My kids start planning their Halloween costumes in about August. The plan 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, there are two things we all seem to struggle with every Halloween: the lolly bag, and the first properly scary costume. 1. What to do with all the Halloween lollies (meet the Switch Witch) The kids come home from trick or treating buzzing, tip the whole lot out on the living room floor, and sort it into piles that make sense only to them. 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 has earned more than two lollies. A friend of mine does something I’d never heard of until she explained it. In the States they call her the Switch Witch. The kids pick a handful of lollies 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. I’m trying it this year, but in our house she’ll be the Lolly Witch. What makes it work is that the kids choose what goes in the bag. They’ve made the decision themselves, so there’s no argument in the morning. It also gives them something to look forward to on the 1st, which can be a fairly flat day when you’re four and the big night is over. 2. When your child gets scared trick or treating This is the other one. They’ve been counting down for weeks, they’re in the costume, they’re thrilled. Then somebody’s front yard has a bleeding clown in it, and the whole evening changes shape. What’s helped our kids is talking about it in the days before Halloween, well before the night itself. Walk the street in daylight and look at the decorations while it’s bright and nothing is moving. Let them try a mask on 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. Agree beforehand on what happens if they’ve had enough. Knowing there’s a way out is usually what 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 the story, most of the fear goes out of it. What’s worked for us: a personalised Halloween book 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 can be about everything they could be, which is super cute. If they’ve done it a few times, it becomes a record of the costume years, and my kids find that hilarious. If you’re bringing in something new like the Lolly Witch, the book is how they meet her. By the time she visits on the night, they already know her. 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 Halloween differently and yours won’t look like mine. Upload a photo so the character looks like your child, and dress them in whichever costume they’ve landed on this week. Then edit the illustrations until they’re right, which is where you 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 a friendly ghost and a pile of lollies, do that. You’re the one holding the dial. Read it together 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. Need some inspiration? Here’s the Halloween book we made for Emilia . Make your child’s Halloween book Want to get really creative? Here are some tips for writing your own picture book story .
