'Pumpkin trail' is Ballymore's alternative Hallowe'en

The biggest scare of this Hallowe’en is Covid-19 – and thus children are this year being denied their chance of loading up with bag-fulls of sweets on their traditional trick or treat routes.

But just to make sure there’s still some mystique to the occasion, residents of Ballymore have come up with a new spin on things – "the Ballymore Pumpkin Trail".

The idea is that the children decorate the front windows of their houses in the spookiest way possible, explains Liz McDermott, of the Ballymore Playground Group, which is behind the idea.

They then submit those pictures to the Ballymore Playground Group’s Facebook page – and every child who enters will win a special ‘Hallowe’en Pack’.

Without this, the complete lack of festivities would have marked a break in tradition for Ballymore: "There would normally be a Hallowe’en disco in the community centre and rather than taking Hallowe’en away from them completely, this is what we are doing," says Liz.

She explains that the organisers were mindful of the need to have everything safe, and as the packs are delivered to the children on Hallowe’en itself, social distancing measures will be used at the drop-off.

It’s not the first time the committee has come up with a lockdown workaround: "At Easter time, when the first lockdown was in place and the playground was closed, we ran a ‘Decorate Your House’ competition, and we got a couple of sponsors and they donated an Easter egg for every child," says Liz.

"Now, with Halloween coming and restrictions back in, trick-or-treating is gone out the window, so we looked at how we could safely make Hallowe’en exciting for the kids and we came up with the Ballymore Pumpkin Trail.

"Each house that wants to participate can decorate and if families are out for a walk, they can seek those houses out and there is a bit of excitement around it, and it’s safe as well."

Participation is open to anyone in Ballymore or the surrounding areas.

"The photographs can be either posted directly by the family on the Facebook page or they can send them by message to the page and we can put it for them.

"The families decide themselves whether they want the children themselves in the photos for online or just the decorations," says Liz.

Local councillor Vinny McCormack offered to sponsor the Hallowe’en Packs, which has added to the excitement and there is quite a buzz about the idea says Liz, adding that there were a good few families out over the weekend pumpkin-spotting.