Julie Jay: I'm already quizzing my son about next year’s Halloween outfit

This year, I made up for my son’s insistence on reusing last year’s Halloween costume by getting creative with my own outfit, and by creative, I mean donning a bin bag and a Post-it note

"My kids were still a little young this year to fully comprehend the boundary-bending potential of the Celtic New Year. As a result, when the last Friday night came, they pooh-poohed my new costumes and decided to go with the same outfits they had worn last year, devastating their mom, who loves a bit of creativity in the costume department"

HALLOWEEN is done and dusted, and I’m a little sad it’s over. My history with Halloween, like most Irish ’80s babies, has been chequered. I come from a generation where mothers would wrap their children in toilet tissue and convince their trusting junior infant they were Tutankhamun.

Back then, the festivities were a celebration of all the ways you could recycle a black refuse bag, with little understanding of how changing one’s race for the evening was in any way problematic.