This fun illustrated magazine article features a well-detailed description of a vintage Halloween party which was to be held in a farm couple’s barn. The piece is titled Our Halloween Party and was written by Rosemary Carr. The article describes the party invitations, the barn decorations, the games to be played, and the food that would be offered to the guests.
The following short Halloween verse was to be included on the invitations:
When stars shoot
And owls hoot
And bats fly in and out,
When fire’s blue
And candles, too,
Then witches are about!
It seems the only important fortune to be revealed was whether or not the guests would marry as the object of most of the games to be played was to discover the answer to that question. Variations on the theme include: the name of the future life partner, whether he or she would be young or old, rich or poor, of good disposition or bad.
The foods served to the guests at this vintage Halloween party were to be: baked oatmeal cakes spread with peanut butter, brown bread sandwiches, little pickles, gingerbread, cider, nuts, popcorn balls, and candy apples. A special treat of oiled-paper wrapped molasses taffy containing a cleverly made up fortune would also be served.
A few silly Halloween riddles are included towards the end of the article.
Here are larger, black and white clip art versions of the rustic illustrations from the vintage Halloween party article.
The original page I scanned from the October 1913 issue of The Ladies’ Home Journal measures approximately 11” x 16”. I have shrunk the article down to fit on a printable 8.5” x 11” page.
New in my Etsy shop this week is a coffee dyed printable paper pack. A Halloween-themed digital stamp is included on the left and on the right of each page.
Image is linked to my shop.
Hi Julie! All of these images are AWESOME! I just purchased some Christmas ones in your Etsy shop. Thanks for having them on sale! : )
I found your site via Nik the Booksmith.
Have a great weekend!
Hello Michael, and welcome! 🙂 I hope you will find plenty of free vintage images here to use in your projects. I also appreciate your business in my Etsy shop.
Isn’t Nik just awesome?! I for one am anxiously “waiting in line” for her next book course to be released. I believe she is planning to include her method of making fabric grungy in that class. I can’t wait!
Wishing you a great weekend as well! 🙂
Julie
Thanks, Julie!
Love this cute little vintage Halloween story. I sure wish we had a little bit of those olden days back in our lives!
Thanks for sharing it with us, and I did go to your Etsy store and purchased the Halloween goodies!
They’re great also!
Kathy
You’re welcome, Kathy. I’m happy to know you like the Halloween story. It would be great to bring back bits of the olden, simpler days.
Thank you kindly for your patronage. It’s great to know you are happy with your Halloween goodies. 🙂
Thank you for these Halloween images
You’re welcome, Angela. 🙂
Fabulous little drawings! I would have been tempted to do a silhouette trace in Adobe Illustrator to make them vectors xx
I’m glad you like them. 🙂 xx