What is it with the UK that finds itself so under the spell of America?

I mean, just look at the place...it’s hardly a shining example of what we, as a nation, should aspire to, is it?

Quite aside from its politics, guns, crime, foreign policy, religious zeal and racism, for reasons unclear we keep adopting its ‘traditions’.

When I was young, Halloween wasn’t a big thing here. In fact, I think I only became really aware of it – and how much the US loved it – when watching ET The Extra Terrestrial.

At no point, however, was I thinking ‘cor, I wish we did that here’. No, the close of October and start of November was, to my mind, all about Bonfire Night.

October 31 was a day where work on creating a Guy Fawkes to sit atop of the bonfire was to take place.

That was much more fun to my mind. The whizz-bangs which would light the sky, the big bonfire, sparklers, the baked potatoes. Yes, I know it upsets pets, but that’s not reason enough to turn our back on it, surely?

Every year, it seemed like everyone would head out to a big display or host their own in their back garden. It was a community event – whether big or small.

Granted, there was an element of risk involved – there were always stories of people who had returned to a firework thinking they’d gone out only to discover, well, that they hadn’t.

But what could be more ‘British’ than recreating the burning of a bloke who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament?

I once made a Guy and wheeled it through the streets of Tunbridge Wells with a ‘penny for the Guy’ sign attached to the wheelbarrow he was sat in. I made precisely no pence. Which is probably a sign of how poor my Guy-making skills were. Or, of course, that the good people of west Kent are tight-wads.

But making the Guy was all part of the process. Acquire some of my parents’ old clothes, stuff them full of newspaper and hey-presto; a misshapen person appeared.

Yet it’s a tradition we seem to have turned our back on for the most part.

Instead, this time of year seems entirely focused on Halloween and our futile attempts to replicate what our trans-Atlantic cousins do – trick or treat being code words for scrounging sweets amid fears of retribution. Or exposing everyone to horrible-looking horror films and their blood-curdling characters.

It’s not the same.

Then, of course, there’s Black Friday in November. Something we all now have in our calendars as a chance to bag some discounted Christmas presents.

But Black Friday – you’ll hardly need telling – is another US import. But over the pond, it has a purpose.

It comes the day after Thanksgiving (something we, clearly, don’t celebrate here) yet we’ve embraced it as if it’s some part of our cultural heritage. It’s pretty much replaced the Boxing Day sales as our big shopping event of the year.

For some reason our shops now feel obliged to slash prices when once they were hiked to ensure we paid in full for Christmas gifts. No wonder they’re all going out of business.

Instead we just follow, like sheep, America.

I appreciate America can do good in the world (I’m trying to think of some, sure they’ll come to me) but it’s not too late to reclaim our own heritage and get Bonfire Night back as the key event for this time of year.