Halloween

Halloween is coming – with an enthusiasm that almost trumps Christmas, if the number of emails I’ve received from PRs with the word in their title is anything to go by. If you are a journalist with an ardent dislike of Halloween, it’s going to be a very long week, and has probably been a very long month (the first Halloween-themed pitch I received came on 11 June but who’s counting).

Thankfully, I love Halloween, and am here for all the pitches, whether they’re sublime (“Greene King Pubs Give Away Free Drinks to Anyone Dressed Up As Their Signage”), ridiculous (“Top 3 Sex Positions To Get Freaky With This Halloween: industry and expert comment available”) or just plain prosaic (half-term Halloween breaks, Halloween food and drink, Halloween-themed TV). I can’t speak for anyone else, but this is one of the few times of year when I’m willing to embrace sillier, lighthearted content that in other months I would reject.

And never more so than this year, when the ghost of October 31 2020 still looms large in the memory. Remember last Halloween? Sorry, but the three-hour wait (on a Saturday!) for Boris Johnson to announce new Covid restrictions lent the trick-or-treat experience a whole new level of horror that no one ever wants to repeat. Which is all the more reason for Halloween 2021 to be fun and frivolous.