Martha Stewart is having a big month. Last Wednesday night, she hosted a Snoop Dogg-attended event at Jean-Georges’s Four Twenty Five restaurant in New York to celebrate her latest tome, Martha: The Cookbook, which also happens to be the multitasking domestic doyenne and former Olympic correspondent’s 100th (!) cookbook. She’s also gearing up for the release of Martha, Netflix’s R.J. Cutler-directed documentary that’s being billed as the “definitive” insight into Stewart’s life and career. And let’s not forget it’s also the month of the biggest Stewart holiday: Halloween. Each year, Stewart poses in a costume for her magazine Martha Stewart Living, and fills it with endless ideas and party tricks for Halloween hosts and hostesses. (This year, Stewart holds court on her cover as Queen Elizabeth I, with a scepter made from an old curtain rod and an orb filled with candy.)
Ahead of the spooky holiday, we caught up with Stewart to learn how you, too, can have a very Martha Halloween.
Vogue: What are some must-haves for a sophisticated grownup Halloween party?
Stewart: There are all kinds of scary and silly things that one can do to make Halloween more enjoyable for adults—they’re pretty much the same things that I would do for kids-only parties but maybe I’d incorporate espresso martinis or something that would be appealing to adults. I remember going to one party with a lot of CEOs and big, big, big business guys and, the hostess was serving a butternut squash soup. I just put little plastic cockroaches in everybody’s soup. I saw a man pick it out and look at it put it back, and then take it out again. He was quite horrified, but then he realized it was Halloween—the more little pranks you can play, I think the better for Halloween.
What are some other other surprises and pranks?
For adults, always have some special treats. You can do a candy bag for them—it’s not just for kids. But you can do a number of clever things with the food: peeled grapes or lychees for eyeballs and in a drink. Whatever you can think of and conjure up that’s silly and fun, I think, is good for adults. They’ll get a big kick out of it.
Are there any things you deem too kitschy or too cutesy if you are trying to cater to both grownups and kids?
No, I don’t think so. I mean, Halloween has become a fun holiday for children and adults alike. I don’t think it ever waned too much for kids, but certainly for adults, it waned for a while, and then it came back with a vengeance. I have always practiced good Halloween manners and good Halloween decorations and good Halloween pranks—it’s just part of my DNA. I just like Halloween a lot.
When and why do you think Halloween had a comeback for adults?
Well, since Bette Midler has had her Halloween party every year. For many years, she had it at the Waldorf Astoria. I went every single year for quite a few years, and you would go dressed up, and your costume would be voted upon and Michael Kors was the one who gave out the prizes. You know, it was serious. But it was a fundraiser too, for the New York Restoration Project. I am not able to go this year, but I’ve gone almost every year for the longest time. Nobody scoffs at it. Nobody turns it down. Everybody wants to go.
How do you decorate for Halloween?
We decorate both inside and outside. I live on a farm now, so the gate is always decorated, and the security guard has to open the gate for children who are trick-or-treating. I usually give children an assortment of candies–quite a few candies in—in a bag and a little cash too.
Do trick-or-treaters come to your house?
I guess so! That’s what they say. But I’m never home on Halloween. I try to be out and about.
What are some of your favorite Halloween memories?
We used to make box lanterns out of a cardboard box–you cut a jack-o’-lantern, and on the sides, paste orange and black tissue paper over the holes, and you would put a candle in it, a real candle. You would walk it in the Halloween parade to school, where we would all congregate down the playing fields, and in the middle of the playing field, we threw our beautiful pumpkin boxes, I want to call them, down into the pool. Today, I taught my granddaughter how to make one of these fabulous boxes, and she’s going to do it actually out of tin cans—little aluminum cans. I don’t know what they’re eating to get the cans, but I’m not going to ask.
Do you have a say in what your grandchildren dress up as each year?
Two years ago, my daughter asked for all the peacock feathers that the male peacocks had molted [per her post on X last year, Stewart owns 21]. There were hundreds of them. She got all of those and she made the most beautiful Halloween costume for my granddaughter, who looked so great. She wore this big long cape with a trailing train that was about 14 feet. It was fantastic.
Do you know what she’ll be dressing up as this year?
Jude is going to be—oh she told me yesterday. She is going to be a fictional character with blonde braids…not Little Orphan Annie, who is it?
Is it Pippi Longstocking?
Oh, that’s who it is—she’s so excited.
Do you know what you are going to be?
I can be Queen Elizabeth. I have that beautiful costume [from her most recent Martha Stewart Living cover] all hung up in the basement, ready to be put on. I do have to get my hair done like that, though. That took a long time to do my hair. We like to be creative with our costumes, and we love to make them homemade—like the peacock costume.
Do you always dress up?
I’ve been dressing up since I was a little girl. I have pictures of myself pretty much every year. I was a Little Bo Peep, and then I was a flapper, and I was a witch, of course—everybody’s always a witch once. And then all the costumes that I’ve done for the magazine—they re incredible costumes. They’re so beautiful and very well done.
What goes into your decision-making for your Halloween costumes for the magazine?
Well, it was Queen Elizabeth because the Queen died last year, you know? So it was an appropriate costume, and I had never been a queen, so that was good. But it depends—maybe something newsy or newsworthy or just something that I had thought about. I had black horses, so I was an equestrian for one year, and that was very fun. You can get ideas from paintings. You can get ideas from current events. You can get ideas from something you’ve always dreamed about. Oh, the bloody nurse. I loved the bloody nurse—I won the prize at my friend Allison Sarofim’s Halloween party for that costume. But this Friday, I’m getting dressed up as Audrey Hepburn! Which has nothing really to do with Halloween.
What does it have to do with?
I’m hosting a lunch for Food and Wine at the Blue Box Café by Daniel Boulud and I thought it would be fun to be her.
Back to Halloween, what makes for a great Halloween party?
Well, what makes a great Halloween party is just creativity. Call it for the witching hour, ask people to come in costumes, make it fun. Make a haunted house at your house. Make it difficult to get into your house—we’ve done all kinds of haunted houses and scary hallways that you have to walk through with things popping out at you. You can go as crazy as you want. A little silly nothing party is not Halloween to me—it has to be kind of special. Always have a Halloween drink. I’ve made apple cider bourbon sours, which are very Halloweeny. Things that look like blood or are good. There are so many ideas in our magazine, too.
And what are Halloween party hosting no-nos?
The thing not to do? Don’t be insipid. A little jack lantern on the table—that’s not much of a Halloween gesture. I think you have to sort of go all out.
