Here’s everything you need to host the best Summerwen party in 6 steps!
Summer is here! And if you’re lowkey waiting for it to be Halloween, then wait no further because the summer season means Summerween is right around the corner! Summerween is the perfect excuse to get excited about Halloween and do all the spooky things you like while enjoying the hot weather!
If you’ve been wanting to know how you can host your own Summerween party, then carry on reading to find out how you can make it a fun holiday celebration!
What is Summerween?
Summerween is a Halloween celebration, blending spooky vibes with the summer season! It originally became a concept from the season 1, episode 12 of Gravity Falls, called Summerween.
The great uncle of the main characters in the show explains that the people of the fictional Oregon town, Gravity Falls, love Halloween so much that they celebrate it twice a year. And, since then, Summerween has been an unofficial holiday adopted by fans (and even non-fans), who celebrate it every year!
Is Summerween in June or July?
According to Gravity Falls, Summerween falls on June 22nd. However, some choose to celebrate it on July 31st, 3 months before Halloween. It’s an unofficial holiday, so it doesn’t necessarily matter whether you celebrate it in June or July! As long as you’re having fun, that’s all that matters!
How to Host a Summerween Party in 6 Steps
1. Send invitations
The first step in hosting a Summerween Party is telling your friends that you’re celebrating it, and that they’re invited! If you know they love Halloween, then they’d be stoked for this.
Decide whether you want to stick to the Gravity Falls tradition of celebrating on June 22nd or a different day in the summer, and make sure your invite tells everyone to save the date! You can use an e-vite app like Partiful or Evite to do this, as it easily tracks your RSVPs. Alternatively, you can use an app like Canva to create your invites and send them digitally or print them out!
Don’t forget to mention in your invite that everyone must be in costume too! You can’t have Summerween without dressing up in spooky and fun costumes. You could even get spooky nails to really dress up for the occasion!
2. Set the scene
What do you want the vibes to be like? Remember, Summerween is a blend of summery vibes and spooky thrills, so striking a balance would be perfect! You could do a pool party, where you can decorate your pool with spooky inflatables. Maybe a picnic might interest you, where you lay all of your Summerween foods and drinks on a spooky picnic blanket.
Alternatively, if you want to have a home gathering, you could put up all kinds of Summerween decor around your house and have a spooky movie marathon!
3. Sort out food, treats, and drinks
Food, treats, and drinks are my favorite part of Summerween because you can get so creative with what you make! For food, you can cook up some finger hot dogs, ghost pizzas, and cheeseburgers (with the cheese cut in jack-o-lantern faces). For drinks, you can make summerween punch, where anyone can add grave stone ice cubes from a cauldron ice bucket!
Of course, for Summerween treats, you can’t go wrong with candy! But you can also make ghost brownies, chocolate-dipped strawberry ghosts, ghost popsicles, or s’mores!
4. Decide on activities
The highlight of your Summerween party will most likely be the activities. It’s the perfect time for everyone to get together and just have fun. Here are a few Summerween activities you can do:
- Witch hat ring toss – Lay six witch hats in a triangle shape (with candy underneath each one), and get a pack of glow sticks that you can make into rings. Take it in turns to throw each glow ring on a witch hat. Whoever succeeds gets to take the candy that’s underneath the witch hat.
- Ghost photoshoot – Get white bedsheets and sunglasses to turn into cool ghosts and make a photoshoot out of it! If you’re looking for inspiration, there are tons of cool and funny ghost photoshoots on Pinterest that you can recreate!
- Spooky book swap – If you and your friends love reading horror and thrillers, then you’ll love doing a spooky book swap! Take your favorite (or highly recommended) spooky books, wrap them up, and write a few bullet points about the key elements of the book. Have each person place their own book in a pile and pick up another book that they’re interested in reading.
- Bracelet Making – This is such a cute and relaxing activity to do for your Summerween party. Make bracelets using spooky colors, like orange, black, green, and purple, to really stay on theme.
5. Make a Summerween movie watchlist
I love how Summerween is an excuse to watch all the scary movies you like! Make a movie watchlist so you can do a spooky movie marathon for your Summerween party!
Even though it’s not a movie, you have to start with the Summerween OG, Gravity Falls, Season 1, Episode 12, where this holiday was first coined! Then watch all the spooky movies you want! Here is a list of some top favorites to watch during Summerween:
- Friday the 13th
- Scream
- I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
- Jaws
- Fear Street Trilogy
- Bodies Bodies Bodies
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Scooby-Doo (2002)
6. Decorate
Your decor will play a huge part in throwing the best Summerween party. The Halloween decor that you currently have sitting in storage? Get them all out because you’re going to need them for Summerween, from the spooky lanterns and balloons to the life-sized skeletons. If you’re throwing a pool party, it’s the perfect occasion to have your life-sized skeleton on a floatie or even have a floating coffin cooler to put all your drinks!
Most importantly, your Summerween party decor must have jack-o’melons! They’re basically the same as jack-o’-lanterns, but instead of pumpkins, they’re made of watermelons! The people of Gravity Falls use this for their Summerween decor, so it’s only right to do the same. You can even turn watermelon carving into an activity for your Summerween party, too!
