AURELIUS #- Saturday afternoon at Fingerlakes Mall was a trick-or-treater's paradise.

Children were dressed as witches, goblins, princesses, even unlikely characters like tree stumps and matadors, to take part in the mall's annual Trick or Treat Parade.

The celebration, which was attended by hundreds of children and adults alike, included a costume contest, the dispensing of Halloween treats by numerous stores, and appearances by some costumed cartoon “celebrities.”

“We hold this (parade) every year to provide a safe, temperature-controlled environment for kids (to trick-or-treat),” Tracie Murphy, Fingerlakes Mall's marketing manager, said Saturday as throngs of costumed families filed by.

The mall staff, which has been holding the parade for many years, decided to expand this year's affair, Murphy said. “The parade only lasts an hour or two, and parents do so much to get their kids ready, that we decided to add some extra events.”

In the days prior to the event, which was sponsored by Verizon, participants paid a $2 fee to register at the mall's customer service office.

The festivities began Saturday morning with a costume contest in which boys and girls competed in several different age groups. Then, in the minutes leading up to the parade's noon kickoff, every available space around the edge of the mall's main corridors was filled with children both young and old dressed in almost every costume imaginable.

Waiting with his daughter, Olivia, who was dressed as the Dr. Seuss character Cindy Lou Who, was Auburn resident John Tkacz. “I remember how much I loved trick-or-treating when I was a kid ... and that's what things like this are about: the kids,” he said.

“I've thought about dressing up to trick-or-treat for the past few years ... but I don't think too many folks would be very thrilled to give candy to a 40-year-old man,” he quipped.

Precisely at noon, the crowd began a slow circuit of the mall, where numerous store employees waited with candy, fruit and other treats. Though a few stores were unable to participate because of corporate policy, Murphy said, most businesses happily dispensed the goodies to the costumed children, who were supplied with Halloween bags bearing the Verizon logo.

Later, Spider-Man and SpongeBob Squarepants appeared next to the food court, where delighted youngsters had photos taken and otherwise visited with the characters.