You only have visit Tesco or Asda from the end of September to see whole aisles dedicated to the Halloween industry. Nobody grabs a marketing opportunity and turns it into a holiday better than Disney. And at Disneyland Paris the Halloween season has just kicked off and will be going on all month.

Nothing half-hearted here - you have to hand it to Disney they don't do half measures. In the Paris park Frontierland has been temporarily renamed Halloweenland and is suffering from an outbreak of giant pumpkins which must look like a plague of boils from the air. Surprisingly most of them are actually real pumpkins - odd how you expect everything to be manufactured here.

There are loads of photo-opportunities with pumpkin men, huge cauldrons, witches' shops and lavish splatters of pumpkin-orange paint.

I visited with my children Finlay, 6, two-year old Maud (who is a match for any witch) and their 20-something cousin Rachel. They were aching to get scary hair which is done free in Halloweenland and is a massive hit. Finlay - who is a cool kid with shoulder length locks - got the best Mohican this side of the Kings Road sticking eight inches vertically out of his head sprayed many groovy colours. Maud's was a back-combed witches' scream coloured red and white. All around the park they got astonished and admiring looks which they pretended not to notice. Some camera-crazy tourists even took their pictures.

Completing the picture with face painting was a bit more difficult as it was done in a different place - a pumpkin the size of a house plonked in the middle of Central Plaza in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

The face painters were excellent although they only had three styles - a pumpkin (of course) a pink witch and a white witch. But the queues were more than an hour and half long which for a bit of paint which washes off at the first tantrum is crazy stuff. Perhaps they didn't anticipate how popular that would be but it would have been better to have armies of face painters sitting all around the park.

Anyway, armed with two freaky children we set off to explore the spooky delights. We were blessed with a brilliantly sunny day perfect for watching the Halloween Cavalcade - a mini parade leaving four times a day. The main parade - at 4pm - is, as usual, totally over the top and very professionally themed with pink witches, pumpkin men and all the Disney villains in attendance. It draws a huge crowd and leaves the Halloween song ringing in your brain for the rest of the day.

Back in Halloweenland there are small musical shows which are less crowded and lots of fun guaranteed to cheer up a miserable autumn. Children can have a bash at a piñata filled with treats and meet the witches.
In Disneyland there are always lots of children dressed up - mini Snow Whites squeezed into dresses over their jeans and fleeces with tiaras over their hoods and Halloween is another great chance for dressing up. Disney has always been clever with merchandise and the shops are full of pirate gear - with a surprisingly large array of non-PC weapons - spooky fancy dress, skeletons, spider webs, you name it and you can buy it, the costs soon add up.

FINLAY'S VERDICT

The absolutely top thing by miles had nothing to do with Halloween. In the neighbouring Disney Studios park he finally found a white knuckle ride he was tall enough to go on - the Rock n Roller Coaster and he loved it. I have to agree it's the best ride in both parks set to full blast Aerosmith music and mainly in the dark. He was delighted.

Finlay also liked the parades in both parks. The Studios has avoided the Halloween theme and is still the quieter park which makes it more palatable for small children. However a tower block building site in the middle heralds the forthcoming Tower of Terror ride (opening date as yet unknown) which will certainly bring in the crowds.

Being a six-year old testosterone-charged boy, also loved the Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast ride which opened in April mainly because he got to wield a laser gun from his swirling carriage. It's a good ride and fills a gap between toddler stuff and the adult rides.

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