A Boo-tiful Night

Halloween may be famous for its large celebrations across North America, but stick a bunch of expats on an island and they will surpass any celebrations stateside. We celebrated our first Halloween in Asia and it was epic.

Halloween is a highly anticipated festival in our house. L &S start asking me 'how long till Halloween' well before we enter the month of October. Ghosts, vampires, witches, fancy dress and chocolates - who can blame them? I was apprehensive this year as I had no idea whether Halloween was even a thing in HK. Little did I know that expats go all out to keep up traditions from home. It was better than anything I have seen in the US or UK.

Thankfully, L & S were happy to wear their costumes from last year so I did not have to scramble. Unlike years past, L has no interest in being a pretty princess anymore. "Mummy that's not even spooky" she told me with her now familiar pre teen eye roll, when I suggested wearing one of the million princess dresses they own. She even managed to convince S (who still thankfully loves girly dresses) to be her cat again. My suggestion that S could be Elsa or Batgirl (we already have a mask, so no I was not making my own life harder) was met with a "Mummy stop ruining everything, she's MY cat". V was a mouse, not because that's his favourite animal, but because that's the only non girly outfit that fit him from our dress up box. Luckily he's not yet at that age where he must only wear certain things (and I'm hoping as a boy we skip this phase altogether).

As has become tradition, I set up a Halloween scavenger hunt for the girls. L was very excited as her bestie (who conveniently has siblings the same age as S &V) joined us. The kids excitedly ran around the house solving clues to find their 'treasure'.....chocolate.

Discovery Bay has a famous street where all the big Halloween shenanigans take place and it was EPIC. EVERY single house on the road was decorated to the hilt, and not only were kids dressed up, but the adults in full gear as well. It was like one big street party. The London me would have cringed at the crowds, but again here in HK bugs are more of a problem than Covid. The kids (and adults) had an absolute blast. It was like walking through a Universal Studios Halloween special. I'm going to let my photos and videos do the talking, although they don't come close to doing the extravaganza justice.