Pippa Middleton Hosts Kids' Halloween Party for Her Book

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/25/2012 at 06:10 PM EDT

Pippa Middleton (center), at London's Daunt Books

David Levenson/Getty

Halloween may never have been a big holiday in England – Guy Fawkes Night, Nov. 5, has always been their version – but a little cultural divide did nothing to scare away Pippa Middleton from celebrating her new book with some little witches and warlocks on Thursday.

The author of the party-planning guide Celebrate: A Year of Festivities for Families and Friends – which Viking is publishing in the States on Oct. 30 – is seen here hosting an afternoon children's party for Halloween at London's Daunt Books on Fulham Road.

Wearing a Stella McCartney a sleeveless black and grey dress, black pumps and chandelier earrings to launch the book – and joined by her parents, Michael and Carole, and brother James (but not her sister, the Duchess of Cambridge) – Pippa told ITV news, "I feel incredibly lucky to be in this position to publish a book."

As Middleton says about Halloween in Celebrate, according to a preview in Parade magazine's Oct. 28 issue: "As a child, I felt that Halloween was a time when creatures of the night suddenly came to life – we would turn off all the lights in the house and let flickering candlelight conjure up scary shadows and imaginary figures lurking in dark corners. Nowadays, I frequently celebrate Halloween over a supper with friends."

She considers the holiday "a wonderful excuse to let your imagination run riot with gory-looking food and special effects," and her suggestions include "witchy cauldrons of pumpkin soup ... homemade spiders inside window nooks ... cobwebs on tables; and ... ghosts made from sheets."

• Additional reporting by DIMI GAIDATZI