Getting ready for Halloween

Halloween should be extra fun this year. My 3-year old son is getting to the age where he anticipates holidays and events more than before — plus we have his playhouse to decorate! 

So over the weekend we slowly began the process of digging out the Halloween decorations from the basement and decorating our house and yard. I'd say we're about half done at this point, and each year we try to add or switch things up a bit.  Sure it's kind of tacky, but Halloween shouldn't be taken seriously. It's for the young, and young-at-heart, to enjoy. Because we have a little one, I focus my Halloween decor on the silly and cute.

We use the traditional haybales, cornstalks, pumpkins, and gourds.  We encircle the door with leaf garlands and lights.  Then come October, we start adding in the Halloween things...witches, bats, ghosts, spider webs, etc...

Out comes the stuffed Frankenstein...

My homemade scarecrow...

The light-up pumpkin shadow boxes we made years ago...

Some hanging bats...

Signs...

Skeletons...

jack-o-lanterns...

Our infamous chanting ghost tree that we've been doing for years...

(it looks so cute, and just a little eerie at night when the flaming cauldron and the ghost lanterns are lit)

Every year, my son gets the biggest kick out of it!

...especially lit up at night.

Everyone in our neighborhood enjoys it.

We get hundreds of kids, many from other communities.

Does your neighborhood do it up big for Halloween?