My kids start planning their costumes in about August. It changes four or five times. By the last week of October the excitement in this house is genuinely unmanageable and I have accepted that. Talking to other mums at school pickup, it's there are two things they struggle with each year. 1. The lolly bag They come home buzzing, tip the whole lot out on the lounge room floor, sort it into piles that make sense only to them, and then it sits on the kitchen bench for three weeks getting eaten by me at nine o'clock at night. I've never wanted to be the mum who confiscates it. Half the fun of the night is the haul, and a kid who walked the entire street deserves better than being told she can have two. A friend of mine does something I'd never heard of before she explained it. The kids pick a handful to keep, and everything else goes in a bag by the front door before bed. Overnight the bag disappears and something turns up in its place. In the States they call her the Switch Witch. I am planning to implement it this year, but we will call her the Lolly witch . The part that makes it work is that they choose what goes in the bag. They've made the decision themselves, so there's no argument in the morning. And it gives them something to look forward to on the 1st, which otherwise can be a fairly flat day when you're four and the big night is over. 2. The first scary costume This is the other one. They've been counting down for weeks, they're in the costume, they're thrilled, and then somebody's front yard has a bleeding clown in it and the whole evening changes shape. What's helped our kids is doing talking to them days beforehand rather than on the night. Walk the street in daylight and look at the decorations while it's bright and nothing is moving. Let them try a mask on themselves so they're the one holding it. Say out loud that the person under the costume is somebody's dad who put it on an hour ago. And agree beforehand what happens if they've had enough. Knowing there's a way out is usually the thing that means they don't need it. You can go further and let them be the scary one. Ghosts and monsters live in our imagination, so ask what they'd get up to if they could walk through walls for a night, or where a ghost goes when it's bored. Once they're running it, most of the fear comes out of it. What has worked for us is: put them in a story, making them a book about it The thing that's helped us most is having the night exist in a book before it happens. If it's their first Halloween, the story is about everything they could be, this is super cute. If they've done it a few times, it's a record of the costume years, which my kids find hilarious. And if you're bringing in something new like the lolly witch, the book is how they meet her, so on the night she's already familiar instead of turning up out of nowhere. That's the part that does the work. A kid who has read what's going to happen handles it a lot better when it actually happens. You write it in your own words, because every family does this differently and yours will not look like mine. Upload a photo so the character looks like your child. Dress them in whichever costume they've landed on this week. Then edit the illustrations until they're right, which is where you get to decide how spooky it goes. If your kid wants the house with the clown out the front in there, put it in. If they'd rather it was a friendly ghost and a pile of lollies, do that instead. You're the one holding the dial. Read it in the week before Halloween and it does the preparing for you. Leave it by the door on the night and it's what the lolly witch brings. Create your not so spooky illustrated book here If you want to be super creative here are some tips on how to create a personalised story.
