The time of year and setting of Small Spaces feature prominently in the novel. The story takes place during the Halloween season, a holiday that has accumulated a significant amount of folklore, iconography, and mythology. The author specifically mentions the Celtic feast of Samhain, which was the European precursor of Halloween. This is reputed to be the time of year with the thinnest separation between the mortal world and the spirit realm. The novel exploits this characteristic in its dual setting of a farm in rural Vermont and its counterpart in the shadow realm where the story’s characters are trapped.

As Ollie and her friends try to escape the smiling man’s servants, they echo another bit of European folklore—The Wild Hunt. While this story was first formally documented by Jacob Grimm in 1835, its antecedents go back millennia in the traditions of many cultures. In most of the tale’s variations, a pagan god or demon leads a retinue of supernatural hunters who are intent on capturing the souls of unwary humans who stray out at night. In more recent neopagan traditions, The Wild Hunt is specifically associated with Halloween.

Aside from the legends associated with Halloween, certain objects have become identified with its celebration in this country.