A Pumpkin Party may seem misplaced in the calendar at this point, but this is specifically a Thanksgiving pumpkin party, taking place the evening of Thanksgiving Day, so it should be considered more like pumpkin pie and less like a jack-o-lantern, though there's definitely an element of that in the theme as well. The overall concept is more harvest than Halloween, however, similar to the Red Ear Party except more, err, orange.
The description of the party -- possibly, but not necessarily, fictional -- was published in Demorest's Family Magazine, No. CCCXXIX, Vol. XXVII, No. 1, dated November 1890. Demorest's began as a fashion magazine but expanded to include a wide range of material, including quite a few little dance tidbits.
The pumpkin theme began from the very start, with the invitations, which were sent on "pumpkin-colored round cards". The party was held in a "pretty little stone barn and stable" with illuminated "pumpkin lanterns of all shapes and devices, some wearing the old familiar goblin-like 'eyes, nose, and mouth.' while others were cut in stars and flowers and geometrical designs." This is, quite literally, a barn dance.
The interior was further decorated with "strings of pumpkins and red peppers, corn and evergreens, and bundles of straw tied with pumpkin-colored ribbons" as well as "greens" trimming the stalls, "pumpkin lanterns" hung everywhere, and bales of hay "decorated with pumpkin-colored ribbons" for seating. Musicians, two "old-fashioned fiddlers", played from one of the stalls.
The dinner table carried on the theme with decorations of "deep yellow relieved with evergreens, the cloth and napkins pumpkin-colored". Food included pumpkin pies, pumpkin custards, and pumpkin cake. The punch was orangeade, "served in as hue pumpkin with a bowl inside" with a "small pumpkin gourd" for a ladle.
Not much information about the dancing was included, alas, except that the guests danced and played games. "Dancing in the Barn", a.k.a. the Military Schottische (described here), was mentioned by name, but it's not entirely clear whether they danced that specific dance or simply used that as a description of the event. If it was the Military Schottische, it apparently was danced to different music, as the fiddlers are noted as having played "old-fashioned tunes" for it. Perhaps "Kentucky Jubilee", one of its other associated tunes? The guests each wore a "small pumpkin favor with yellow ribbons". It's possible some of the dancing and games were the combined form, cotillions. The final dance was the Virginia reel.
The only game described in detail was a guessing game involving guessing how many seeds were in an enormous pumpkin. This seems to have been a pumpkin in its natural form (albeit "decorated with ribbons and flags", one of which presented a the challenge in the form of a poem) rather than one hollowed out and filled with seeds, since it was cut in half for counting. The prize for the closest guess was a gold pumpkin charm in a pumpkin-colored velvet case. The booby prize for the worst guess received a "booby" doll, which was "made of corncobs with a little pumpkin-head whose wide mouth grinned from ear to ear".
If one happened to have a barn available, this would be a fun party to recreate, perhaps as a full-scale cotillion evening, perhaps using some of the games from the Red Ear Party or other Halloween-themed or generally spooky cotillion figures. While the Red Ear Party and the linked figures were described somewhat later than 1890, there's nothing about them that is specifically twentieth-century or that would make them unsuited to a late nineteenth century event.
The party description is too long for me to transcribe; the complete text in its original publication may be found here.
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