By BBC News Online's Megan Lane in New York

Americans love Halloween and all its macabre trappings. But how does a city in mourning celebrate a day which makes light of death and horror?

The Grim Reaper isn't welcome in New York this year. Nor are skeletons, severed limbs or headstones - all of which typically decorate shop windows and suburban gardens in the run-up to 31 October.

Halloween now has a patriotic edge

In a city grappling to come to terms with so much death, New Yorkers are struggling to summon their usual enthusiasm for Halloween.

Office parties have been cancelled and schools have ditched their costume parades - preferring fundraisers for the victims of the terror attacks.

Even the annual Greenwich Village parade - now in its 28th year - has hurriedly retired its giant skeleton puppets in favour of a hastily constructed phoenix.

Haunted city

With anthrax scares and warnings of a new attack against the US, many parents have opted to host parties rather than send their children out trick-or-treating.

But few are prepared to cancel the celebrations outright, heeding Mayor Rudy Giuliani's call for people to re-establish their routines in the wake of last month's attacks.

Putting a brave face on Halloween

This year, however, Halloween wears a patriotic mask. Costume shops and toy stores have all but sold out of firefighters' uniforms and Uncle Sam hats. Red, white and blue bunting clashes with the traditional Halloween decorations of orange and black.

At the Hallmark Halloween Store on Broadway, manager Kevin Gehlhaus has stocked wreaths of smiley-faced ghosts and beaming pumpkins.

"People are looking for stuff that's not too scary - no skeletons, nothing with blood. We've had people working at Ground Zero come up here for decorations to put in their tents to cheer them up. They want to remember that life goes on."

Behind the mask

Although Americans dressed up as Saddam Hussein during the Gulf conflict, few are prepared to don the robes and beard of the prime target in the war on terror, Osama Bin Laden.

At the Abracadabra, a treasure trove of masks, costumes and scarily-lifelike horror mannequins on 21st Street, an effigy of the Saudi-born dissident sits in an electric chair near the cash registers.

"I wouldn't wear it - you might run into someone affected by the attacks"

The custom-made Bin Laden mask carries a price tag of $95 - but can only be bought if store owner Paul Blum approves the reason for wanting it.

"One guy wanted it for his kid. I wouldn't sell it to him. Another guy looked like a dirty boy, so I wouldn't sell it to him either. Another wanted it for a dunking game at a fundraiser. I sold it to him."

Patrick von Wrede, a student from Germany browsing for a suitable costume, is none too sure about the Bin Laden mask.

"I wouldn't wear it. It's OK if TV shows parody him but wearing it on the street you might run into someone directly affected by the attacks."

Come out, come out?

A bunch of children push past him, excitedly searching out the goriest items within reach. Particularly taken by a joke severed hand, they use it to torment their after-school minder, Gilbert.

"We're having a small party for the local kids at the YMCA because it's not safe to take them outside this year," Gilbert says.

Firefighters' costumes are this year's favourite

Sarah Higgins helps her son, Trevor Lyon, 6, into a Pokemon costume. "He loves it but if it was my choice, I'd put him in something much gorier."

She and her husband are still debating whether to take Trevor out trick-or-treating. "That's a very, very big dilemma. If we do, we'll only go to those neighbours we know."

This year the traditional warnings of nasties in the treats handed out by strangers have particular resonance. It is no longer razorblades in apples that most prick parents' fears.

"A lot of parents are thinking of swapping the candy their children collect with candy they've bought themselves," Sarah says.

"There's a rumour going around that someone Arab-looking brought $15,000 worth of candies at a bulk shopping store and later returned the lot. True or not, people fear that this candy is now contaminated with anthrax."

Reality is often scarier than fiction

But Abracadabra's make-up expert Santo Marotta takes exception to those who seek to sanitise Halloween.

"These are make-believe," he says, indicating to mock headstones and Frankenstein accessories.

"The people who did this to our city are far scarier than any fantasy monster. The thing to be scared of is the ordinary-looking person next to you with a bomb strapped to their chest."