunch of us also contributed to the CarnEVIL 2012 thread


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

Here it is


http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=400536272498


And my inspiration, just repaint the targets so they blend in

You could also make a big circle out of plywood and paint a black and white swirl (if hubby could rig it up to spin even better)...and use it as a dart/ balloon game

And I've seen somewhere where someone made a Oggie Boogie toss game. Again with a plywood cutout only they used fake bugs (currently at Dollar Tree) to toss in his mouth


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

Pumpkinpie I love the ideas.
Food is going to be circus based, popcorn, corn dogs, cotton candy and pretzels for starters then Rice Krispy treats as pumpkin. 
I love the ideas of the games though!


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

We did popcorn, snocones, corn dogs, funnel cakes, cotton candy and lemonade...and let me tell u we worked our tail feathers off. Make sure and get help!!!!! To keep people playing the games I started everyone with 13 game tickets, the tickets could b used for 3 things....food, games, raffle. They would be rewarded with more tickets if they won the game. It kept people playing at eating all might (we did a made to order concession stand) and at the end of the night we drew winning raffle tickets for prizes (huge stuffed animals purchased off Craigslist). Most fun we ever had!!!! Awesome theme!!!!


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

I love the idea of tickets and raffles. I would just be afraid of kids feeling left out with the raffle concept. I'm a big pusher of every kid has the time of their lives. So I was thinking goodie bags with tons of candy and halloween toys. 
Was your carnival for kids and adults? Did you have problems with kids thinking it wasn't fair to get a big prize? 

I told my husband because I have a popcorn and pretzel maker already that for my birthday on 8/31 I wanted a cotton candy and snow cone maker.


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

Ours was 17+ (but we had a few little ones dropped off unexpectedly), it went good but then again they were having so much fun nothing could dampen their mood. I still hear how it was the best party ever!!!! We wound up renting our snocone, popcorn and cotton candy...that's why I had to make all my decor ($100 or so for all three plus all the supplies). But I'll b honest (especially with not having a ton of kids) it was over kill!!!! Everyone loved the corn dogs and funnel cake (just used an electric skillet and fry daddy)...popcorn was huge but messy (we found popcorn everywhere), cotton candy a total must!!!! Snow cones were yummy but lots of guests skipped them. 

Just remember to only plan as much as u can handle and still have fun. Btw, yep totally agree kiddos need goody bags...especially if it's a kids party  can't wait to see everything u come up with...we need pics


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

K now I'm obsessed, saw this while I was on pinterest...you could totally turn it into the game where there are 3-4 things u have to throw a ball (or foam pumpkin from DT) through...


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## Saki.Girl (Aug 22, 2012)

Immortalia said:


> How cool would this be to make????


i love this i need a new sleig for my christmas stuff


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## Saki.Girl (Aug 22, 2012)

got to the dollore tree and get the crave pumpkins carve the faces and then spray paint black or white can put a hole thur stem and hang from tress that is what i did and put glow sticks in them to make them light up . 
here is a pic of the pumpkin i am doing them on flowers for my dark alice too but you get the idea . i will see if i can find the pic from the tress


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

Pumpkinpie; I was thinking something like that but have Jack skulls as the balls to throw through. and Yea its going to be 25-35 kids around 7-9 and then 15 kids around 4 years old (my boys are in preschool and the daughter is in 2nd grade) so trying to make sure everyone will get food and goodie bag may be a big budget buster, haha

Saki.Girl, I've seen some of your posts on here and I love the Alice in Wonderland idea, love the flower!! I will have to look at more of your stuff for ideas!!!


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

Jack will b awesome!!!! I'll keep my eye out for good deals on themed candy and stuff. Another thing u can do (depending if it's indoors or out) is use $1 tablecloths for the circus tents either around a room or at doorways (can't really use them outside but free sheets from local hotels and cheap paint works great for out side.

If you could talk hubby into it you could build the big pumpkin Santa and have him lead the way to the entrance (or if u made it big enough the entrance could b under him but that'd b a big build). U could take a few lengths of PVC and make a tunnel, cover it with white sheets with a swirl pattern as if your in a vortex being drawn in.

This guy http://m.pinterest.com/pin/568157309210076693/


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## Saki.Girl (Aug 22, 2012)

Sally's Nightmare said:


> Pumpkinpie; I was thinking something like that but have Jack skulls as the balls to throw through. and Yea its going to be 25-35 kids around 7-9 and then 15 kids around 4 years old (my boys are in preschool and the daughter is in 2nd grade) so trying to make sure everyone will get food and goodie bag may be a big budget buster, haha
> 
> Saki.Girl, I've seen some of your posts on here and I love the Alice in Wonderland idea, love the flower!! I will have to look at more of your stuff for ideas!!!



thank you 
i am a huge nightmare before christmas fan i will throw more ideas up when i have time


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

I'd love more ideas Saki!

I had an amazing morning... I raided my parents shop this morning and found all the plywood and lumber scraps I could dream of, as well as PVC pipes and all sorts of random junk!!! No my budgets been cut in half bc I don't have to buy wood! I hope to have pics of what I have started by next week!!
Muwhahaha


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## kam3152 (Sep 18, 2011)

Hey, that is my NBC blog! Let me know if you have any questions


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## Sally's Nightmare (Aug 14, 2013)

My Daughter wanted pumpkins...like NOW...so I helped her make Mason Jar/pickle jar pumpkins...
Tissue paper and glue were not her best friends!


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## Tannasgach (Nov 1, 2009)

omg look at the curls on her, she is too cute Sally! The pumpkin jars came out great, you could do mummy jars too with strips of tissue paper; add a led candle and they would make great luminaries.


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