888poker ambassador Sofia Lövgren gets ready to celebrate Halloween.

It’s no secret that, for many, Halloween will be celebrated differently this year, with some of the world still in some form of lockdown as countries look to overcome coronavirus.

Whether the thought of no trick-or-treaters brings you a smile or a tear, we can all say that we have at least one fond memory of the ‘spookiest’ day of the year. And after speaking with 888poker ambassadors Kara Scott and Sofia Lövgren, it is abundantly clear that they too look forward to the 31st of October.

For Scott, growing up in Northern Canada meant that by October 31st, it was already way below zero and usually there was a lot of snow to deal with. That didn’t stop any trick or treating, but it did mean having to wear a big parka and snow boots over the costume her mother had crafted for her. Whether Scott wanted to turn into a pumpkin, dragon, or witch, it seemed that her mother could turn a simple garbage bag with other everyday household items into whatever monster or ghoul her daughter desired.

One thing that always fascinated Scott was the Halloween myth of finding razor blades in apples. For example, despite knowing everyone in their 600 person hometown, she, along with her brother and sister, recognized it was a longshot but that still wouldn’t deter Kara and her siblings looking for hours on end.

“I loved Halloween as a kid. Dressing up and being silly has always been something that I enjoy,” Scott said. “I love dress-up parties and festivals where everyone wears wild costumes and there were a few years while I lived in Brighton, UK that I got to do these things with awesome like-minded people. I threw a Star Trek party once, for someone named Kirk who had just become an airline Captain.”

“I made everyone dress up according to the theme and revelled in the whole thing as a huge Trekkie, I even have my own tricorder!”

But having lived in Europe for the last 20 years, the face of 888poker has missed out on indulging in Halloween festivities with her most recent favourite ghoulish memory coming nearly a decade ago.

“When I was in Santa Barbara about nine years ago was the last time I dressed up properly,” she said. “I was Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim and it was the perfect costume. Combat boots instead of high heels, a jacket to stay warm and a cool wig. Top marks for that one.”

And Kara’s fondness of Halloween is now being passed onto her young child now, with collecting costumes already it seems that Scott junior will be carrying on her mom’s fondness of the holiday.

Sofia Lövgren’s early Halloween memories, like her colleague, include getting up to mischief with her family.

“My brothers, sister, parents and I would buy pumpkins which we then made art with. We bought as big and heavy pumpkin as we could to carry home,” Lovgren said. “We emptied the pumpkin filling and then I loved the tradition of carving evil faces onto them and then put them in our garden with candles inside.”

But the Halloween highlight of Swedish born Lövgren’s childhood was always the trick-or-treating, (mainly the treating side of things) and experimenting with Halloween looks, which usually resulted in her favourite ghoulish get-up of a half skeleton face with the other half all glammed up.

And Lövgren’s enthusiasm for Halloween continued into her adult life thanks to her parent’s love of traditions, no matter the holiday.

“I grew up with lots of decorations around me on big holidays as my mom and dad love traditions. I also try to carry on the traditions as a grown-up, especially during Christmas and Easter but also Halloween. Even today we all still love to cut Halloween pumpkins with candles.”

But now more likely to been seen watching her favourite scary movie The Ring, rather than knocking on neighbours’ doors in the hopes of a waterfall of candy being dumped into her jack-o-lantern. In recent years, Lövgren usually finds herself around the poker table this time of year which has made for some more recent fond memories.

“I was in Malta for the Battle of Malta 2015 which took place during Halloween. This event is always a blast and we decided to get Halloween face paintings and I made my favourite; one half evil face and half beauty face.

“I actually hit the table with my face painting which was fun and then in the evening we also went out to party which turned out to be really great.”