Halloween: Ghost Stories to "Get in the Spirit"

(Cupcakes from Whole Foods)

If you've read this blog around this time of year in years past, you'll know that I really, really don't like Halloween. At ALL.

This year I'm feeling a little less bah-humbug about it, though. Maybe it's all the Ghost Whisperer reruns I've been watching. Or maybe trying to focus on the creative aspects of Halloween (rather than the morbid and gory) is making it more positive for me.

Take food. All you have to do is browse through Halloween entries on Foodgawker.com to appreciate how creative people can be with culinary celebrations of Halloween. Inspired, I turned a quest to develop a moist, dense amaretto-laced cake into this Ghost Cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting. It was yummy.

Then there's music. NPR has this Halloween music mix and a list of "Tunes That Terrify" to get people in the mood, and a Halloween music puzzle that, I am horrified to admit, totally stumped me.

I don't like scary movies at all, but I've always enjoyed a good ghost story. In honor of New England author Mary Wilkins Freeman, who was born on Halloween in 1852, here's a list of spooky stories to enjoy on Halloween night or some dark, stormy night when you're curled up under a blanket and there's a fire crackling in the fireplace. Most of these are available online.

The Man Who Found Out by Algernon Blackwood

Mrs. Zant and the Ghost by Wilkie Collins

The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens

The Captain of the Polestar by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Lost Ghost by Mary Wilkins Freeman

Of a Promise Broken by Lafcadio Hearn

Pigeons from Hell by Robert E. Howard

The Adventures of the German Student by Washington Irving

The Lovely House and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs

The Whisperer in Darkness by H.P. Lovecraft

The Apparition and The Wolf by Guy de Maupassant

Four Ghost Stories and The Shadow in Moonlight by Mary Molesworth

By E. Nesbit: Man-size in Marble, John Charrington's Wedding, From the Dead, and The Power of Darkness

The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

The Body-Snatcher by Robert Louise Stevenson

A Ghost Story by Mark Twain

By Edith Wharton: Afterward, The Eyes, Kerfol, The Lady Maid's Bell, and Pomegranate Seed

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

Halloween gives us a chance not only to read about fascinating characters and other worlds but also to enter into some of those fictional worlds by becoming characters ourselves. That's one aspect of Halloween I like - the costumes. I enjoy seeing what my friends and family choose each year, and I have to admit I have a little escapist fun dressing up. How do people go about picking their costumes? Favorite books, shows? This year my daughter is pulling off a wonderful "Abby Sciuto" from the show NCIS. I saw some folks show up to a costume party as "rescued Chilean miners." I was boring and went to this costume party in an Indiana Jones hat, but I still had fun.

Finally, there's one more spirit-building treat I revisit each year: this addicting online pumpkin carving activity. Halloween. Love it, or hate it? Hope you can enjoy it this year, however you usually feel about it. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!