Halloween isn’t Kate’s favourite time of the year

I am not a fan of Halloween. There, I’ve said it and I’m not taking it back.

Don’t get me wrong – I used to enjoy it when the kids were small when we lived in a quietish neighbourhood and all the children in the street would dress up and go round each other’s houses, telling jokes and dooking for apples.

I’d even get in on the action, helping with the face paint and donning a witches hat to greet the little ones at the door.

Nowadays however I live in quite a big estate which means the doorbell starts ringing just after tea time and goes on until way past 9pm.

Now before anyone calls me a miserable killjoy I would like to say I do always answer the door with a smile and hand out sweets and I love seeing the little ones in their spooky costumes (the taller-than-me teens wearing Scream masks not so much) but I had so many guisers last year I actually ran out of my bucket-load of goodies just after 8pm.

So I decided there was nothing for it but to put the lights off and retreat to my back room to read a book until it was all over.

The doorbell continued to ring of course and I honestly did feel terrible ignoring it but I figured not answering the door was a better option than turning children away. Although whatever happened to the unwritten rule of knowing if the lights are off you don’t knock?

As the evening wore on the ringing began to die down but then I heard a loud thud. Deciding to investigate I headed out the front to find my house had been egged!

Anyone who has ever been faced with removing egg stains from a window will know it’s not a fun task so forgive me if this year I’m not that excited about Halloween or the possibilty of it happening again this year.

I don’t want to be a complete misery guts though so I’ll probably head round to Emma’s. Her two love everything about Halloween and get so excited about dressing up and comparing their trick-or-treat sweetie stashes.

I’ll pass on the pumpkin carving this year though. So much mess and waste! Yes I know I’m starting to sound miserable again so I’ll stop there but surely I can’t be the only Halloween hater out there!