Happy Halloween from Tres Cantos!

When I lived in Spain before, Halloween was not on anyone’s radar, and outside of the American Schools, it basically didn’t exist. Things have changed in the last 20 years, however, and Halloween is now…well, it’s kind of a thing. Not like in the US, no, but… on the spectrum.

For starters, I was able to get a cute pumpkin at the grocery store.

That was just not possible before. The orange-colored pumpkin-shaped pumpkins were out in the fields, but grown only as animal fodder, and never used for anything like human food or decorations. But they were the same vegetable—I bought one each year from a friendly farmer and made jack-o-lanterns and then pies.

Secondly, there were never any Halloween decorations, let alone costumes, available. Now you can even find part of an aisle at the store dedicated to costumes and decorations. True, it’s not a very big part and it’s dwarfed by the Christmas decorations (yes, here too they start with those too early as well!)

You can also see bars and restaurants decorated for Halloween. These two were in Madrid, but there were several in Tres Cantos as well.

And, oddly, the other type of store that had a lot of Halloween decorations were beauty salons. This is the storefront of one of them here in Tres Cantos.

And my hairdresser, in a different salon, gave me an excellent haircut and then agreed to take off her surgical mask (black of course) and let me get a picture of her. (Surgical masks are still worn indoors 100% of the time in all stores, and only removed in restaurants while consuming food.)

My all-time favorite Halloween decorations, however, were at the bakery. Mid-October there were chocolate pumpkins, witches, ghosts, and glazed-doughnut eyeballs that were pretty freaky! I could only get a photo through the plastic wrap—I didn’t actually purchase one—but they were amazing to behold.

The funny thing is, though, the Halloween furvor died down earlier this week, as the real holiday, All Saints Day, which is November 1st, approached. And thus the bakery transitioned to selling different body parts. Today when I went to buy bread, there were a host of colorful “huesitos de santos” (little bones of saints) decorating the shelves. They are made of marzipan and are one of my favorite treats!

Anyway, wherever you are celebrating, I hope yours is a spooky good time tonight!