How to Have a Horrible Halloween.

<p>How to Have a Horrible Halloween! </p><p>Britain&#39;s Craziest Costumes, Creepy Traditions and Halloween Madness 2026</p><p>Halloween 2026 is upon us, and Britain has apparently decided that the best way to celebrate is to dress like a complete lunatic, frighten the neighbours and spend over a billion pounds doing it. Marvellous. But what are the most popular Halloween costumes this year? Why do we enjoy being frightened? And when did a harmless pumpkin become a full-scale financial commitment?</p><p>Welcome to Mark and Pete, where we&#39;re asking one very important question: How do you have a properly horrible Halloween?</p><p>Not just mildly unpleasant. Not the sort of Halloween where somebody puts a bedsheet over their head and calls themselves a ghost. No. We&#39;re talking spectacularly horrible. Frightening decorations, ridiculous fancy dress, outrageous quantities of sweets and perhaps a neighbour dressed as something that really ought to require planning permission.</p><p>And the costumes! Oh, the costumes.</p><p>Apparently, among Britain&#39;s preferred Halloween outfits for 2026 are Dolly Parton, Count Binface, Claudia Winkleman and characters from <em>Wicked</em> and <em>Stranger Things</em>. Dolly Parton! Quite why dressing as a country music legend should terrify anybody is beyond us. Unless she starts singing outside your bedroom window at three in the morning. That might do it.</p><p>Meanwhile, the traditional Halloween witch, vampire and skeleton are apparently becoming terribly unfashionable. One survey suggests that 87% of people find the usual costumes rather unimaginative. Poor old Dracula. Centuries building a reputation as the prince of darkness, only to be upstaged by a television presenter.</p><p>And what about the money?</p><p>British Halloween spending could reach an extraordinary £1.16 billion this year. That&#39;s pumpkins, Halloween decorations, costumes, sweets, parties and all the other essential equipment required to make your home resemble a reasonably unsuccessful haunted house.</p><p>Mark and Pete explore the extraordinary commercial growth of Halloween in Britain. When did we start celebrating it quite so enthusiastically? Has American Halloween culture completely taken over? Is Bonfire Night losing out to trick-or-treating? And why are otherwise perfectly sensible adults prepared to spend good money looking absolutely ridiculous?</p><p>We&#39;ll also offer our thoroughly questionable guide to the perfect horrible H