Halloween season is here. For Lynn Abdelnour of La Quinta, it means breaking out the scary masks and setting up the seasonal Halloween Gear costume and accessory shop at Westfield Palm Desert. She talked to The Desert Sun about her business.

The biz: Halloween Gear features all sorts of costumes, catering to candy-seeking tots and adults looking to foster their inner child.

Background: “My mom and I were original tenants in the mall,” Abdelnour said. “That was in 1982. This business, the Halloween store, started as a wall in our business called Body Gear.” Abdelnour started to carry kids' costume accessories.

Halloween-bound: Their small wall prompted the mall owner to approach them with an idea of running a costume shop in the mall, Abdelnour said.

“We started with 500 square feet. Now I'm in half of a department store,” she said.

Presidential aspirations? “I have not gotten a single request for a political mask,” she said with a laugh.

No one has come in asking for John McCain or Barack Obama. Not yet anyway. You will find a McCain mask hanging on the same wall as some of the fictional characters.

“When Bill Clinton messed up, they wanted his mask and her dress,” Abdelnour said, referring to Monica Lewinsky.

But the champ is Nixon. “(His) is the all-time best-selling political mask,” she said.

What's hot? “What's popular right now is the Joker — Heath Ledger's version of the Joker in the most recent film installment of Batman.”

She sells a lot of ladybug and bumblebee costumes, she said. “We sell a lot of sexy costumes for women,” she added.

Time flies: After 14 years in the costume business, Abdelnour said she has gotten to know a lot of families and is always amazed at the transformations of the children. “I started dressing some of these kids when they were fairies, and now they want to be sexy bumblebees.”