by Gail Kavanagh

Created on: August 10, 2009

There are lots of ways to decorate your door for Halloween. All you have to decide is whether your want your decoration to be edible, seasonal or one that you can put away and use next year.

To make a delicious edible door decoration that definitely won't outlast Halloween, you need a batch of freshly made popcorn and a batch of freshly made toffee. Popping the corn is easy, the toffee takes a little more time.

For the toffee you need one cup of sugar, a quarter cup of corn syrup, a quarter cup of butter and a teaspoon of salt. Melt it all together in a heavy saucepan and bring it to the boil. Boil without stirring until it reaches the hard crack stage. Test this by dropping a small amount off a spoon into a bowl of cold water. If it forms a hard ball take the mixture off the heat at once.

To make a toffee popcorn wreath for your door your need a sufficient mixture of popcorn, nuts and whatever ever else you want to add (like choc chips or marshmallows) to pack into a large greased bundt tin. Pour the hot toffee over the popcorn mix and leave to set.

Tie a big red ribbon round the ring to form a loop so you can hang the wreath on your door. Knock chips off it to give out as a Halloween candy treat. You can decorate it with pumpkin shaped candy to make it even more delicious.

A really big pumpkin makes a terrific seasonal door decoration. Cut off two sides of the pumpkin so you are left with a wreath-like centerpiece. Scrape out the seeds, and if you like, seal the pumpkin wreath with a coat of clear varnish. Add pumpkin shaped candy and black bats cut of of construction paper and pinned on.

For added eye appeal you can wind strings of popcorn round the pumpkin wreath, or roast the pumpkin seeds and string them as well.

A Halloween door decoration that can be used year after year can be made using a basic straw or wicker wreath from a craft shop. Wrap it with artificial ivy leaves from the craft shop and decorate it it with tiny pottery pumpkins and plastic bats. Make tiny witch's brooms by securing dried grasses to the ends of twigs, and witch's hats out of construction paper.

A larger witch's broom would make a great reusable door decoration by itself. Find a suitably gnarled and twisted tree branch and bind shorter twigs to the end to form a broom. You can hang the broom on the door, and hand treat bags from the broom for your stream of trick or treaters.

If you are are really crafty, you can fashion a witch to ride the broom, but if that is too tricky, make a witch's hat pinata instead. Fashion a large cone out of heavy cardboard, add a circular brim taped to the wide end of the cone and fill it with candy. Now glue a circular piece of paper big enough to cover the brim and the hole. Hang it on your door - one swipe at the paper covering will be enough to let all the candy spill out!

Hang any of these door decorations for a friendly Halloween greeting and a lot of Halloween fun!

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