Halloween or Hallowe’en, also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed in several countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints, martyrs, and all the faithful departed – Wikopedia.

When I was a child, Halloween was nothing more than a time to pull over my head either the white cotton sheet or the black plastic dustbin liner, walk round to the neighbours in the street and collect sweets from them. But when I had kids, this progressed to having to make the costumes, perhaps being able to purchase a witch’s hat, but nothing more and walking round with groups of parents, not just in your street, but the entire housing estate!

Halloween here in England is probably not as popular as it is in America, but it is certainly growing in popularity. So if Halloween is a nightmare for you, here’s some shortcuts to enjoying a more relaxed All Hallows.

Pumpkin Carving

I’ve been there in the kitchen with my children, carefully drawing out a picture on a pumpkin, having to cut out that picture without losing a finger, scooping out all that fleshy pulp with seeds flying everywhere.

Well, Not On The High Street have a solution to that, fun pumpkin decorating stickers. Easy to apply, just clean the surface of your pumpkin where the sticker is to be placed, dry thoroughly and pop the sticker on! What could be easier and at £6.50 each, a small price to pay for the time and effort spent in carving and clearing away all that mess!

Halloween Cupcakes

If baking is really not your thing, but you would love to have some Halloween cupcakes, then you couldn’t do worse than buying a pack of plain cupcakes from your local supermarket, along with some pre-made frosting which you can pipe on top of the cupcakes and then you can order some sugar ghost halloween cupcake decorations from CakeCraft World  to place on top. These are a very reasonable £8.70 for 84 sugar ghosts, perfect for those homemade-style cupcakes!

Costumes

Unless you are very handy with the needle, costumes always used to be a nightmare, but thankfully you can rely on our trusty supermarket stores now to buy Halloween outfits at reasonable prices. Just remember to heed the instructions to keep away from naked flames. Prices are on average £12.00 and there is an enormous amount of choice. The one shown is a Green Swamp Zombie costume from Sainsburys.

Decorations

For the quick and easy way to decorate your house, why not buy a projector.  The projector projects a 4 foot by 6 foot screen which shows 16 second movies – a perfect Halloween decoration and for extra value for money, there is also Christmas films.  This costs £21.35 from Amazon.

So that’s my Halloween shortcuts, but remember not everybody enjoys this night, so please respect people’s wishes if you see a poster like the one from my local Hampshire Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service:

And to finish – a Halloween poem: