Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living

From creepy snacks to playful decor, Martha has Halloween in the trick or treat bag! The entire family can find a treat or a craft to enjoy to help prepare for the spirits and haunts to arrive!

My mother-in-law actually bought this book for me as a joke. I LOVE Halloween (and LOATHE Martha Stewart), so she thought it would be a good gag. When she handed it to me, she said she thought it would be funny, but she had looked through it and thought I might actually like it. I started to flip through it waiting for the kitschy-cutesy Halloween stuff to come grinning out at me, but there was none! Martha is known for her "Good Things", but when it comes to Halloween, she knows her "Bad Things" too! Lots of classic spooky atmosphere decorations, and tons of great ideas that I had never seen before. If I had to buy just one Halloween book, it would be this one - seriously. However, don't get carried away on Martha's excellent handling of Halloween. Her Halloween CD is the same old drab fare that you can find on any cheesy Halloween sounds album.

HALLOWEEN from The Best of Martha Stewart Living is a dazzling book filled with terrific ideas for Alls Hallow Eve. First of all, the photography is beautiful. Just a leisurely look through the book and without reading anything, you can get plenty of decorating ideas. The various ways of carving pumpkins into traditional jack o' lanterns, celestial pumpkins, or even a chandelier is enlightening. No pun intended! The instructions are given for all of the decorative ways to carve the scrumptious gourds. The chapter called Trading Faces has several different makeup applications; including those for a witch, a skeleton, a mummy, a cat and a vampire. The chapter on Haunting a House has lots of ways to make the house scary. A unique idea was to make the silhouette of someone standing on the stairs. Very effective! The Crafty Party chapter has ways to decorate everything in the house. There are ideas for table decorations, masks, and party favors. Wickedly Good Menus is, of course, the chapter on food. There are about 20 recipes included. The following recipes sound especially bewitching: White Bean & Sausage Stew in Pumpkin Shells, The Devil's Salsa. and The Great Pumpkin Cake. For years, Susan, my sister, has been using the recipe to make the Ladies' Fingers. They are simply to die for! Happy Halloween! Judith Miller

Here it is, the best of Martha Stewart Living Hallowe'en content through 2001! Everything is here, packaged so efficiently and beautifully that even die-hard Martha Mag collectors will want it. There are great crafts, recipes, and costume projects, but the real fun of this book is in simply looking through the pictures and informational bits. Everything is so clever, and presented so creatively! Put it on your coffee table!

Being a HUGE Halloween fan, I would have never thought that Martha could have any good ideas for Halloween decorating. Her decorating ideas are always so cute and cheerful, right?How wrong I was! This book has wonderfully dark and gothic decorations that really capture the essence and magic of Halloween. Even the ideas for the kids are tasteful, without being overly cutesy.Add to this great ideas for seasonal food (who knew you could use pumpkin in so many different ways), excellent costume ideas, and party ideas, and you have a great 'grown-up' Halloween decorating guide!And for those reviewers here who complained that the book was only a collection of Martha's previous magazine articles: The title is "Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living". The "Best of" title should have clued you in that this was not brand new material. I'm sure the audience for the book was people like me, who have never picked up Martha's magazine before. I know I buy every Halloween issue now, as well as other seasonal issues.

OK, so Martha Stewart has become a little sketchy, but you can't deny that she has talent. This book has great ideas for decorating, entertaining, cooking, and costumes. We've had a lot of fun with it. (The man-toes and lady-fingers cookies are so funny!) It's great if you're on a tight budget--none of the crafts or recipes cost a lot to make.