Halloween on a smaller scale

I like to mark the seasons. Since I was a child I've celebrated Halloween by making a pumpkin lantern. But that's it, I don't festoon the house with cobwebs, and spend hours crafting hardboiled eggs into eyeballs.

This year, I've written features on easy ideas for Halloween decorations and how to carve a Halloween pumpkin lantern (with alternatives that don't require the use of a sharp knife). Among the alternatives to pumpkins are turnips (traditional but hard work to cut), and tangerines (not hollowed out, just decorated).

Because I can be trusted with a sharp knife, I have a large and small pumpkin, which I'll be carving with faces in the usual way.

But this year I've got a new idea: the tiniest-ever Halloween lantern.

It's made from a physalis, or Cape gooseberry (beloved of so many Come Dine with Me contestants as a dessert decoration), decorated with a black felt-tip face.

It would be great for places where you can't leave a candle burning, like the office. You could also decorate several physalis on a stem to put it in a vase.