First Saturday in October. The supermarket has already put plastic skeletons in the aisle next to the last of the back-to-school lunchboxes, and somebody on your street has a pumpkin out on the step that won't make it to the end of the month.
So we've joined in. The Halloween collection went live on the shop on Thursday 1 October, and this is a quick tour of what's in it.
The Halloween collection is open
Everything is in one place: our Halloween mugs. When I wrote this there were 28 designs in there. That's small enough to scroll through with one brew and big enough that you'll probably find one that looks like someone you know.
I'm not going to describe all 28. Partly because you can see them yourself in a couple of minutes, and partly because a mug joke falls flat when somebody explains it to you. The mug does the punchline. We just point.
What you'll find in there
Halloween mugs are the seasonal designs we have the most fun with. There are ghosts (Little Ghost, Spooky Big & Little Ghosts), pumpkins (My Little Pumpkin), black cats, mini vampires with a choice of hair colour, and one This Is My Zombie Killing Mug for whoever has been getting ready for this all year. Some are cute, some are a bit daft, and none of them are actually scary, which is how we like it. Nobody wants a jump scare before they've had a cuppa.
Have a proper look at the whole collection rather than stopping at the first one that makes you smile.
Who they're for
The honest answer is that Halloween mugs are rarely for the person buying them. They're for:
- That one friend who starts planning their costume in August and has opinions about other people's. If they're more of a year-round friend than a Halloween one, there's always our friend mugs.
- The colleague who decorates their desk for every season going. A Halloween mug next to the paper bats is the obvious move. For the rest of the year, our colleague mugs are right there.
- The host. If you've been invited round, a mug is a better thing to turn up with than another bag of sweets the kids will raid before you've got your coat off.
- You. Nobody's checking. A seasonal mug that comes out of the cupboard once a year is a small joy, and October could use a few.
Want a name on it?
We're mostly known for name mugs, so if you want something a bit witchy with a name on it, our wizard themed name mugs are worth a look. They aren't Halloween mugs as such, but a cauldron's-worth of spellcasting with someone's name on it fits the month nicely and stays on the shelf long after the pumpkin has gone soggy.
And if your Halloween crowd likes a laugh more than a fright, our funny and comical mugs don't do skeletons but often go down just as well.
What to look out for
A few practical bits, from people who've watched a lot of Octobers go by:
- Halloween is on Saturday 31 October this year. A weekend Halloween means parties on the Friday and the Saturday, and people tend to decide what they're doing later than they think.
- Don't leave it until the last week. Delivery details are on the shop's own pages and they're worth checking before you order, not afterwards. We'd rather you weren't stood by the letterbox on the 30th.
- Look beyond the obvious. If none of the Halloween designs is right for the person you have in mind, have a wander through all our categories. There's a lot in there, and the perfect daft mug for someone is sometimes not a seasonal one at all.
That's the news
That's it really. The Halloween mugs are out, they're all on one page, and the month is already going quicker than any of us would like. Put the kettle on, have a scroll, and see who comes to mind. There's always someone.
