A NORTH-EAST church is hitting back at the sinister and spooky side of Halloween by holding a bright and happy party.

Families fed up with the commercialisation and dark side of Halloween have asked parishioners in a village to hold an alternative party.

While children across the globe will be going door-todoor dressed as ghosts, vampires, or any of the many other spooky dwellers from the dark side, youngsters will be attending Cotherstone Methodist Church, in Teesdale, County Durham, dressed up as positive role models such as superheroes, fairies and stars.

The alternative Halloween is the idea of Tracey Cooke, children and family worker for the Methodist Church, who said she does not want to stop the normal Halloween routine – just offer something different.

While accepting the fun side of Halloween, usually based around children going trick or treating, Ms Cooke said there was still plenty that caused her concern.

She said: “We are not party poopers and we are not being judgmental of anyone who wants to get spooky for Halloween.

“But it seems that for a lot of people there is no choice but to get involved.

“We want to hold a party that still has all the fun but without the parts some children find scary and upsetting.

“So, yes, we will have apple bobbing and pumpkin carving, but instead of carving scary faces we will be doing happy ones, and instead of trying to scare each other with costumes we will be dressing as positive images which we can have fun with.

“I do wonder quite where the innocence of Halloween is going.

“For example, a shop I went into the other day was selling a Jack the Ripper costume for children.

“Also, we spend the whole year telling children not to accept sweets from a stranger, but now we are dressing them in scary costumes and sending them to someone’s house to demand treats.”

The party on Friday, is open to all under-11s, with underfives being accompanied by their parents, from 5pm to 7pm.

For more details, call Ms Cooke on 07891-532979.