Hocus Pocus Date Night: Dinner, a Double Feature & Free Printables

Some Halloween movies you watch. Hocus Pocus you host. It’s been a required October rewatch in most houses for thirty years now, and it turns out it makes a genuinely great date night — if you build a little something around it.

So here’s the whole evening: a grown-up Halloween dinner menu, a build-your-own Witches Brew candy mix, free printables to set the scene, and a spell book for after the credits roll. Prep most of it a day ahead and the night itself is easy.

The Movie

When was the last time you actually watched it? Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy are having so much fun as the Sanderson sisters that it carries the whole thing, the songs hold up better than they have any right to, and the story is genuinely charming.

If your spouse needs convincing, lead with the dinner and the after-party and let the movie be the thing that happens in between. Nobody has ever regretted this one.

Where to watch: both films stream on Disney+.

Make It a Double Feature

Hocus Pocus 2 picks up with the sisters back in Salem, and watching both back-to-back turns a two-hour date into a full evening. Our honest take: the first is better, the second is more fun than you’re expecting, and the two of them together make an excellent Saturday.

If you only have time for one, watch the original. If you’re going for both, serve the dinner before film one and break out the Witches Brew for film two.

Setting the Scene

If you decorate for fall at all, you already own everything you need. Pull the witches, pumpkins, bats, spiderwebs, and candles you’ve got and move a few of them onto the dinner table.

Then gather every candle in the house into the TV room and light all of them. Dim the lights. Add fluffy pillows and the good blankets. That’s it — you’ve got a Halloween dinner table and a very romantic movie room, and it took about ten minutes.

Line up a sitter or wait until the kids are asleep, and have the whole scene set before your spouse walks in. If you’ve got the house to yourselves, set up the after-party somewhere private. If it’s a full house, your bedroom. More on that at the end.

The Free Printables

These grown-up Halloween printables were designed for us by Erin at Strawberry Mommycakes, and they are gorgeous. Print them on card stock. The download link is at the bottom of this post.

The Invitation

Fill in the date and time and hand it over a few days ahead — the anticipation is half of it. Even better attached to a bag of their favorite Halloween candy.

The Dinner Menu

Skip the kid food. This is a grown-up spread with appropriately gruesome names, and almost all of it can be made a day or two ahead:

• Bubbling Cauldron — homemade root beer or any drink with dry ice dropped in
• Ghastly Chili — black bean and sweet potato turkey chili or black bean and pumpkin chili
• Ribs with Blood Sauce — oven roasted ribs with barbecue sauce
• Crunchy Green Bean Salad — get the recipe
• Shriveled Potatoes — roasted baby Yukon or red-skin potatoes, well browned
• Shrunken Pears — pears baked down in syrup
• Poison Apples — classic candy apples, or any apple dessert you like

The Witches Brew

Before the movie starts, you each build your own candy mix — a personal sugary spell to cast during the film. Tape the printable “Witches Brew” label to a paper sack or a bowl and lay out the ingredients:

• Witch Hair — licorice
• Wolves Nails — candy corn
• Rat Droppings — black jelly beans
• Frog Tongue — peach rings
• Creepy Crawlers — gummy worms
• Bone Chunks — kettle corn
• Wizard Guts — black rope licorice
• Poison — Skittles
• Goblin Eyes — Whoppers
• Vampire Bites — Hot Tamales

The Drinks

A good drink makes the whole thing feel like an occasion. Something dark and spiced fits the mood — mulled cider, a caramel apple cider, or a deep purple mocktail if you want it to look the part.

We’ve got 50 fall warm drink recipes to choose from, and 35 holiday mocktails if you’d rather go festive and alcohol-free.

The After Party

Remember “I Put a Spell on You”? That’s the inspiration for this little magic love spell book — your surprise for after the credits roll. We added a few sassy spells to it, and we’ll leave it at that.

More Halloween Dates

If this one’s not quite right, we’ve got 31 Halloween date night ideas for couples — everything from corn mazes to scavenger hunts to a few strictly-after-dark options. Or browse 50 more Halloween movies if you want to build your own version of this night around a different film.