The first time Lucille went trick-or-treating, she was still in nappies. Her mother, Harriet O’Donnell, dressed up as a character from The Handmaid’s Tale , and walked her around their Melbourne suburb to see what treats they could score. “We genuinely freaked people out, especially when crossing main roads with her in a pram,” O’Donnell says.
“She was my baby wearing a little bonnet, just like one in the series.” Harriet O’Donnell and daughter Lucille, 7, have been trick-or-treating together since Lucille was a baby. This year, they’re both going as Stephen King’s Pennywise.
Credit: Penny Stephens Since then, mother and daughter, now aged 7, have gone trick-or-treating together every year. And for the past few years, they have worn matching costumes, from Chucky’s Bride to Pennywise. Though some still dismiss Halloween as too commercial, its popularity in Australia continues to grow as more families, like the O’Donnells, embrace it.
Here is a guide to celebrating it in the best – and safest – way possible. How popular is Halloween in Australia? Loading O’Donnell says Halloween is impossible to avoid in Melbourne’s inner west, especially in her suburb of Yarraville. “People come here from other suburbs because the whole village gets involved.
There’s a best-dressed competition, they close the main street to traffic, and all the shops decorate and give out treats,” she says. Hannah Phillips, mother of eight-year-old Luca and five-year-old .
