Halloween thrills in Abu Dhabi: Kids craft scary costumes and spooky surprises

Abu Dhabi: Tomorrow night is Halloween, and a compound in Abu Dhabi's Khalidiyah is buzzing.

Decorations are going up, scars are being painted on cheeks, and candy is being counted. In the middle of it all is a small group of friends who have made the night tomorrow something special.

They are between eight and eleven years old, with roots in Mexico, Denmark and India, and they all agree on one thing:

Halloween should be at least a little bit scary.

The mad scientist

Eleven-year-old Klara Sønderby moved to Abu Dhabi from Denmark three and a half years ago. The start was not easy.

“When I just moved here, it was a bit hard because I did not have any friends,” she said.

Then her mom put out a message to the whole compound, asking if anyone wanted to meet her daughter. That is how Klara found her friends. “Now I have a lot of friends, and I am used to it.”

These days, the weekends are full. Sometimes it is arts and crafts, sometimes they just wander between each other’s houses. And today, in Klara’s living room, they were getting ready for Halloween.

Her costume was not planned. Klara was going to go as “someone crazy,” with a red wig, blood and scars everywhere. Then a friend took one look at her and said she looked like a mad scientist. So that is what she is now.

The pieces came from the box of Halloween clothes she keeps at home, where she found a black cape and her mom’s glittery red wig. For ideas, she had spent days searching for Halloween looks on TV.

But the real star of the costume is the scars, and this is the first year Klara has made them herself. She is happy to share the recipe.

“I mixed Vaseline, concealer and cornstarch,” she said. She spread the mix on her face and shaped it, then carved it with a spoon. Fake blood and a few details came last, plus a bit of lipstick.

“It is actually the coolest costume I have had,” she said.

That is quite a statement, because Klara has a lot to compare it to. Two years ago, she was a witch with spiders in her hair. Before that, she went as a murderer. Last year she was not in the UAE for Halloween at all, which makes this year feel even bigger.

Her plan for tomorrow is to go trick or treating around the compound with her friends. She has strong opinions about candy, naturally. She expects to get a lot of gummies, but what she is really hoping for is Nerds, specifically the packs with two different flavors, one on each side. Caramels are her other wish, because they take a long time to eat.

Trick or treating here has been a good experience so far. One year she went along with a little girl and her parents, because the girl really wanted Klara to come. And she is firmly on the scary side of Halloween.

“I like being scary during Halloween, and I like going to scary houses,” she said. She is not sure where the scary houses are yet, but she intends to find them.

Pumpkins from 3D printer

There are pumpkins everywhere in front of their house, but none of them have been carved. They have been printed.

Klara's brother Vilhelm Sønderby is 9 years-old and has a 3D printer, and it has been running for days.

"It takes about 16 hours for the big one and, I think, about 10 hours for the small ones," he said. "It is so cool to see"

Tomorrow he will be a skeleton.

The witch who made her own skirt

Eight-year-old Frida Sofia has family roots in Mexico, Germany and Russia, and she describes life in Abu Dhabi in three words: “good, exciting, and unknown.”

Unknown, because every day brings something new, from lessons at school to activities with friends.

This year Frida is a witch. She did not know what to be, then decided she just felt like a witch.

She and her mom found the hat, and she made the skirt herself by tying string to a belt, after her mom showed her how. On her cheek, she has a scar and a spider web, with help from a friend.

Mom behind the curtain

Frida is most excited about her own house tomorrow night.

Last year it was a bit too scary for the little ones. Two black curtains were hung up, and behind them stood Frida’s mom, dressed as a skeleton. She was playing La Llorona, a Mexican legend about a woman who was about to be married, but whose fiancé went on a boat trip and never came home. She cried by the lake in her wedding dress until she died of grief, and they say you can still see her there.

“It is a really scary and sad story,” Frida said.

There was just one problem. Hardly anyone dared to go behind the curtain. Maybe once or twice.

This year, the plan is even worse. An empty board game box will hide a grown-up, with a bowl of candy in front. When the kids reach in for candy, a hand grabs theirs.

“Imagine you just come to get your candy, and someone grabs you, and you scream,” Frida said.

Will it be too much? “Well, it’s Halloween.”

The vampire from the movie

Eleven-year-old Radhika Suresh was born in the UAE and has never lived anywhere else. She loves Yas Island, especially Yas Waterworld and Warner Bros. World, where the characters walk around in costume.

This year she is a vampire, inspired by the Malayalam film Loka, about a woman who turns out to be a vampire. The film was both scary and funny, and it had her favorite actors in it.

Her best costume ever, though, was Pennywise last year. She went out with her sister’s friends, who did her makeup with lots of shadows. “We were all doing the Pennywise theme, but I was scarier,” she said.

Radhika always goes for the scariest houses. Last year, one had mist pouring out the front door and a demon coming out of the house. This year, she hopes for a real jump scare. At home, she and her siblings will bake a Halloween cake and make treats, and she has been making paper mâché ghosts and pumpkins with Klara.

Why does she like scary things when she gets scared herself?

“Because they also make me laugh sometimes.”

Candy, Candy, and 500 bags of chips

Ask about candy and everyone gets very precise. Frida has already worked out where the best haul will be for trick or treating, is Klara's house.

And she is right.

Klara's mom has bought a ridiculous amount. The little spot downstairs where the family keeps snacks usually holds one or two bags of chips. According to the kids there are now about 500, plus a lot of gummy bears.

Denmark meets Abu Dhabi

What is Abu Dhabi that Klara’s friends in Denmark do not know about? She thinks for a moment.

“Here, people are very kind, and you have a lot of people to talk to. People always say hi," she said.

If she could invite a Danish friend to Abu Dhabi for Halloween, she would show her a bit of the country, but mostly her home and her friends. And of course, they would go trick or treating together.

The night begins when darkness falls. A few kids, a lot of scars and fake blood, a bowl of candy, and a hand waiting behind a board game box.

If you walk by, you might not reach for the chocolate quite so confidently.