Happy Halloween everyone! That’s my pumpkin this year. A meta ghost coming out of a pumpkin on a pumpkin. It doesn’t quite rival last year’s Ghostbusters themed pumpkin.
I’m a bit sad for kids since Halloween falls on a Monday this year, but I feel even worse for the teachers today who have to wrangle groups of children who are hopped up on sugar and probably already wearing their costumes (in America, at least). It truly will be like herding cats. My mom used to go out of her way to make sure my brother and I had the best Halloween’s ever, and she whizzed me up some epic costumes. Like the one below. That’s tiny me, in a homemade Dorothy costume. I wish I had inherited my mom’s sewing skills.
(Long live the full fringe/bangs forever!)
The celebration of the autumnal season and Halloween truly is one of the things that I really miss about America. But I’ve noticed that in the past 3 years Halloween has been much, much bigger in London than it was back in 2010. (The year of my first UK based Halloween.) I hope it continues to grow because I think that trick ‘o’ treating is one of life’s great joys.
This year Sam and I will be celebrating by eating scarily unhealthy food for dinner and watching scary movies that increase in terror until we reach the point where I want to sleep with the lights on. If I can convince him to wear a makeshift costume, all the better.
Last year, Halloween fell on a Sunday and I tried belatedly to book us on to a ghost walk. Never one to fail to rise to the occasion, I took that on the chin and downloaded an app that contained a list of haunted places in London. We spent the entire day walking from place to place, with me stopping to tell the “spooky” tale of each location. (I used to give guided ghost tours in Stratford-upon-Avon during Sam’s RSC season, so spooky walks are my forte.) We also had a sunny, cider-y picnic on Hampstead Heath to break up our walking. All in all we did almost 10 miles that day and rewarded ourselves with Halloween themed donuts from Dum Dum Doughnuts in Shoreditch. It was one of the best London Halloween’s I had.
If you are still in dire need of a spooky dessert for tonight, here’s my recipe for a “spider” cake. Or if you want something a little more sedate, I also have a recipe for baked apple cider donuts.
Or if you need some guidance on some gothic reads or watches to curl up with tonight check out my Gothic romance post.
Basically, I consider myself the Queen of Halloween. Now if only we can settle the eternal debate: ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ a Halloween or Christmas film?
