On Halloween the unexpected is expected, if you know what I mean, and even the most rabid of bridge fans enjoys a bit of levity sandwiched in between his rule bound bids; so plan a different stunt for each table.
Label the first table “Bloody Hands.” Here the guests must play their cards wear ing gardening gloves, the clumsy cotton kind that make your fingers feel as free as a bird in a cage. You can purchase the gloves at the ten cent store and make them “bloody” by spattering them with red ink.
Call table two “The Ghost Meet.” No one may speak a word at this sepulchral spot; all bidding being done by pantomime. He who breaks the ghost-like silence must give five points of his score to each of his opponents.
Let table three be known as “Blind Fate.” At this table all bids are made blindly, before the cards are dealt.
Name table four”The Double Cross.”Here the winners and losers exchange scores. You might print these verses on the backs of the-tallies so theguests will have an inkling as to what it’s all about.
Table 1 – BLOODY HANDS
Here each player must get his score
With his clumsy hands red with gore
Table 2 – THE GHOST MEET
Oh! do not break the silence here;
For every vlord will cost you dear.
Table 3 – BLIND FATE
Before the cards are dealt to you,
You’ll have to tell what you will do.
Table 4 – THE DOUBLE CROSS
A pitfall here, my trusting friend;
For those who win lose in the end.
Decorations for a Halloween Bridge Party
With a fold or two of crepe paper, an assortment of spooky things and a flare for the fantastic, one can “scissor and paste” all sorts of unusual decorations and favors.
The card table illustrated has for its cover a square of midnight blue cambric, scalloped around the edges and decorated with
pasted on silver stars (Nos. 5, 8, 10).
The table marker holds two decks of cards and is made of orange and black crepe paper, orange colored cardboard, wire and a black witch silhouette (H 837).
The curtains at the window are made of orange crepe paper cut into soft fringe and enlivened by white cats and pumpkins printed in Crepe Paper Border (H 27).
The large cat yowling on the window sill has a body cut from black mat stock with chalked-on legs and paws. Its head is a cardboard cut-out (H 45) and the costume, a necktie of orange crepe paper.
Favors & Prizes for Halloween Bridge Party
For favors one may roll little bright colored handkerchiefs, bonbon fashion, in cardboard and crepe paper and decorate them with witches (Cut-out H 37). Or, if perchance it is a bridge luncheon, you can make witches’ brooms of pencils and crepe paper to serve as place cards. Oh, really there is no end to the fascinating little favors and prizes that you can so easily create. Those illustrated on this page include a cigarette holder fastened to a natural twig on which is perched an owl (Seal H 697); a pincushion doll dressed in orange crepe paper; a package of Life Savers glued to the back of a green frog (Cut-out H 554); a pack of cards wrapped in orange crepe paper and placed, sandwich fashion, between two black bats (Silhouette H 790); a crepe paper witch whose skirt is a whisk broom; a crepe paper and wire doll whose arms are strung with spools of darning silk; a table marker made of wire, cardboard, crepe paper and ribbon which holds two decks of cards; a china holder for cigarettes appropriately decorated with a black cat.
Tallies for Bridge Halloween Party
Tallies, the unusual not-seen-in-the shops kind, can be made of colored mat stock cut into the shapes of hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades and decorated with Halloween seals.
They will be particularly attractive if you use two or even three cards, each a different color and cut a trifle different in size so that there will be a narrow edge of the various colors showing. Orange, bright green and black or dark blue, orange and yellow make attractive combinations. Paste or tie the cards together at only one point to get the best effect. The witch tally card illustrated here may be pasted at the tip of the spade and then scored so that, if you wish, it may stand erect on the table.
