You’ve probably seen them already in the supermarkets. Rows upon rows of orange sweeties, rubber masks, plastic gravestones and the babygrows emblazoned “I’m a wee monster”.
Halloween is coming
For us at Mercat, Halloween is ALWAYS coming. We start preparing for Halloween as soon as we’ve finished the last one. That is, once we’ve had a good night’s sleep and a stiff drink to recover.
Throughout the year, we scour shelves for quirky decorations to adorn our vaults - such as a family of three new skeletons who come out of the closet over Halloween. In June, we decide the tours that we will run and by August the website is loaded and the tours go on sale. And then the fun REALLY begins.
What have we been doing since finalising our programme?
Buying the ingredients for our alcoholic and non-alcoholic Halloween concoctions. Mother Roberts has been brewing her potions for years and now she has perfected them, with the help of some volunteers in the office (hic).
Raiding sweetie shops buying treats for our intrepid Halloween visitors.
And, with most excitement, our guides are planning their Halloween costumes. We thought you'd like to see some of the costumes fashioned by Mercat guides last year – we like to think of ourselves as Halloween chic.
Every year we try to be more flamboyant, more imaginative, but there are limitations.
Hot staffroom discussion last night, the pros and cons of false teeth, fake scabs, partial and full face masks. Ultimately we agreed one infallible truth – ensure your costume doesn’t stop you talking clearly, moving freely and, most importantly, breathing.
Otherwise the horrors of Halloween might just become a bit too real.
If you pop into our Blair Street office to buy a ticket, you might hear the faint hum of a sewing machine in the background, the thud, thud, thud of a determined hammer, the chatter of excited guides, the squeaking of poseable skeletons and the swearing at cobwebs by our team of 'Vaults Dressers'.
But when Halloween arrives, lights, costumes, skeletons…….ACTION!
It’s showtime - and we're just DYING to see you at the Mercat Cross.