There are still 112 days until Halloween this year, but it's not too early to start thinking about your costumes.

Time flies, as we all know, and the closer you get to Halloween, the less selection you'll have to choose from.

Have a browse around the Get In Costume website for lots of costume ideas, and sign up over on the right hand side of the page to get your free copy of my Family Guide to Halloween Safety.

Now that "costume season" is getting close, I'll be posting regularly again so subscribe to the RSS feed and check back regularly for new articles.

Halloween's not just for the kids, you say?!? That's for sure, and the perfect way for an adult to celebrate this holiday is to throw an adult Halloween party. You all get to go all out on your own costumes for a change (in fact, the kids will no doubt be very jealous of your costumes!) and get to grab some fun for yourselves! Here are some ideas for you.

Choose a theme, have a costume contest, with perhaps several categories and prizes. Decorate the heck out of your home. Plan the food, themes and contests well ahead of time, and if you're going to have any audio-visual entertainment of any kind running, make sure you do several run-throughs and that everything goes off as desired.

Consider making your food themed, and perhaps having a witch's cauldron from which to drink. A further note about alcohol: while not wanting to stifle anyone's fun, you would do well to see to it that everyone at your party drinks responsibly, as you REALLY don't want Frankenstein to get in an accident on the way back to the castle, as the cruel finger of liability could point back to your castle! Just a word of caution!

What are some of your ideas for an adult Halloween party? Leave a comment and share in the fun!

This may very well be the year that we see a veritable army of Venom costumes from Spiderman 3 hitting the streets in search of Spidey and candy. If you are a fan of the movie series and even if you're not, this costume will be popular with both the young and the older.

For the uninitiated, Venom from Spiderman 3 is half Eddie Brock, the former journalist with questionable ethics and half alien symbiot. One side is out to get Peter Parker, the other Spider-Man. Combined he is Venom, the worst kind of enemy! It's hard to know what he's up to at any given time! The costume from the movie was railed on by some Spiderman purists, but all that's water under the bridge now, and Venom is all set to assault Halloween!

Coming up with a Venom costume for this Halloween should be no problem, and you'll have several ways to go with this. If you just want to purchase one and be done with it all, then you'll be able to find it fairly easily both online and off, with prices ranging from $25 to $50 generally. There are some quality differences, and some of the pants on some of the children's costumes in particular are looser fitting than Venom might wear, so look carefully. Do a specific search online for "Venom Spiderman 3 Halloween costume" and you find dozens of outlets from which to shop.

If you'd like to make your own Venom costume, then start with some black tights, possibly then stenciling on the chest designs and some of the spider webs on the head, arms and feet. Use a black skull cap and accentuate the eyes with paint or makeup. Ballet shoes or regular shoes covered with oversized black socks will do nicely.

If you'd like to do a combination of the two, you might come up with the body of the costume on your own and then purchase some of the harder to fashion accessories, such as the Venom head mask, Venom boot covers, and Venom gloves. This will take the most difficult pieces off your plate and make life generally easier!

One of the best parts about portraying Venom this year will be inhabiting the character. Make sure to try and stay true to the villain's ways and use as much of his methods of communication as possible. One cool thing would be if you happen to have two children, or two close friends, one could go as Spiderman and one as Venom, and they could do battle all night! Just make sure to keep a close rein on them if they carry the battles too far or out into the street! Also limit the fighting over the candy! 

This year could well see a battle of epic proportions hit the streets this Halloween, as both Spiderman and Venom will be vying for supremacy. Join in the fun and make this Halloween one they'll truly remember!

I've just finished my new Halloween Planning Guide and it's available for free download along with the Family Guide To Halloween Safety.

The Planning Guide has all kinds of fun ideas for family-oriented Halloween activities, games, snacks, costumes and lots more. If you're trying to think up activities for your kids for Halloween, beyond just the usual trick-or-treating, you'll find plenty of inspiration in this guide.

If you've already signed up to receive the Halloween Safety Guide, you've probably already received an email with the details for downloading the Planning Guide. If you haven't signed up for either one, you can get them both by signing up over to the right ——————->

Here are some creative ideas to make your house or apartment even scarier this Halloween!

Dripping blood, bloodcurdling screams and perhaps a rotting corpse are all fun things to have around this time of year! You might rig a drip from your doorway eaves to a bucket near the door, using colored water to collect in the bucket, which you come and collect to reuse later. You could have screams recorded and playing all night, as well as many other spooky sounds, like creaky doors, a frightening dialogue, ("Have you seen those children?!? They look pretty tasty to me!!") or a scary music soundtrack.

Consider putting a bloodied up chainsaw near the door. Take care to disable it so it cannot be used.

Bones, skeletons and skulls are lovely decorations to make your entranceway an inviting and warm haunt.

Perhaps a foggy welcome, using a fog machine or a dry ice concoction would be in order. Take care to make sure you use dry ice safely, as it can cause burns. (But it's so dang fun!)

A bubbling cauldron (preferably not hot!) will add a witch's touch to your proceedings.

Dotting your landscape with a few well-thought out tombstones can't hurt!

Have goblins flying over your home. Put light sticks into black balloons and tether them over your house. This will only work well if it's pretty dark and there is really little to no wind.

Spider webs can give any house a creepy look.

These are but a few ideas. What are some of your favorites?

There's a few things to know about choosing that perfect pumpkin for your Halloween Jack O' Lanterns and other carvings this fall. Let's look at some of what you'll want to keep in mind. 

Usually, medium-sized pumpkins are best for carving. Try and find prospects that have few nicks or cuts, have no bruises and are robustly orange, indicating ripeness. Try not to carry a pumpkin by its stem, as it can easily snap off, leaving you with no handle! If this does happen, however, consider using the bottom as your opening.

If you're using a stencil for making your design, make sure your pumpkin is large enough to accommodate it. If you're going to do this freehand, at least do yourself a favor and sketch out what you intend beforehand, so you don't end up going through several pumpkins! There are a few items to have on hand: a good paring knife and a good boning knife, a few spoons of varying sizes for gutting the pumpkin and candle holders for the eventual lighting job.

Take your time in choosing the right pumpkins for your Halloween decorations. Then take as much time in planning the carving and you'll soon find yourself staring at great looking Jack O' Lanterns this year!  

You might have bits and pieces, like most of us. Here in a nutshell is the condensed version of the history of Halloween.

Originally conceived as a holiday to honor all Saints in heaven, known or unknown, the holiday was celebrated on November 1.  It was known by several names, including All Hallows Eve, All Hallowmas, All Saints, or All Souls Day.

The American version of Halloween owes its roots to the ancient Druid folk festival called "Samhain" (pronounced sow-in) which was celebrated by the Celts in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. This was a feast of the dead which signified the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. Magic and faerie activity were a big part of all this, and the Celts even had a God of the dead named Gwynn ap Nudd, and Arawn for the Welsh peoples. The Irish didn't have their own death god.  Many of the customs we now associate with modern day Halloween are actually remnants of Druid traditions as well as their Roman conquerors.

Samhain was a three day festival in which the dead were to be celebrated and revered, and in fact communicated with during their journey to the other side. It was not so much an occasion of dread and death as it was about communing with one's lost loved ones. Of course, the ghostly connections with Halloween make perfect sense when viewed in this light.

It's only been in modern times that fear and paranoia has played a role in Halloween activities. What's your take on Halloween? What does it mean to you?