slo’s Thursday 10/3 poll - Decorating OUTSIDE for Halloween 👻🎃

[Schneewittchen37]

I decorate outdoors for Halloween pretty heavily. I basically turn the front yard into a graveyard with headstones, skeletons and ghosts. It's my job to be the scariest house on the court.

The rain is finally stopping today, so I can start decorating tonight!

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

No decorations here. I think Halloween is kind of a nothing-burger, so I don't get all the celebration. SOMEWHERE in the basement, we have a string of purple/orange/green lights that DD purchased once long ago, but if I could find them, I'm not sure they'd even work anymore.

PS- Dollar Tree has a whole aisle of Christmas stuff set up already. The store clerk said he was no happier setting it up than I was in seeing it. Why do we have to rush everything so much? Cha-ching $$$. Being set up so early takes the "specialness" out of the holiday season for me.

I agree and it's awful seeing the Christmas things next to the Halloween things! Garish!!!!

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We only (well, me) decorate the front window for Halloween. Nothing in the house. Halloween isn't the big deal it once was in my neighborhood, so need to go all out when there's nobody to see it. Everyone I know goes to the next town over to trick-or-treat and see the decorations because they really do it up. Last year at my house we had exactly zero trick or treaters.

 

[1420Elexismc]

I decorate for "Fall" not Halloween specifically

 

[TiggerTrigger]

1. Yes, I decorate outside. I barely do a thing inside, but I am all for a big outdoor display.
2. Mine is not as over the top as some, but it's usually good enough that I find people in my lawn taking pics with their children. Then I have to be that old person yelling for them to "GET OFF MY LAWN," but it's really for their own safety. There are a number of tethers and stakes holding things together as well as some hidden cords. The last thing I need is someone tripping on a cord or tether and landing on a stake.
3. I have not decorated this year. It's just been so hot that I'm not in the mood. I'm normally up by 10/1, but I'm also a bit bummed since much of my display hit the trash last year. Two of the three inflatables had been through seven seasons and were having too many issues to keep. It's not in my budget right now to drop a ton of money on revamping the display. Our outside electrical also doesn't like rain and me putting out decor is akin to a rain dance. I will eventually put out the octopus and maybe some lights and the projector. I can't remember if the ghosts survived last year or not.

A few notes...
- The second video is because I realized my "raining blood" was on twinkle light mode in video 1. That's not spooky!
- My illuminated squid kites that used to hang from the trees hit the trash the previous year.
- Same with my ghost projector.
- It doesn't look like I webbed the shrubs this year, but I sometimes do...even though it's a pain.
- The story for this display - The sea serpent fell in love with the Viking ship and was chasing it across the Blood Sea, but little did they know that there was a vicious giant pumpkin chuckin' octopus waiting for them to take them out.

 

[soccerdad72]

We don't really decorate for Halloween, per se, but decorate for fall in general. Nothing major - just some mums, a pumpkin or two and a fall wreath on the door.

 

[Disneefun]

I have a couple of yard flags, a door hanger, and a few cutouts on stakes. Just a couple of jack o lantern faces, and a Stitch that my husband cut out. Nothing major, unlike my neighbor who buys every giant thing Home Depot sells and covers the lawn with it all. Franky, we all just get our Halloween fix off of him. We let him spend all the money, then we just gawk at it!

 

[lovin'fl]

Can't decorate since we moved to FL 2.5 years ago as we are always back up north. Way more than planned. Like now. So no Halloween decor. Will also be up here at Xmas and Easter. I did put out a few fall things, like flag and door wreath, before we left to come here.

 

[Dan Murphy]

it's a chance to break out the Haunted Mansion stuff we have.

I figured that, Ron.

 

[ford family]

We are in the UK and we don't celebrate Halloween.

For many years we spent our winters in Florida. We never put up any decorations but we were always happy to hand out sweets to the small children that came by. We used to turn our outside lights off about 6:30 and ignored the older ones.

ford family

 

[kdonnel]

Holiday decorations, Halloween in particular, are a sticking point in my neighborhood with the HOA.

Decorations can go up 4 weeks before a holiday and remain for 2 weeks after.

Some of the homes spend thousands on decorations and like to start putting them up early so they can get them all up in time. There are two homes in particular that look to have spent in the 5 figure range on Halloween decorations.

There was a big blow up on the neighborhood facebook page last Halloween when the decorations went up in September at one house. This year that person started today, the exact 4 week period.

 

[amcnj]

For around 25 years I set up a haunted scene in the garage that the kids could see by crawling into connected refrigerator boxes that were outside in front of the garage and looking through small flaps I cut into the boxes. It was a big hit, with some kids returning during the night to see it again and again.

I just remarked to someone a few weeks ago that during all those years we never had a rainy Halloween. At least not during trick or treat hours. The reason I know is I never ended up with a bunch of wet, soggy cardboard!

 

[fla4fun]

I don’t decorate outdoors for any holiday, including Halloween and Christmas. I don’t participate in handing out treats on Halloween (in fact, I turn off all the lights and go to bed early that night). My neighbor across the street does wonderful displays for many holidays, so they make up for my lack.

I do decorate indoors, a little for Halloween and a lot for Christmas, but it’s just too much work for me to do outside decorations also.

 

[lucas]

My only decoration for all holidays is a wreath on the front door for whatever particular holiday it is. I put up my Halloween wreath on 10/1.

 

[RedAngie]

For outdoor Halloween decor I have several metal stake in the ground items, cutesy stuff like a friendly ghost, witch with black cat, etc. A few small garden flags. Plus three or four lighted jack o lanterns for the front porch.

Nothing put out yet. Probably NEXT weekend.

I have this antique 100% genuine plastic thing from the 1960s for indoors.

 

[RedAngie]

I was in Lowe’s last week and they had many large Halloween (and Christmas!!!) inflatables on display. But they can’t compare to those I saw in July (!!!) at a place called At Home.

 

[easyas123]

We don't decorate for Halloween outside, we've never really lived anywhere that we got trick or treaters and I can take or leave the holiday - I do decorate a bit for fall/Thanksgiving-ish inside though. And I'll grab some more mums for the porch this weekend.

 

[LoveDaisy]

My outdoor decorations are more fall than Halloween but I do have a witch on my front door, a Halloween door mat, and a Halloween sign in my fall display.

I guess it’s more of a pumpkin display but they grew like crazy this year.

 

[HopperFan]

HUGE HOLIDAY FOR ME ..... surprise!

Has always been my favorite holiday. Always decorate big outside and inside. For a decade or more built a huge haunted house (about 8 rooms). I dressed up. We'd have about 200-300 folks come through. For weeks prior folks would drive up to take photos. Had a "Open Haunted House Party" prior and we collected money for UNICEF (which I did as a kid too). It was open Halloween. A big investment, about 3 weeks to build each year, came down faster. When kid who helped went to college I stopped, slowly gave many things to families who were starting their own. Used to have full built monsters standing in my attic. Scared an electrician once. As the neighborhood changed and Trick or Treaters dwindled, I'll be all decorated until right before 31st, then I'll take down. This year we are having a small family party as my DS misses all the parties. Just not up for the big costume parties anymore.

Yard used to be ENTIRE yard, lots of monsters, lots of lighting, fog machine, speaker with scary sounds etc. Now I contain to a smaller cemetery and lights. But I did increase the inside decorations for us to enjoy.

Some of the current form.


Disney Inspired



Song from favorite Halloween show at Six Flags


Stephen King fan


Store bought



Name of Six Flags Halloween festival - where I bought first tombstone.


Big Alice Cooper fan


Store bought


Bought and added moss


Store bought

 

[MamaMermaid]

Our inside is moderately decorated -- mostly for Fall because some Halloween decorations are icky to me. We will put out a few blowups and maybe some bush lights outside for the season! They'll come down in November and then we will put a turkey blowup out. The Friday after Thanksgiving it becomes Christmas inside and out!