It's beginning to look a lot like...

No, while the title may suggest Christmas, I am talking about Halloween. I am not sure which author I remember from my teenage years, but I can recall reading a novel (for some reason the author Ray Bradbury comes to mind) and there was this great description of an autumn day filled with a sense of foreboding. It was a perfect atmosphere for what we want Halloween to be: a sense of foreboding without any real evil or danger - titillating, but safe.

A friend of mine once had this little Schnauzer, and the dog loved you to chase him and growl at him. But he had a limit. You could tell when his bark went from loving your role as predator to being terrified of it. As his owner would say, his bark would almost be expressing "yes, please scare me - but only a little bit."

Maybe that is why many people are drawn to tacky decorations while others are obsessed with creating fake gory scenes in their home. Or making meals for Halloween parties and gatherings that resemble body parts or remind us of death. When you stand back and take a look at this stuff out of the context of Halloween, it is simply disturbing.

But. alas, for me Halloween has been summed up in one wonderful indulgence. I have the opportunity to portray a character from one of the many great television series and movies from Star Trek. This year it is a Klingon. Last year I was kind of a Geordie La Forge representation. In fact, a teenager even got my costume, dissing his friend for saying I was Scotty. But between the two of them, they knew their engineers.

I swore this year I would settle for one of my existing costumes and not spend any more money on headpieces, props and outfits. If I had any kind of talent in crafts or sewing, I suppose I could make my own. But my stronger talent appears to be typing in my credit card number and expiry date on costume websites.

But my promise to myself lasted for a brief period, and once again I was waiting excitedly for costumes to arrive. Initially, I told myself I would get the Klingon costume and headpiece, but then there were the new snazzy Star Trek Federation shirts from the new movie. And who could pass up the Nero outfit? And, oh look, Spock ears and a cool retro wig. There goes the Christmas budget.

But it all seemed to be worth it, as I get, once again, to play for a day or two as a Star Trek character. As I strutted around my workplace as a Klingon, one staff member said, "I am not sure who is more of the nerd, you for wearing it, or me for knowing what you are supposed to be."

Halloween is all about the make believe. It is really normal everyday folk touching some of the fiction they see from Hollywood. Most of the costumes come from Hollywood themes. Sure, many of the costumes have historical connections, but even most of these have been made popular through film production. Did most people know who Leonidas and his 300 Spartan soldiers were before the graphic novel adaptation which loosely retold their story? But you would be hard pressed not to find a Spartan costume on any online or walk-in costume store.

So Halloween offers us an opportunity to play in the make believe. Some like to do it with fake blood and gore while others like to pretend they are someone (or something) they are not.

Heck, if you cannot don a Ferengi or Klingon headpiece and talk about the Rules of Acquisition or yell kapla, you might as well stay home and watch reruns of Friday the 13th.

Happy Halloween!