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!