Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeen’s Halloween queen vows to continue lighting up garden despite rising energy bills

Michelle Porter, who lives in the Sandilands Drive area, was forced to cut back on the amount of time she lit up her impressive display this year.

Michelle Porter standing next to her decorated garden.
Michelle Porter has been decorating her Sandilands Drive for Halloween for the past two decades. Image: Kami Thomson/DC Thomson.

An Aberdeen woman who has decorated her house every Halloween for the past two decades has said soaring energy bills will not stop her.

Michelle Porter, who lives in the Sandilands Drive area of Woodside, once again pulled out all of the stops with her Halloween decorations to make sure children and adults in the community celebrated in style.

Usually her garden is lit up at night for the whole of October, but due to the cost of living she has been forced to illuminate the decorations for only two hours a night.

Life-size Chucky in decorated garden for Halloween.
The life-size Chucky was a major attraction this year. Image: Kami Thomson/DC Thomson.

Tonight, children and adults alike were in awe at the coffins, skeletons, a life-size Chucky doll and scarecrows that decked the garden, with one passer by saying “it looks absolutely amazing”.

The “graveyard” also had some scary ghouls, pumpkins and signs with eerie messages on them.

Mrs Porter, who was proudly standing by her creation tonight said that “they turn up in cars and everything” to see it.

Michelle Porter given children sweets.
Michelle Porter was expected to be visited by about 100 kids this year. Image: Kami Thomson/DC Thomson.

She told The P&J why she started doing it, as well as why she will continue to do so: “My kids went out trick-or-treating when they were little and they got a lot of doors that people wouldn’t answer.

“So I just said, ‘as long as I’m fit to do that, I’ll always put the lights on for the wee ones’.”

About 100 children are expected to come to her flat tonight to get sweets and look at the decorations, some of which have been handmade by Mrs Porter herself.

‘It’s amazing every year’

To cater for all the kids she made up 100 bags of goodies and treats.

Three of those youngsters were out with their dad Philip McDonald, who himself was dressed up as Chucky.

Graves and skulls in the garden for Halloween.
Mrs Porter makes some of her own decorations. Image: Kami Thomson/DC Thomson.

He said: “It’s amazing every year. It’s really good and the kids love it. It’s good to have it for the kids and I like to get involved and enjoy it as well.”

Donna Allan, who was out guising with her daughter and young granddaughter, is originally from nearby Tillydrone.

It was a Halloween wonderland in Sandilands Drive. Image: Kami Thomson/DC Thomson.

She said: “I was just driving round and I was like, ‘there’s nobody celebrating’. But this is amazing and it’s a good tradition for the young ones.”

Local resident Matthew Milne, whose son was out for his first Halloween, described the display as “brilliant” and “absolute class”, adding: “It gets better every year.”

Conversation