by A.C. Turley

Created on: October 15, 2009

Part of the spellbinding charm of Halloween is the power of illusion. So, what better way to trick and treat your Halloween party guests than to incorporate a Halloween feel box into your scary dcor? Children and adults alike will get spooked, or at least a little grossed out, when they reach inside the creepy box and feel oozy, sticky "brains" and slippery "eyeballs" at their fingertips, but just like with a good scary movie, they will love the thrill if its done right. To make a Halloween feel box a successful party activity takes the right supplies, as well as a good theme.

First off, having a theme allows you to set your Halloween feel box experience apart from the rest, and creates a compelling purpose for its presence. Young children will probably be excited to stick their hands inside any box if you ask them to, but older kids and adults need some additional suspension of disbelief. For this year's Halloween feel box display, set aside an area in a separate room or a closed off corner of your Halloween party, and make it become Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory. Keep this area dark and grim with a few decorations to add to the mad scientist's creepy charm, like jars brimming with candy eyeballs, clear bags of fake blood, latex gloves, shrunken heads and other icky things. Adding a well-placed fog machine can create a perfectly horrific effect too. Designate a friend to be "Igor" who is watching over the laboratory, acting as a guide while Dr. Frankenstein is away. Also, make sure to have a skeleton or corpse chained to a table or chair, some fake wires, and a moveable lever, for reasons that will be discussed later. The feel box you will make should sit on a table near the entrance of the laboratory, and Igor will help assure that those that enter will see it. Having Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory in a more secluded area is preferable too as it might be too scary for very young children.

Now that you have imagined the setting, it is time to plan the basics: the actual feel box. Get a large, sturdy box at least a foot tall and three feet wide. Try to find a box with a lid, or you can make a lid out of another box if needed. To make the inside dividers for the different "feel" areas, cut out four or five sturdy cardboard pieces from other boxes and secure them firmly inside the bigger box. Keep in mind that there needs to be a good amount of space between them. Paint any areas that might be seen completely black, and layer the bottom of the entire box with

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