With the spooky season almost upon us here are a few ideas for an autumnal celebration and a Green Hallowe’en. Most are crafty and some are gruesome, so there should be something to please all the little witches, pint sized demons and their ghoulish parents.

Here goes:

1. Tell ghost stories by torchlight.
2. Make green ooze from a playdough recipe
3. Decorate old paper bags and fill them with goodies.
4. Treat yourselves to some toffee apples
5. Cut a hole in a cardboard box, and fill it with gruesome stuff for people to put their hand in and feel (a carrot for a finger, a boiled egg for an eyeball, you get the idea).
6. Play conkers.
7. Hang apples and play the trying to bite them game.
8. Decorate the house with garlands of threaded autumn leaves.
9. Dig out some old clothes, use your imagination and make your own Hallowe’en costumes.
10. Arrange a pile of squash and pumpkins at the front door or on the centre of the dinner table as decorations. Have them for dinner in November.
11. Cut out bats and ghouls from old bed sheets and clothing for great reusable decorations
12. Use an old hat and some wool or cloth strips to make a wig
13. Make barm brack. There’s good recipe here. For those of you not from Ireland pumpkin pie or whatever is your traditional autumnal fare will do.
14. Glue different types of nuts together to make little nut people ornaments.
15. Dip fruit and dried fruit in chocolate for yummy treats.
16. Bob for apples in a basin of water.
17. Have fun with papier-mâché. A balloon, flour, water, old newspapers = two masks to decorate.
18. Make a Hallowe’en tree. Decorate a tree in your garden or an old branch with little cloth ghosts and ghouls.
19. Make scary hands by decorating an old pair of gloves with claws or extra fingers.
    
    And finally….
    
    
20. Go out to the composter and cover yourself in worms and spiders before you answer the door to little kids (suggested by my husband – little boys never do grow up).