How are you going to celebrate Halloween? Is your Halloween going to be funny … or spooky?

I have a friend who goes trick or treating with her kids. She makes candy apples for afterwards and has a whole load of fun. For me, it's a horror-fest - I'll be going to a scary movie and probably won't be able to sleep without a night light afterwards!

Even if you're not trick-or-treating yourself you will likely have a few spooky callers, so it's time to invest in small treats. Of course M&Ms or Hershey bars go down just fine, but if you want to stick with the ghostly theme, it's worth investing in some gummy snakes and bats too.

Carving pumpkin lanterns is a great tradition that gets passed on to a new generation every Halloween. Tea lights and candles are real necessities for the season - switch off the electric light and get ready to scream every time the flame flickers! Just make sure if you have young kids (or a lot of alcohol around) that you keep live flames out of harm's way.

 As well as pumpkins, apples are a standard for Halloween. Making candy apples isn't difficult, but add a special scary touch by putting some black or red food dye in the mix. Or you can try apple bobbing - float apples on water in a pail or basin, and everyone gets to try to pick them up using only their teeth. It's more difficult than you'd think!

Decorate the house as much as you like. Get some black paper and cut out chains of bats to hang from the cornice, put witches' hats around the place, or skulls and bones, or make a coffin cake with black icing and a marzipan skeleton (it may be time-consuming but it's very impressive). Get some goo and slime for the kids - they love it, particularly the neon colored glow-in-the-dark slime.

Cobwebs are great, too. Make a big one in your porch with a clothes line and get a huge furry spider to hang right in the middle, or use paper-cuts or transfers to decorate the windows. If you have a bit of artistic flair you can draw them on the window with a white 'china pencil' (the lead is a special type that will stick to glass) or with a chalkboard marker. You can also get big sheets of artificial web - but be careful using it outside, as small birds can get caught in it.

Masks and costumes are definitely the order of the day and you'll want some good makeup to go with them, whether you want to be Edward Scissorhands, Dracula (lots of white foundation, plus fangs and cloak), or a werewolf. Of course you could simply pop a sheet over your head and make 'woo woo' noises, but you only get one day (or rather night) a year to strut your spooky stuff, so why not make the most of it?

Every shop in town will have Halloween stuff available right now, but before you blow your stash, check out Vipon for money-saving offers.

And remember - some of the best fun is when the unexpected happens. My best Halloween moment ever was when a little girl came trick or treating, took one look at me as I opened the door, and ran away screaming.

I'd forgotten that I'd been making blackberry jam, and my hands were dripping with purple goo!