Although the UK hasn't quite yet embraced Halloween with as much gusto as our friends over the pond, it has grown significantly in popularity over the last decade and is now an occasion that rivals the size of Easter and Christmas.
The start of October sees many of the nation's toy retailers unveil their Halloween-themed shop windows. Their shelves become full of bloodcurdling costumes, ghoul-themed confectionery and spooky party games. This is all done with a bit of light-hearted humour of course - there is no need to take Halloween too seriously after all.
Fancy dress outfits are among the best-selling Halloween items - and these are available in a huge variety of styles. The classic ghost costume remains as popular as ever, but if you want to push the boat out a little further then you should consider some other scary characters like devils, demons, witches or vampires! Don't forget to stock up on makeup too. Fake blood, scars, sores, burns and all kinds of hideous deformities can be created with a bit of makeup and a splash of ingenuity.
We've listed below some of the shops that we think offer particularly good ranges of Halloween goodies (or should we say Halloween nasties?) Watch out for promotions after Halloween too as retailers look to clear stock that they didn't sell in time for the main event.
The dedicated Halloween Store at Amazon offers every Halloween item you could ever want. As well as a terrific cotumes, you can also buy scary sweets, facepaints, creepy music and much more.
Shop for scary, cut-price costumes, Halloween board games and all kinds of spooking goodies at Argos's dedicated Halloween section.
Specialises in educational, learning and creative arts & crafts.
Sells the very best selection of all the latest jigsaw puzzles.
UK supplier of the unique Sorgenfresser soft 'worry eater' dolls.
