The Clever Way To Keep Halloween Punch Cold And Spooky At The Same Time

For some, there's no better season than spooky season. It's an opportunity to dress up as your favorite character, indulge in way too many fun-sized candy bars, and throw elaborate parties with all the best themed decorations. To the latter point, you've probably already got most of yours handled ... but there's always room for something more.

Think of your punch bowl, for example, the gathering point of many a good party. Instead of limiting yourself to a scary bowl and maybe some themed cups, add decoration (and extra cooling power) directly to the punch by using full-sized frozen hands.

This accomplishes two main things. First, it's a wild look that you don't see often, having a hand or two of ice floating around the punch bowl. It's especially cool if you decorate it, such as using colored water or slipping cheap costume rings on. Secondly, it makes your punch less watered down over time than using regular ice since its large size means a slower melt.

Making a frozen hand requires little effort and only few pieces of gear. To start, take a food-safe glove — and it absolutely must be food-safe since, in a sense, you'll be drinking from it — and fill it with water. Then, seal the glove with a rubber band, twist tie, or other method, and put it in the freezer overnight. If you like, you can also put the hand inside a larger bag in case of leaks. When you're ready, peel the glove off and put the hand in the punch.

But a plain frozen hand isn't very exciting, so you'll want to spice things up. Take green lagoon punch, for instance. It uses green neon food coloring for the punch and purple neon food coloring for the hand, so the two colors can mysteriously swirl together as the ice hand melts. You can also freeze some spooky decorations inside it, including plastic eyeballs, homemade gummy worms, and glow-in-the-dark creepy crawlies.