The thrill of Halloween begins at the entry of your yard. The trip along the walkway and up to your front door should be scary enough to leave your trick or treaters shuddering with excitement.
With a little imagination and effort, your ordinary yard can be transformed into a ghostly site. Chicken wire shaped to form empty ball dresses and sprayed with luminary paint become ghostly figures that hover over gravestones made of cardboard. The gravestones can be easily cut from sturdy cardboard, painted black, and placed strategically to create the perfect graveyard. If you want to go a little further, you could paint an epitaph on each “stone” with glow in the dark paint. A few portable yard lights will reflect the writing and give everything that eerie graveyard feel.
Illuminated “eyes” hung from the trees or placed around the yard are easily created with empty toilet paper rolls. Simply cut almond shaped slits in the cardboard roll to represent the eyes. Spray paint the rolls and when dry, place a string through each end if you choose to hang them. Finally, place a glow in the dark stick inside each roll. Once the lights go out, the eyes will be upon each trick or treater.
No Halloween “graveyard” would be complete without a skeleton. Everyone knows that the best way to view a skeleton is in a coffin, preferably near a grave. To set the stage, use an old suit coat bag and paint it black or dark gray. Purchase a life-sized inexpensive plastic skeleton from a party store. When the suit coat bag is dry, place the skeleton in it and zip it just enough to see the face of the skeleton peeking out. Elevate the coffin with a cardboard box near the top so that the face can be clearly seen. Try to place the elevation box so it is not visible from the front of the coffin or paint it the color of the coffin. The placement of this ghoulish scene can create a thrill even for the strong at heart. Most Halloween decorations are already out on the store shelves. A wide selection of every ghoulish thing imaginable is available at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores.
Halloween isn’t all about the candy. After the holiday is over, no one will think about the candy. It’s the setting that will linger in a child’s memory for years to come, and the experience could become a family tale that is told each year on Halloween about the spooky house down the street.
Image Source: Flickr/Shawn Campbell
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