The Editor-in-Chief of Manhattan magazine on a family-friendly All Hallows’ Eve in Southampton.
- We trick or treat in…
Southampton where all the stores offer treats to the costumed critters on the Saturday before Halloween.
- Our family traditions include…
Going to the pumpkin patch on weekends and carving as many pumpkins as we can.
- We always make…
Sugar cookies shaped as pumpkins, witches and ghouls, and sprinkle them with orange- and black-colored sugar sprinkles.
- My three little monsters will be costumed as…
Bella (age 9) will be Thing 1 from Cat in the Hat, Mario (6), a zombie and Carolina (2), a lady bug.
- My kids always look forward to…
Going to Tate’s Bake Shop for all the assorted Halloween petit-fours. After trick-or-treating, they also love going to a Halloween party at the Reeds house. The Reeds turn their barn into a haunted house and the children bob for apples. The parents come in kooky costumes, too.
- Our favorite holiday books…
The Green Witch is Mario’s favorite. Bella likes The Dollhouse Murders. I had Bella interview the actor Bob Balaban after she read his new children’s novel, The Creature From the Seventh Grade: Boy or Beast — another great Halloween read. It was an awesome and insightful interview that ran in my September issue of Manhattan, where I am editor.
- And crafts…
The kids like to carve and decorate pumpkins and scoop out the seeds and bake them. We bake apple/raspberry cobbler crisp together after an afternoon of apple picking at Seven Ponds Orchard in Southampton.
- I decorate the house with…
Spider webs made of cotton, strewn everywhere with glittery black widows crawling on them. Skulls everywhere — even the guest soaps are skulls. Corn husks, carved pumpkins lit with candles and mums on all the porches. Dim lighting is essential to set a scary mood! I light a multitude of mini Vie Luxe candles my friend Marjorie Gubelmann designs. My favorite scent is Istanbul.
- I always find the best pumpkins at…
Pumpkintown in Southampton.
- My favorite Halloween memory…
Trick or treating in Southampton with my best friend Fernanda Niven when we were nine years old. We ended up at the Bee Gees house on the beach, which they had transformed into a haunted house. My mom was waiting in the car outside for a good half hour.
- My guilty trick-or-treat pleasure is…
Candy, candy and more candy — particularly the white tops of candy corn. My kids think Halloween was created to allow for an all-you-can-eat candy day once a year.