If you’re anything like us, then you LOVE to decorate your house for Halloween just as much, if not more so, than Christmas. In fact, there are significantly more options for decorating your home for Halloween than Christmas. Think about it…Halloween decor goes far beyond Christmas lights and the cheesy yard inflatables!

First thing’s first…

The first key ingredient to the standard Halloween decoration are pumpkins and/or jack-o-lanterns. If you put nothing else out to celebrate the season, you should at least get some pumpkins and put in the effort to carve some cool jack-o-lanterns. This is the cornerstone of all other Halloween decorations! If you don’t have them then you’re the Grinch of Halloween. Kidding…but you shouldn’t overlook them. Make sure to check out our pumpkins and carving page for more on these.

Other Fall Plants That Make Great Decoration

Back when I was growing up a common thing we used to decorate the landscaping around the house were corn stalks. Not the green, leafy corn. The dry, dead corn that makes you think of fall. We would use twine to tie bundles of the stalks around porch posts, mailboxes, and pretty much anything upright that could be accented. It is pretty easy to do, simply stack the corn around the object and then tie it tightly around it. It is important that these are tied taut because if not they WILL fall over and you will have to re-decorate throughout the month. Another great option is to pick-up some Halloween colored strands of lights (similar to Christmas lights) and intertwine it throughout the corn. It makes for a really nice look for your home. You can also put the lights up around the house like you would with Christmas lights, but usually I prefer to differentiate my decorations from my Christmas decorations as much as possible to make it more fun.

Another staple in our house were straw bails. We would use them to stack our many pumpkins, create a seat for our scarecrow prop, and sometimes even create a straw bail passageway with a built in scare for our trick-or-treaters. One word of caution to those considering it for a home haunt, these are flammable so be VERY careful doing much with them. They do give a unique look and it has the great smell of straw (which just smells like fall), but not the safest option. Some of my neighbors even used the large round straw bails and painted the side to look like a giant pumpkin which I always found clever.

Beyond the Traditional Decor Standards

Now that we’ve covered the basics, its time to discuss the decorations that are beyond the simple, down home decor. For more advanced, more spooky decor, it is important to come up with some kind of theme for what you are doing. Such as a haunted graveyard, vampires, Frankenstein, your favorite horror movie, or you can even do a mix of things if you prefer. Once you’ve decided what kind of theme you want to go with, then try to come up with a basic layout of how you want your yard and house to look. Do you want 10 headstones or just 5? Do you want to build a crypt with fog rolling out of it or do you just want to put fog somewhere? You’ll need to think of how you will light these items around the yard. Traditionally, the cheapest way is with utility can lights you can pick up from Wal-Mart or Home Depot then simply put colored bulbs in them. If you’re really ambitious (an eco friendly), LED pin spots made by Gantom Lighting are incredible. These are what many of the haunted houses use to light their attractions. Very easy to use!

There are so many options that you can do for your decorations, you are only limited by your imagination. Just remember, make it cool and make it scary! More great info coming!