Contestant Teresa Shurilla in a scene from “Halloween Wars”

Confession time: I love Halloween. It's the one time of the year when we adults can really let loose and get in touch with our inner children. We get to gorge ourselves on candy and sweets -- although maybe not quite as much as we once did. We can get all messy and creative as we tug out the slimy innards of pumpkins and then carve them up into scary faces or spooky scenes. Heck, we even get to play dress-up if we want to!

I think the best part of Halloween is that it only comes once a year. If we got to do all those fun things year-round, they just wouldn't be special -- plus all that candy is most definitely not what the doctor ordered.

It's that once-a-year business that keeps the Food Network's "Halloween Wars" feeling so fresh. This may be its fourth season, but with only four episodes each year, the show doesn't get stale.

Sunday nights throughout October, we've been watching as five teams of Halloween pros got whittled down one by one, and now we've finally reached the big night. With only the top two teams remaining for the Sunday, Oct. 26, finale and a $50,000 "treat" up for grabs, you can bet that the remaining competitors will be pulling out any last tricks they may have up their sleeves on "Halloween Wars" airing on Food Network.

Even if you've missed the past three episodes, it's really not too tricky to catch on if you're only tuning in for the finale. Each team -- the competition started with five -- consists of three members: an expert pumpkin carver, a sugar artist and a cake decorator. At the beginning of each episode, the teams are given a theme, and then they have to craft the most elaborate, most decadent and most sweetly delicious Halloween-themed display they can pull off.

And what's the theme for this final episode, the one that will earn one team a bucket of sweet, sweet cash and send the other home shivering in terror? "Haunted Carnival" will be their final challenge, and with themes like "Mummies vs. Werewolves" and "Don't Go Into the Forest" behind them, they'll have to come up with something original to craft out of sweets and jack-o-lanterns.

Much like the day it's named after, "Halloween Wars" comes but once a year -- although with four episodes it does last a little bit longer. Even if you haven't been following along, the finale promises to be a sweet finish to another year's fun. Don't miss it, Sunday, Oct. 26, on Food Network.