Halloween doesn’t need to mean filling the house with plastic decorations. In fact, the more faded, mismatched and slightly peculiar things you can find, the better!

Add armfuls of autumn leaves, branches from the garden, miniature gourds and pumpkins and you instantly have something that feels wonderfully theatrical.

Drape old white sheets or lengths of muslin over furniture, hang homemade paper bats from the ceiling and pop battery-operated candles into lanterns and jam jars.

Cover a big table with newspaper, put out bowls for the seeds and pumpkin flesh, and give everyone a pumpkin to transform. Once darkness falls, line them up together with tealights inside.

And don’t throw away those seeds! Wash them, dry them, toss them with a little oil and seasoning and roast them for a deliciously crunchy Halloween snack.

One of our favourite ways to make trick-or-treating into a proper adventure is to turn it into a treasure hunt.

Rather than simply handing over the sweets, hide clues around the house and garden. Each clue leads to the next, with a little treat waiting along the way and a bigger Halloween treasure at the end. You can make the clues as simple or elaborate as you like:

“Where coats and scarves all disappear, your next spooky clue is very near…”

For braver souls, enlist a few grown-ups or older children. Hide them behind trees, curtains or doors dressed as ghosts, witches or monsters, ready to make a surprise appearance as the treasure hunters pass.

Divide everyone into teams and give each team several rolls of toilet paper. One person becomes the mummy and everyone else has a few minutes to wrap them from head to toe.

Set a timer, put on some suitably spooky music and stand back.

Fill a large tub with water, float plenty of apples on top and let everyone take turns trying to catch one using only their teeth.

For a less soggy version, tie apples or ring doughnuts from string and hang them at different heights. Hands stay behind backs while everyone attempts to take a bite.

If you want one show-stopping decoration, create your own Halloween cabinet of curiosities.

Use an old dresser, bookshelf or sideboard and fill it with unusual treasures: feathers, old keys, dried flowers, vintage books, empty perfume bottles, shells, clocks, magnifying glasses, apothecary jars and anything else that looks as though it might have an intriguing story.

Add handwritten specimen labels: Dragon Tooth, Powdered Moonlight, Witch’s Buttons, Very Rare Vampire Fang, Do Not Open.

Children adore discovering all the little details, and it has that lovely feeling of something collected and created rather than simply bought.

Halloween is the perfect excuse to raid wardrobes, charity shops and dressing-up boxes. Old hats, velvet jackets, lace dresses, feather boas, waistcoats, sheets and scarves can be transformed into all manner of wonderfully eccentric characters. And, of course, there should always be prizes!