Homemade Halloween Basket for Happy Trails Animal Rescue

by Tesa Shelton
(Lott, Tx, US)

Here's the story behind this homemade Halloween gift basket...

My mom runs an animal rescue called, "Happy Trails Animal Retirement & Rescue." She takes in unwanted and abandoned dogs and cats, and hopefully eventually adopts them out to good homes. We ran a small gift shop on main street of our small town, with profits going to the animal rescue.

Who did you make it for?
Our Chief of Police approached us and asked if we would like to sponsor a room in the city's haunted house. We agreed, and actually took 2 rooms. In one my mom sat in a rocking chair with an old woman mask on and portrayed a, "crazy cat lady," which isn't too far from the truth! :) The second room my son was a scarecrow who came to life as people passed him. I asked him if it would be okay if we held a raffle to raise money for the rescue, and he agreed, so we prepared the basket and sold raffle tickets for $1.00 each.

What's in it?
The basket contained a skeleton mask that sat on top. There were 4 DVDs of scary movies, spider and pumpkin beanie babies, 3 huge candles in various Halloween scents like licorice and candy corn, a black and purple pumpkin to display, a pumpkin reflective necklace, and various small Halloween toys and candy. There were sprigs of fall leaves in the back.

What did you use for the basket/container and wrapping?
I picked a huge basket that had orange on the bottom, and wrapped orange Halloween ribbon with black witches flying on brooms around the handle and around the rim of the basket. I placed newspaper in the bottom for height, and crinkled orange paper on top of it. I put the whole thing in a huge clear plastic bag and tied it with a ribbon at the top.

Anything else you'd like to share about your gift basket?
The basket was a hit at the haunted house, and the second day we gave away orange and black balloons to everyone who bought 2 raffle tickets!


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