Tricks NEW FOR SPOOK-TACULAR treats
How will you celebrate Halloween this year? Watching horror movies while stuffing your face with store-bought candy? Creating a brief candy hunt for your downtrodden kids? Both?
Either way, take comfort in the cavity-free dentist’s report they’ll get six months from now. And the many Carol Baskin costumes you won’t have to see while treat-or-treating in the neighborhood.
Even without the doorto- door festivities, there are still ways to make this pandemic Halloween — and the official start of fall — a little joyful, especially for the younger set. Makers, bakers and other Bay Area creatives are answering the call for Halloween therapy with craft and cupcake kits, as well as homemade candy recipes to delight Halloweeners of all ages.
If you need inspiration, start with a Zoom class being offered by San Jose’s Playful People Productions. When the pandemic hit, the nonprofit theater company pivoted online in order to continue reaching its audience — kids and families. For Halloween, it’s offering evening craft classes ( Friday or Oct. 30; $60 each) with prop master Caitlyn Nichols.
PPP will send you a crate of supplies and guide you through your choice of boo-tastic crafts, from making a creepy home display — think plaster hand and eyeballs — to learning how to do stageworthy zombie and fantasy makeup. Classes are designed for kids ages 10 and older.
“Playful People is all about creative family fun,” says co-founder Katie D’arcey. “Instead of heading out to find materials for awesome Halloween projects at home, our crates of supplies get shipped direct to participants. And our enthusiastic staff is excited to play and get creative with everyone over Zoom.”
With your home decorated and your face ghoulishly made up, you’ll be ready to get into the kitchen and make some treats. That’s what many bakers and pastry chefs with young kids are suggesting for families this Halloween — and it’s a good suggestion for treat lovers of any age.
“One thing we might do is make candy treat bags and drop them off at friends’ houses,” says Dessert First blogger Anita Chu, a pastry chef and cookbook author based in Millbrae.
Chu’s bags will likely be filled with multicolored sweets, such as the fondant-like homemade