How Will You Decorate for Halloween?
 

This is a big topic of discussion at our house and this coming weekend, all the kids are coming home to decorate our yard and porch. We do a pumpkins/candy corn kind of theme, although our sons--especially the 6-year-old--would prefer blood and gore. We have candy corn and orange lights and candy corn and pumpkin yard decorations. I think I'm going to order jack o' lantern luminarias and put battery-operated tealights in them...also order a candy corn wreath.

Has anybody else noticed that in the past few years, purple and poison green have apparently joined orange and black and yellow as Halloween colors?:confused: like the purple for wizards' capes and the green of witches' or Frankenstein's monster's faces?

Any other ideas? What will you do to decorate your place?

We keep our house pretty low-key and go with more Fallish decorations than Halloween. I have a black cat/moon hanging plaque thingy that goes on the door, I wrap garlands of fake fall leaves around our railing, put some pumpkins outside and then do some "country" style pumpkins, ghosts and black cats in various places in our house.

There are some people in our area who go all out--giant inflatable ghosts and Frankenstein heads, huge spider webs, fake cemetaries in their front lawn, etc... It's ugly and gaudy and we make fun of it every time we drive by.

I've just got a dorm room to decorate, but I try to add some holiday touches. Right now I have a smallish pumpkin, some cute little scarecrow dolls, and a few other small things. I'm going home in a couple of days, so I'll probably bring some stuff back to decorate further.

I don't decorate for Halloween. I have nothing against the holiday but I'm just too lazy. I barely get a tree trimmed by Christmas!

However, I do quilt a lot and in my travels for the perfect yard of batik, I have definitely noticed the seasonal fabrics incorporate purple and bright green mixed with the "traditional" Halloween colors. I actually like the additional colors.

So when does everyone make the kids stop trick-or-treating? My D's last time was her 8th grade year and it will probably be the same for my son.

We don't really do much. Usually we just leave the outside lights on and hang up a little "Happy Halloween" sign on the door, to let the neighborhood kids know that we're home and trick-or-treater friendly.

Last year we didn't do anything. We were a little busy closing on our new house. :)

This year, we are planning a Halloween party, so we are planning to do a bit more decoration-wise... haven't decided what, though.

I think the last time I went trick-or-treating was when I was 9 or 10. My parents made it too much of a hassle (deliberately). I'd get home from school around 3:30, get into my costume, then I had about twenty minutes of trick-or-treating time before I had to get out of my costume and into church clothes to go to the 5:15pm All Saints' Day vigil Mass. (There was a 7:15pm vigil Mass as well, but my parents refused to consider going to it. Oddly enough, the year I stopped trick-or-treating, the 7:15pm Mass became acceptable to them.)

Two years ago we took the kids to Valdosta State to see their sister cheer on Senior Day and she took us to this expensive gated neighborhood to trick or treat.:eek: Oh my gosh, the decorations there! Maybe neighbors were competing but all the decorations were huge and/or realistic-- and there were lots of adults answering the door all dressed up, lots of special effects like fog machine and dry ice. They love trick or treating here but they'll definitely always remember that one.

We put carved pumpkins in all the windows visable from the street and carved pumpkins out front too.
We also have a full size coffin that sit on the front porch, usually with a skull and bones hanging out. We do decorate- but everything is realistic-nothing blowup, etc.

Bumping this up!

I'm about to go to the next town to find more candy corn and pumpkin decorations! (Like I need them, lol.) Last year, I added what might be called primitive Halloween lollipops to the front yard. Inside, we added this cool Halloween tree from Target.

Does anyone have any great decorations?

My dad never decorates for Halloween because we raaaaarely have any trick-or-treaters. Maybe one a year. It's pretty sad, really.

I actually might help my friend (and former neighbor) decorate their house today or tomorrow. They get really into it.

Did anyone add anything new? We have more candy corn lights. My youngest, now 10, would love for us to cover the yard with inflatables like a neighbor does, but the electricity bill must be monstrous, no pun intended. Also, we hear the moaning and shrieks every time we open the back door and I wouldn't want to hear it inside!

I would've added more decorations but the roof on the Hobby Lobby in the next town fell in months ago and it just now reopened, so I may wait until next year to get more!

I stand by what I said about wizard purple and poison green becoming staple Halloween colors. My kids call it Target green because Target also uses it heavily in their Christmas decorations.

Our son says we never do enough for Halloween, though we try. He's like me -- preferring decorations that are scary/spooky/creepy (though not necessarily bloody) over those that are cute.

My favorite decoration (also from Target) is the wreath of black feathers we hang on the front door. It just seems so Edgar Allen Poe/Edward Gorey.

See, we already have that house around the corner. Yep, my daughter was once afraid to go to the door.

I go for more understated.

When I was a child, this doctor who lived nearby had 2 tall, long, and straight rows of boxwoods leading up to his house. They gave out full-size candy bars so everyone wanted to go there. However, he also dressed up like a monster and would leap out at you from the hedges and chase you up to the door; every year, we were scared to start down that row of hedges.

Good thing he was a doctor because some kids fell, trying to run! Boy, if you did that now...

I live in one of those college apartment communities and we're having a balcony decorating contest. If I have time/remember I'll have to post some pictures because some apartments look really good. Mostly it's hanging lights with various typical Halloween decorations (spiders, ghost, pumpkins..) and the fake spider web. My roommates & I also carved pumpkins for our apartment & have a Halloween tree. :) There is one apartment that decorated their door/balcony like a crime scene that looks pretty good!

I remember growing up & there was a house in our neighborhood that always creeped me out at Halloween & I refused to go trick or treating there. It was a old house that looked creepy enough without all the decorations added! Like carnation's story, the man would jump from behind the bushes and chase you to the door!

this is the first year that i have not gotten out my halloween decorations-the only thing i have done is put my fall wreath on the front door. on one hand, it's kind of sad to not have the decorations up, on the other hand, there is relief that i don't have anything to put away.

We have not done much with the outside this year other than a wreath and some pumpkins because we've had one family death and another may be looming.

We do hav everything up on the inside though--three lighted pumpkins, my lenox halloween pieces, fall potted mums in gold & oranges, I have some witches hanging from the balcony, halloween/fall wreaths hanging up on doors inside the house...there may be some other little pieces scattered about too but I cant think of them off hand.

No Halloween at our house this year! Off to visit colleges the entire weekend with the second child. My, how time flies...

I have scarecrows and will be decorating pumpkins. Where can I find battery operated candles?

We get ours at Michael's.

They seem to be all over the place this year-at the usual places, like Michaels and Joanne Fabrics, also Target and Walmart. Also saw some in my local Safeway.

I usually just carve a few pumpkins for the front of the house, and put out my little ghost shaped candle holders, but i have not had time to carve any pumpkins, so I just have these pitiful little ghosts sitting out on the coffee table :( Sad, really.

This year we've put out orange tube lights over the door and the candy corn and ghost lights around the porch! With random pumpkins, of course. How about y'all?

--still anti-the growing use of wizard purple and poison green as Halloween colors--

Since we live in an apartment complex, we will probably put streamers around the door or something similar to that. We are carving pumpkins, but that is because the alumnae association is going to the pumpkin patch on Saturday. We will put them on our porch, but no one can really see them there...

Purple and green for Halloween. Fail.

There's only one Halloween color as far as I'm concerned -- black. Anything else should be whatever color it naturally is: orange pumpkins, etc. I'm really not one for Halloween decorations that look like decorations, and definitely no lights (Halloween is about the dark), though I sometimes replace all the lights on the front of the house with things like blue bulbs on Halloween night.

Seriously, for me Halloween should look like this:

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...tersHouse2.jpg

I need a good theme for my trunk at our church's Trunk or Treat. The first year I did it, I strung a shower curtain and towel across my trunk (SUV with swing open door) put presents out everywhere and dressed as a baby...I was a "baby shower". Last year I did Tinkerbell/Pixie Hollow. This year I have a monarch butterfly/fairy costume (mainly bought for the Renaissance Festival). I don't really want to do Pixie Hollow again, but it would be easy enough. With my costume being Orange and black, I could easily go traditional Halloween "stuff".

Well this will be our second Halloween in England, and its not really a big deal here.. But I do like to decorate, I carve a few pumpkins, which sit on the porch just to let the neighborhood kids know its ok to knock. I pass out candy and will usually dress up. I've gotten my place of work to get everyone member of staff to dress up this year for the kids that come into the store, and we'll pass out candy them too. I love halloween so much more than any other holiday, i miss US halloweens.... :(

We've decorated big-time in and out this year because we have an Australian exchange student and in her region, they do a minimal Halloween but there are hardly any decorations and when kids trick-or-treat there, they might get candy or they might get a door slammed in their face.:eek:

I have a "Sugar and Spice" Halloween town that I think I'll let her set up this weekend!

We have orange porch lights, with a black light near the door. A welcome "Witch Owl" sign. Skull lights that line the walk to the front door. Jack o lanterns on the front step. Inside there is a Trick or treat sign, singing skull guys, candy bowl, light up pumpkins and ghosts, and pictures of our kiddo in his Halloween costumes throughout the years. I love Halloween. :)

Our borough colors are black and orange. I'll probably leave the one black and one orange recycling bins on the steps so nobody comes up them. I will be dressed as the bad neighbor who's at the movies until 8pm. Not big into Halloween, obviously!

I'm living in my first post college apartment, and I'm currently driving my roommate insane with my Halloween decorations. I've got some pumpkins around, a orange and black wreath, some fake cobwebs and Halloween candles. I also stuffed a pair of striped stockings and put heels on them....theyre sticking out from underneath my couch. My roommate isn't thrilled, but he's a guy and doesn't really care that much.

For trick or treating, I know theres a few kids in my complex, but since I'm a law student and never around, I'll just leave out a bowl of cheap candy. I'm also leaving a bowl out with "free legal advice"...slips of paper that say obviously non serious stuff like "if the glove don't fit, you must acquit". My roommate thinks I'm an idiot.

In any apartment/condo complex I have ever lived at I never got trick-o-treaters, I was very disappointed. I am excited for this year tho since I finally am in a house!! Yay for the season of holiday decorating.

I found this DIY ghost from HGTV. I think it looks really good and I am going to try it this weekend.
http://img.hgtv.com/HGTV/2011/02/21/...ty_s3x4_lg.jpg

http://www.pier1.com/Catalog/Seasona...n/Default.aspx


Yayyay! I got this for half price yesterday--I'd had my eye on it for weeks! :)

It snuck up on me this year. I never got the Halloween decorations out. We don't even have a pumpkin yet. My kids have gotten old.. no interest in going to a pumpkin patch for a pumpkin or anything. I'll probably go to Kroger :(

I do have to say that I love the white pumpkins which are everywhere this year! Once I'm far away from my holier-than-thou brother, there could be one in my future!

Oooh, I've seen so many wonderful ways to decorate with those in fall magazines! We've put in a stock of fake white pumpkins to decorate with in the future.

One of my favorite orange ones that we use every year has the Black Pearl carved on it, courtesy of Blazercheer and her stencils. I keep hoping she'll have time to carve Jack Sparrow on another one.

Are you talking about the snow covered ones? ;)

So we have out our pumpkins (including some from Michael's that are candy-corn patterned) and orange and ghost lights but this year we have an odd twist. Our Encore azaleas have finally decided to be the reblooming azaleas they're supposed to be so we have these pink azaleas blooming riotously in the middle of all the orange and black. Doesn't do much for the color scheme, although there is one little chimera bloom that's coral and standing way above the others, as if to say, "I'm going with the program! I'm trying to match!"

They've never bloomed like this in the spring--

Some houses around here go all out for Halloween and almost nothing for Christmas. It's creepy how much money they spend.

White pumpkin - not snow covered, they're actually white (well, off white) pumpkins. Really they're gourds, but they look like pumpkins. I've always seen smallis round ones, but this year I've seen larger flattened ones.