Monster Cash: Scariest night of the year needn't be a financial fright

THINGS that go bump in the night, squeals and scary vampire masks, carved pumpkins with toothy grins and the kids dressed up like something from Nightmare on Elm Street meets Twilight meets Boris Karloff meets Witches of Eastwick.

Hallowe'en - well of course. Terrifying? Absolutely.

For if Hallowe'en is intended to give us the creeps, it's certainly succeeding - by becoming one of the scariest nights of the year for financially pressed mums and dads.

Actually "night" might not be wholly accurate. For as Hallowe'en fever adopts American-style mania, what used to be a single evening of dooking for apples and trying to catch a treacle scone dangling on a piece of string has now morphed into a week-long saga of creepy-themed parties and expense.

For parties mean various scary outfits - a child can never have too many skeleton or witch outfits, it seems - face paint and assorted fearsome accessories from fake blood to skull-shaped mugs, piles of sweets oozing red jelly "blood" and cakes made with green icing, the list goes on and on.

Ten years ago, Britons spent a "mere" 12 million on the spooky festival, then still just the warm-up act to the main event of autumn - Guy Fawkes Night.

Now we'll part with around 300m, which means Hallow-e'en is this year snapping at the heels of Christmas and Easter as our most lavish celebration.

All this for a festival which the Vatican last year condemned as being based on a sinister and dangerous "undercurrent of occultism".

Not that Andrea Purves of Gorgie Road shop Georgina Holdsworth, would agree. She's moved aside the normal stock of candles, crystals and jewellery to make way for creepy spiders and witches' hats, insisting Hallowe'en is harmless fun.

"I love it," she says. "We all need something to brighten things up. It's getting cold and dark outside, the country is in a mess.

"I suppose people are spending more now because Hallowe'en things are more available."

Indeed, just a few years ago mums could get away with sending their children off guising dressed as nothing more than a "wifey", wearing an old coat, high heels, headscarf and a smear of lipstick for the boys, and dad's old jacket for the girls.

Today, the party can't get started without a fancy Hallowe'en swag bag, a shop-bought outfit and, quite possibly, a life-size Frankenstein figure at the front door.

According to research from TNS Omnibus, 35 per cent of UK adults are planning to buy sweets for children playing "trick or treat" this Hallowe'en.

The festival is, of course, also boom time for the nation's pumpkin suppliers. with 29 per cent of people revealing they were intending to buy one.

Around 25 per cent were planning to dress up, with men prepared to spend 43 on their outfit. And that's all before the kids even start to put in their requests.

Broxburn mum-of-one Paula Collins, 37, loves Hallowe'en so much her home is decorated a week early. Yet she insists it doesn't need to be an expensive time.

"I'm originally from Dublin and Hallowe'en has always been huge there," she says. "There was always great excitement when mum made a brack - a currant cake which contained a ring. The one who got the slice with the ring would be the next one to get married. Things like that didn't cost much money."

She's prepared for the spookiest night of the year with decorations she's collected down the years. "I bought some pumpkin lights a few years ago for a tenner and they come out every year. When I bought my daughter her witch's outfit, I made sure it was a few sizes too big so she'd get plenty of use out of it. I dress it up differently each year using whatever I have - tights, jewellery and so on. I don't bother buying face paints, ordinary make up is fine.

"It's worth the effort," she adds. "Because it's a magical time of the year."