The date is Saturday, October 13th 2018, 7-12 pm. The place is Cauldron Farm. The event is our now-yearly great reunion gathering of the Cauldron branch of the Addams Family Fan Club, headed by Vladimir and Absinthia Addams, coming together for a Halloween party of sublime creepiness. In the great tradition of Addams Family parties, any Family member may come and bring a guest (or two, but please warn them what they’re getting into, and make sure they don’t overimbibe and freak out). RSVPs are, however, required. If you’re being sent this link, you’re invited! If you are living in a far country and getting this anyway, we understand if you can’t mount your broom, giant bat, storm cloud, antique aeroplane, or swarm of flies and fly out, however tempting, but it means that we wish you could.
How to RSVP: First, you must email us at cauldronfarm @hotmail.com before October 22 and tell us your Addams name. As no living Addams has the same first name as any other living ones (dead doesn’t count and dead is kind of a gray area with this family), your name should be unique. Check the page of Our Family members for names already taken. (Or if you’re already on it, great!) If you married into the clan (perfectly acceptable, you’re still one of us!) you can include your “maiden” name, regardless of gender – e.g. Victoria Popplewell Addams. (You must also give us your mundane name, so we know who the heck you are in ordinary life.)
After October 1, we’ll post the list of Addams names (but not mundane ones), and then you can decide who on the list you’re related to, and in what way! (Multiple spouses at once is totally allowed, as are former spouses.) Then, when everyone tells us their ideas, we’ll create the Family Tree and post it online. Yes, this is probably the most elaborate RSVP procedure ever created for a simple Halloween party. Too bad. You’re lucky that there aren’t letters written in invisible ink and dramatic hand signals. (If you’d like to add your Addams name to the list even if you can’t make it, that’s fine too!)
If you’d like to bring potluck, the procedure is (wouldn’t you know) also arcane. The food theme is Creepy Illusion Food. That’s food that is entirely edible but looks like something creepy. The Internet is full of such recipes, especially around Halloween. Please send us an idea of what you’d like to make, in case five other people found the same recipe; you might want to suggest a couple just in case. But keep your agreement! If you sign up to bring Gummi Worms In Green Jello, for example, you’d better show up with them, because if you don’t you’ve robbed someone else of the chance to create that culinary masterpiece. You are welcome to show up hours in advance and assemble your horror in our kitchen, as long as you don’t mind the large falling butcher knives. So long as it is edible and tasty, we’re for it. Do not think that whatever you create will be too weird or creepy-looking for us. We’re Addamses. Bring it.
If you’d like to contribute to potluck and you can’t cook, decant something to drink (alcohol is fine but we’re probably going to be in more need of non-alcoholic) into an appropriate bottle and give it a creepy label. Please bring ingredient cards for any potluck you bring – some family members may be allergic to the cyanide or can’t tolerate the squid slime.
Dress appropriately to your Addams soul! You can’t go wrong with black, grave-dust-grey, blood-red, corpse-white, anything Victorian or Gothic, anything with lace ruffles. (That includes the gentlemen). If you show up in an old T-shirt and jeans, we may take it upon ourselves to add a bit of artful blood-spatter just for aesthetic purposes. Probably not with your blood. If you can find a volunteer.
Ladies, gentlemen, and other gentlebeings, we will see you there!
-Vladimir and Absinthia Addams