It's spooky alright

Published on Saturday 28 October 2006 00:23

WHEN did Halloween become such a big deal? When someone realised October was a quiet month at the tills and there was money to be made, that's when. That's why for the past fortnight the shops have been full of a whole range of orange and black plastic rubbish. All at child height, for maximum pester potential.

My friend is indignant as she tells me how she found her pre-school twins poring over a supermarket flyer that had been pushed uninvited through the letterbox. A whole double-page spread of must-have items to buy for Halloween. Plastic pumpkins, cauldrons, all manner of outfits, witches' hats, brooms, tridents, decorated paper plates, cups and streamers. Her two had already homed in on the vivid plastic orange pumpkins. And it's not as if she's a "here's-a-bin-liner-you're-a-vampire" kind of mother, like me. She's the talented kind who spends three nights sewing beautiful black cloaks her kids adore and wear all the time. But no children are immune to the lure of shiny cheap tat when it's thrust right in front of them. "Halloween is about guising," she says, "dressing up and going round the neighbours. Not buying loads of ghost and pumpkin-shaped food."

I'm also nostalgic for the days when Halloween had an apostrophe and meant a week of gouging lumps out of your fingers with a potato peeler while you made a turnip lantern. None of this done-in-five-minutes-and-shall-we-make-a-roulade-with-the-pumpkin-flesh nonsense. The more trashed our costumes were, the better. And as for the three-day week and the power cuts - perfect for guising.

However, I'm not totally against the shift from ghost/zombie/ Norman Tebbit costumes to outfits of a more fancy-dress bent. Another friend made herself the best Vegas Elvis outfit ever. It won her the pub Halloween competition. And Elvis does qualify as dead, although I know there will always be quibblers.

So resist the temptation to empty your wallet on pumpkin streamers and radioactive "vampire blood". Dress up with your kids and take them guising. You might even come back with cash.

• Tomorrow's Halloween Experience at Traquair House in Innerleithen, from 11am to 4pm, includes a treasure hunt, scary face painting and a ghost walk for little ghoul-hunters. 6.20/3.30.

Tel: [phone] or visit www.traquair.co.uk

Salem slot

And if you've not yet had enough fearful fun, dress as a witch or wizard and head for Crathes Castle today or tomorrow to join in the annual witch hunt in the grounds. Don't miss the Witch and Wizard Parade at 2pm each day. 1.50.

Tel: [phone] or visit www.nts.org.uk

Spooking and dooking

Get dressed up for games, spooky stories, crafts and apple dooking at the Museum of Scottish Country Life in East Kilbride on Tuesday (Halloween) from 5 to 7pm. Free.

Tel: [phone].

• Compiled by Alice Wyllie