Do You Decorate For Halloween?

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

We do. My husband loves decorating the yard for holidays. He spends a lot of his fun money on inflatables. He set up the front yard for Halloween today. 

[zibazinski]

Used to but we don't live in a family neighborhood so no trick or treaters.

[Deleted]

Oh yeah!  That looks totally amazing.  Your Frankenstein is adorable. I love to decorate for Halloween and I sit outside in a costume handing out candy to the little (and not so little monsters).  Question: if you are old enough to have a tattoo, should you be asking for candy?  Oh well, I digress.

I totally succumbed to temptation and got a 5-foot human skeleton and a skeleton cat at Target despite DH's rolling eyeballs.  I plan to put the human skeleton in a chair on my front deck and the cat skeleton at his feet.  Of course, I will fasten everything to the chair with cable ties and fasten the chair to the deck with a chain or I suspect my bony friend might not make it through his first night outside.  

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Thanks, donethat, we've named him Ken. Niether of my girls can handle scary stuff, so we're at the "adorable" side of the Halloween decorating spectrum. 

My former BIL used to dress up and sit on the porch at my and XH's house. He got such a huge kick out of that. 

[Tennesseer]

I have no need to when I look like this before I wash up for the day. A selfie:

[sapphire12]

Your house looks great!

I don't decorate.

[Peace Of Mind]

Chloe, I love your decorations but mostly your house!

We don't have kids but decorate more for fall than Halloween because we cater to the little kids on Halloween.  We get tons of them as they come from other neighborhoods and we are already huge.  Scary decorations keep them from coming to people's houses (we learned that years ago based on the neighbors decor) so we are the "nice house".  We have it well lit up for them with bright fall mums, pumpkins and a smiling Jack-O-Lantern with a light in it amongst fall leaves and a fall wreath on the door.  I just cleaned the front door area, pruned the Topiaries and put everything out but the wreath today.  DH put that in the attic so I have to wait on him.  It should be up by Halloween. 

Oh, and we finally got a new neighbor next door (the foreclosure) who has a toddler and is expecting another one any day now so I want him to be able to come trick-or-treat without being scared.  They are good neighbors so far except their dog keeps trying to make me a morning person by barking every a.m. at 7:00-8:00.  Stupid dog.  <<pulls the hose out to get ready for the "trick" on Halloween>>  

[swamp]

No. I live in the middle of nowhere. Nobody would see it. 

[MarleyKeezy78]

Here is a photo from a couple years ago. I am slowly decorating for this year, I will take some photos and post soon.

Sorry the photo is sideways. We don't get many trick or treaters so we don't go all out.

[Deleted]

Oct 5, 2014 19:24:49 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

Chloe, I love your decorations but mostly your house!

We don't have kids but decorate more for fall than Halloween because we cater to the little kids on Halloween.  We get tons of them as they come from other neighborhoods and we are already huge.  Scary decorations keep them from coming to people's houses (we learned that years ago based on the neighbors decor) so we are the "nice house".  We have it well lit up for them with bright fall mums, pumpkins and a smiling Jack-O-Lantern with a light in it amongst fall leaves and a fall wreath on the door.  I just cleaned the front door area, pruned the Topiaries and put everything out but the wreath today.  DH put that in the attic so I have to wait on him.  It should be up by Halloween. 

Oh, and we finally got a new neighbor next door (the foreclosure) who has a toddler and is expecting another one any day now so I want him to be able to come trick-or-treat without being scared.  They are good neighbors so far except their dog keeps trying to make me a morning person by barking every a.m. at 7:00-8:00.  Stupid dog.  <<pulls the hose out to get ready for the "trick" on Halloween>>  

You have the house for the wimpy kids!

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Nope. We don't decorate for any other holiday, either.

The neighbors down the block do. In addition to orange and purple sparkly lights and a mini graveyard, they currently have Barbie dolls hanging from one of their trees, with a sign that reads "Twerk or Treat"

[Deleted]

We have a skeleton on the front door.

Some fake pumpkins and some Halloween cats.

I'll get some real pumpkins next week but probably won't carve them.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Somehow, I always pictured you as looking like that, Tennesseer.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Marley, I love your dried corn-stalks - they're gorgeous!

[TheHaitian]

We started decorating for fall, not really Halloween yet. Still in the beginning phases since we have been so busy the past couple of weeks.

But I took this last Tuesday morning, the front of our house:

[toomuchreality]

I have ghost lights and a black feather wreath up so far.

   

I carve pumpkins every year with my adult children, so will have a Jackolantern out soon!

Do you dress up?

[MarleyKeezy78]

Thanks SL! This year I stuck dead branches in the ground and pulled spiderwebs over them, looks pretty neat too 

[Phoenix84]

No, I don't decorate for any holiday. The only one who will see any of it is me, and I've deemed that I don't want to see decorations bad enough to go to the time and effort to put them up and take them down.

I might feel differently if I had a family. But even then, I don't think I'd go hog wild.

[Wisconsin Beth]

We put carved pumpkins on the porch and put stuff in the bay window. 

We do more outside stuff for Christmas. 

ETA - my kids will be 5 and 6 for this Halloween - all decorating is now subject to change based on their whims, desires and how guilty I am about saying no for something else. 

[Deleted]

No. The kids will probably carve pumpkins...we have a bazillion of them in the garden...but that's about it. We live where it wouldn't get seen anyhow and I take the kids to town to trick or treat, so we're not even home on Halloween.

[Abby Normal]

We put put more decorations at halloween than we do at Christmas.  We put up a "dead and breakfast" sign up near the front of the house with a "vacancy" sign .  Then the yard is turns into a  graveyard with a large empty coffin with a "this space available" sign.  Complete with faux iron fencing, fog and creepy music.

Just creepy enough to be a favorite for pictures, but not so scary that the little kids won't come up.  Every year I laugh by how many people ask if they can get in the yard and take a picture. 

But it goes up a day or two before halloween and comes down right after.  So we aren't the annoying neighbors.

[Chocolate Lover]

Oct 5, 2014 18:01:42 GMT -5 @donethat said:

Oh yeah!  That looks totally amazing.  Your Frankenstein is adorable. I love to decorate for Halloween and I sit outside in a costume handing out candy to the little (and not so little monsters).  Question: if you are old enough to have a tattoo, should you be asking for candy?  Oh well, I digress.

I totally succumbed to temptation and got a 5-foot human skeleton and a skeleton cat at Target despite DH's rolling eyeballs.  I plan to put the human skeleton in a chair on my front deck and the cat skeleton at his feet.  Of course, I will fasten everything to the chair with cable ties and fasten the chair to the deck with a chain or I suspect my bony friend might not make it through his first night outside.  

Maybe the tattooed ones might be a bit old but I'm glad you give candy to the not so little monsters. I was a bit taken aback last year by an older lady who told me she only gives candy to little kids after my rather tall and developed 11 year old walked up with her little brother. I did politely say that she was only 11 and she did give her candy but really, it sort of surprised me. Didn't offend me but that was a first for me.

[Anne_in_VA]

I do decorate for Halloween, but all of my decorations are currently in the garage behind a wall of DH's stuff. I'm hoping to get him to move some of it so I can get at it and decorate.

We don't do anything scary but several of our neighbors do . One of the neighbors did a really scary scene in their front yard with a Dracula chained to a tree, a flying witch above our street (they strung a rope across the street between trees), a huge spiderweb with spider on the peak of their house, and on and on. Another neighbor put up a graveyard in their front yard with fake gravestones, skeletons, and a fake iron railings all around the yard. It looks pretty real and I think will by really scary at night.

[lynnerself]

We haven't decorated much since the kids grew up and moved out.
We did not even carve pumpkins last year.

[wyouser]

Grandkids wouldn't have it any other way. We are lit up outside and inside. Figures, pumpkins, sound effects. If it weren't for us, the power company would go broke....  

[lexxy703]

I do not decorate. I do hand out candy. I give it to big & little kids. I also will gladly give it to adults. Like the dad that says pick that one it's mommy's favorite. I'll just hand it to dad & tell him it's for her, kid can pick another one. Hey, adults like candy too. I always go with chocolate that I like.

[lexxy703]

And for those of you who posted pics everyone's decorations are great!

[toomuchreality]

Because I remember being the mom, walking around with my kids and wishing I had even just one piece of candy, I now make it a point to offer it to the adults with the kids too.
So far I haven't had a single one say no. 

On the super freezing nights, trick or treating, I was SO grateful for the people that served hot apple cider to all the adults, out with their kids!

One of my daughter's (and mine) favorite 'treats' she was given, was a toothbrush. She reminded me of that a day , or two ago. The dad at that house was a dentist, so they gave out toothbrushes every year. What a great idea! And the kids loved it!



→I love everyone's decorations!

[cronewitch]

Oct 7, 2014 10:17:50 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

Because I remember being the mom, walking around with my kids and wishing I had even just one piece of candy, I now make it a point to offer it to the adults with the kids too.
So far I haven't had a single one say no. 

On the super freezing nights, trick or treating, I was SO grateful for the people that served hot apple cider to all the adults, out with their kids!

One of my daughter's (and mine) favorite 'treats' she was given, was a toothbrush. She reminded me of that a day , or two ago. The dad at that house was a dentist, so they gave out toothbrushes every year. What a great idea! And the kids loved it!



→I love everyone's decorations!

The year they had poison Tylenol I stopped giving candy for a few years since most parents were throwing it away. I liked giving party favors. Now I don't get kids at all so don't buy candy. When I used to get about 5 kids I would buy some candy then if I ran out keep a bowl of money as treats. Mostly pennies with a few nickles and dimes, little kids could take a handful but big kids I would put a handful in their bag. Kids like money but if they were under age 3 I made sure the parents were ok with it, don't want them eating pennies.

[raeoflyte]

Why yes, I do!  I didn't realize *I* was in this picture though until now. 




Still lots more to do though.