As the trees shed their remaining leaves and the weather dips down to colder temperatures, one of the most fun and creative holidays is just around the corner. Halloween is a fun time for the kids and the adults. It’s a time to gather with friends and family, dress up as your favorite character or hero, and of course, decorate the yard.
It can be a challenge to decorate for Halloween because, often, it’s hard to find the balance between quality decorations while maintaining a neighborhood-friendly persona. Especially for neighborhoods with families and young children, it’s crucial to stay away from “creepy” while making your yard scary.
Another thing to keep in mind is having a place to store everything once the season is over. It’s not exactly common practice to leave out scary jack-o-lanterns and spiderwebs for months after the holiday has passed, so before you start planning what to buy, make sure you have some storage space!
Here are a few scary ideas that your whole neighborhood will enjoy this year!
1. Set Up a Graveyard
A scary but still kid-friendly addition to your yard this year could be a graveyard. You can make this a fun DIY project with the kids or take a quick trip to a local holiday store if you’re short on time. Setting out a few headstones made from styrofoam will prepare your yard for the spooky season.
You can make them yourself with a bit of gray and black paint and a few styrofoam blocks. Get creative with the names on the headstones, or just keep it simple with a drawing of a skull and crossbones. Once you have a few of these spread throughout the yard, add some fresh dirt to make them look freshly dug, and use some yard lights as a spotlight!
2. Add Spiders and Spiderwebs
A great way to get into the holiday spirit is by sticking to a certain theme. Using spiders and spiderwebs throughout your yard as the main components is a great way to make it feel authentic. Spiders are great because they’re scary but not off-putting, and you can add them in many places.
Using a large spider that you can get from holiday stores is a great addition to the yard, whereas smaller spiders are great for the front porch steps, going up the wall of the house by the front door, or on the sidewalk. You can add spiderwebs to other decorations like graveyards, pumpkins, and your front porch rocking chairs.
3. Incorporate Skulls
A classic but scary option for your yard this Halloween season is a skull. They’re easy to find at project stores or holiday stores, and they can be a great addition to your yard. It would work especially well if you have other items like headstones in the yard to create a whole scene.
You can place skulls in the yard, on the front porch steps, or have them in the candy bowl to scare the trick-or-treaters. You can paint them to look like sugar skulls or give them a scarier look by adding fake blood spots. You can add a red, blue, or green light behind the skull to help it glow at night for a really fun look.
4. Display a Few Skeletons
Another traditional but fantastic way to decorate your yard is with skeletons. They’re spooky, and since they’re large and moveable, there are tons of options for incorporating them in the yard. Since they’re so large, you won’t want to overcrowd the yard and try to stick with two or three at the most with this option.
You can lay them around in the graveyard, prop them up on the chairs on the front porch, or attach them to the side of the house to make it look like they’re climbing up the walls. You can add tattered clothes to them or keep things simple and leave them as they are.
5. Build a Spooky Scarecrow
If you’re looking for a scary option that will allow you to get creative and allow you to complete a DIY project with the kids, consider adding a spooky scarecrow! You’ll likely have to build this one with your own materials, which is great if you and the kids love a good DIY project.
You can use straw, sticks, an old pair of pants, and an old shirt for the body, and then you can get creative with the head. Adding a hollowed-out pumpkin or jack-o-lantern could be the perfect addition to the scarecrow in your yard. Add a light inside the pumpkin head to give it an extra spooky feature once it gets dark.
6. Add Witches and Cauldrons
A great theme to work with this Halloween is witches. They’re always a hit, and you can carry this theme throughout the yard and even continue it to the inside of your house. Using items like a cauldron would be great for the yard. Setting a witch’s hat or broom next to it will give it a full effect and look great at night. You could even use a fog machine to give the yard an eerie look, which trick-or-treaters will love.
If you’re really going for a wow factor, you can find witch figurines or life-size decor to make it look like a scene from Hocus Pocus. Using smaller items like a witch’s hat on the steps, witch shoes in the yard or a broom by the front door can save you money and still follow this fun theme!
7. Make a Crime Scene
Using caution tape or “crime scene” tape can go a long way this Halloween. You can rope off part of your yard or your front porch to make it look like there was a scary crime scene. Using the tape itself is good, but you can add additional items to make it life-like.
Using chalk or grass paint to outline a body (keeping it PG, of course) could be a fun addition to your crime scene tape. You can even add fake blood splatter to the grass or driveway to really spook the trick-or-treaters.
8. Jack-O-Lanterns With Candles
You could start a new tradition by having the kids help you carve jack-o-lanterns to place around the yard. Try making a variety of scary faces or animals. You can set these in the yard or line the driveway and sidewalk leading up to your house.
Adding a candle to them at night can make them look extra-spooky, but make sure you keep an eye on them when the candles are lit. If you’re really going for a scary yard this year, consider adding more features for a dramatic look. A fog machine pointed toward the jack-o-lanterns can make your yard feel spooky, and that extra touch could make your house popular among the trick-or-treaters!
