By Louise Flanagan
Halloween celebrations grow year on year, with more houses displaying spooky decorations and more grown-ups opting to dress up too.
Personally, I love Halloween. Before I had kids, I used to take great pride in making my costumes; a time-consuming process that resulted in scissors, superglue, staple guns and glitter scattered the length of the house.
Now, as a busy mum of three kids, that sounds like a logistical nightmare.
The spooky season is well celebrated in schools nowadays. I loved seeing photos of pupils and staff going all out with crazy costumes last Friday before the midterm rolled in.
The kids were as excited getting ready for school that day as they’ll be today, October 31.
I used to relish picking a family theme for our costumes – we’ve been Frozen characters and The Incredibles Superheroes in the past – but now my kids like to come up with their own costume choices.
Lucy randomly decided she wanted to dress as Daddy Pig from Peppa Pig. Given that she’s nearly 11, this was a bit of a curve ball for me!
Fair play to her though, she figured out the costume herself: A teal t-shirt of mine stuffed with squishmallows and an empty toilet roll crafted into a piggy nose and ears and she was ready for a layer of pink paint.
Evan went as a shop-bought Minion and was delighted with himself, while my youngest, Conor, rocked a dragon costume that I picked up for a song in a local charity shop.
I particularly like the dragon costume because it’s really warm, covering him from head to toe. Trick or treating can be a chilling experience, and I’m not talking about ghosts!
Here’s hoping it’ll stay dry to give the kids a chance to knock on a few neighbourhood doors.
We live in a bustling estate with loads of kids, so the doorbell won’t cool all evening; it’s part of the fun.
The traditional games are hard to beat too: Bobbing for apples is still a Halloween staple in our house. It’s unhygienic and mildly traumatizing…What’s not to love, eh?!
The biggest difference between the Halloween I enjoyed as a child and the Halloween my kids enjoy is the absence of a bonfire.
In fairness, it seems ludicrous to stockpile tyres to set alight, so I can’t say I’m sorry that tradition died out.
Mind you, I do have fond memories of tyres being rolled the length of the town, stolen by rival gangs and stolen back just in the nick of time.
High drama and not a smartphone in sight to record the action.
Back in the 1990s, my mother actually let us store about 50 dirty tyres inside our house to keep them safe in the run-up to Halloween because we were so upset when our hoard got raided by some boys from Glencar.
(Incidentally, I grew up to marry a boy from Glencar, although he has never confessed to any involvement in the crime.)
The bonfire was constructed at the last minute and the dads from our estate established a rota to guard it for a few hours so that it couldn’t be raided before we got a chance to light it.
That was some dedication, fair play to them.
We had a ball at Halloween and although some customs have changed since then, it’s still a wonderful occasion for kids and a chance for us all to make good memories and have a bit of fun.
Happy Halloween.
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