I was all for Halloween mania in the UK. Then I heard about ‘boo baskets’ | Amelia Tait

These hampers full of useless clutter are destined for landfill - they have nothing to do with the true spirit of the season

How can you tell if a husband loves his wife? In the month of October in the year of 2023, the answer seems to be: he got her a boo basket". Popularised via a TikTok hashtag with almost 400m views, a boo basket is a collection of Halloween treats stored inside an oversized hamper. There are sweets and chocolate in there, naturally, but there are also mugs, candles, teddy bears and ornaments themed around the spooky season. This is what to get your wife in a boo basket, and yes, you do want to get her a boo basket," says a creator in a video with 2m views. Girls, send this to your husband." Another video with almost 16m views is captioned: If your boyfriend hasn't made you a boo basket yet he doesn't love you."

Whatever the Halloween Scrooges (boo-ges?) might say, Halloween didn't originate as a cynical, commercialised American import. Europeans have been celebrating it since the middle ages and trick or treating is itself medieval (especially if your neighbour gives you a box of raisins). It's not that we don't have a long tradition of spooky celebrations here in the UK - it's just that we once used to carve faces on turnips, but now have Marks & Spencer selling us 20 glass pumpkins. This year, Halloween spending in the UK is expected to surpass 1bn for the first time. Two decades ago, we only spent 12m.