Well, in theory it can anyway! This year I spent Halloween sitting quietly at home while the kids were out at parties and trick-or-treating with the express instruction not to do any criming. They’d also been to one of their sister’s houses for a kids’ party in the afternoon.
I occasionally miss the years of arranging with friends to do the trick or treating round as a group so at least we had adult company. The kids could go en masse to houses to knock – only if they were decorated though, as that was the rule. No pumpkins, no knocking. They loved planning their costumes for most of the month beforehand, and being out in the dark was always exciting, especially along Queens Road and School Green Lane where a couple of houses always went all out to decorate and dress up in spooky costumes for the evening. Of course I could still get together with friends as none of them need babysitters any more so we can just go to the pub.
This year I haven’t even carved a pumpkin, and while I have bought sweets I might just eat them while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the lights off. That’s as scary as I get when I am on my own. When I was a teenage babysitter I was often booked for Halloween and as a result I have started but never managed to watch to the end of The Shining, Rosemary’s Baby and another couple of classic horror films. I should probably not read the books beforehand.
Of course, when I was young (all those years ago in the 1980s) Halloween was not such a big thing, Occasionally you might dress up in a bin bag with a supermarket witchy hat or an old sheet with holes in, but trick or treating around the houses, supermarkets full of pumpkins and the mass hysteria of under 18s at this time of year just weren’t ‘things’. My dad used to carve turnips for us using a melon baller, a knife and some very restrained language – this is apparently an Irish/Manx thing.
(Looking at some of the images of carved turnips on Google might actually go some way to explaining my phobia of masks, however – don’t do it if you’re of a delicate constitution.)
My own marking of Halloween these days tends to be through novelty marshmallows and excellent accessorising – this hair claw has been in heavy rotation this week, along with an autumn dragon on a pumpkin pin from Glitterpunk and earrings featuring bats, pumpkins and ghosties, The skull & crossbones fishnets were just for fun. I love autumn and Halloween is part of this. My little Uniqlo crossbody bag (the crescent shaped one that everyone has!) is full of shiny conkers, and crunchy leaves make me unreasonably cheerful, not least because it means the London plane trees aren’t making me sneeze for a few months. They’re the only things that give me hay fever and London is full of them.
Bonfire Night was always bigger at our house: bundling up to go to Monmouth for the fireworks and bonfire at the Rowing Club, or occasionally at the ROF Glascoed social club or (once) at ICI. I suspect the latter two made their own explosives….
Things making me happy this week
- Family fun on Wednesday at work – mask making with Murugiah and storytelling in the afternoon.
- Dinner out at Wildwood with London sister and brother-in-law and Things 2&3
- Spontaneous dinner with Amanda on Wednesday
- The Celebrity Traitors final episodes.
- Metrodle – tube nerd heaven
- Lots of crochet
This morning I plan to go for an autumn walk, then Thing 2 and I are off to the cinema to see the Ghosts film.
Same time next week!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading
A lot of Elle Kennedy chick lit
Weavingshaw – Heba Al-Wasity
