Halloween Fog How To Guide

We still love to do it up big for Halloween here in the south – especially in rural areas. Even though there are only 800 residents in the town where I live, Main Street sees as many as 200-300 kids parading door-to-door with bags overflowing with Halloween treats.

It’s rather a tradition for neighbors to out-Jones each other with creepy decorations and elaborate displays. You’ll see everything from mock graveyards to ghosts popping up out of leaf piles.

One of the most spectacular displays involves using dry ice to make fog. All the kids really squeal and enjoy the homes where the fog is rolling.

To Make Homemade Halloween Fog, You’ll Need:

• dry ice
• container (cooler etc)
• water
• big bucket

To find dry ice, look under “ice” in the yellow pages. A good number of places sell dry ice. It’s just not likely you’ve looked before, unless you’ve made fog.

Most places require you to bring your own container. Call and ahead and see what they recommend. Often, it’s just a big cooler.

It’s also a good idea to bring heavy duty gloves and tongs. If you touch dry ice, it will burn like fire – but kind of in reverse.

Dry ice is generally sold by the pound and varies in cost from place to place and year to year, but it’s not terribly expensive. Again, ask about the cost when calling.

When you’re ready to make fog, put the dry ice in a big bucket.

Add enough hot water to cover the dry ice – about 2 to 3 times as much water as dry ice. It doesn’t have to be exact. Just eyeball it.

Keep hot water handy. Dry ice stops making fog when the water gets cold.

One way to get around having to add hot water is to use your crock pot. Be sure to put the crock in the pot to protect the heating part.

You can really impress the little goblins with this offbeat Halloween recipe.

Obviously you want to keep the fog back away from the traffic area and monitor the fog maker whether it be a bucket or a crock pot fog machine. Again, dry ice burns to the touch. So, be extra careful.