Louise Dudley has never been one for celebrating Halloween, but that's changed since moving in with her five-year-old granddaughter Hope and daughter Natalie, who are both "really into" the festivity.
Ms Dudley has helped decorate the Fern Bay house and tonight she will be distributing lollies.
"Last year about 50 or 60 kids turned up, they started at 4pm and kept going right through to dark," she said.
Ms Dudley "absolutely did not" mark Halloween as a child but said she was impressed by the "amazing" costumes of the children in her neighbourhood of Fern Bay, where she has been living for two years.
"I always thought it was more of an American thing but it's really picked up, you can see that in what's available at the shops. There's so much unhappiness going on in the world that, from what I've seen, I think it's great."
Several organisations will host parties tonight including All Saints Anglican Church in Belmont and Islington Public School P&C at the Croatian Club in Wickham.
IN THE NEWS
- McDonald's lodges development application with Lake Macquarie council for a restaurant in Cameron Park
- Former Newcastle Anglican dean Graeme Lawrence lodges appeal against conviction, jail term
- Lake Macquarie council to write to Corrective Services opposing early release of convicted pedophile Milton Orkopoulos
- M1 crash at Halloran: Traffic chaos after a four-vehicle crash south of Lake Macquarie
- Double doesn't mean trouble for St Francis Xavier's College's seven sets of twins
- Hospitals rated by Hunter patients in the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) survey
