Easy (and Inexpensive) Decorating for Halloween

You’ve probably figured it out just by driving around your neighborhood, but Halloween is the second most decorated holiday in America (after Christmas). Obviously people enjoy decorating their homes as well as themselves, but sometimes the cost of creating the scariest house on the block can just get to be too much. If you’d like your house to be the one the kids are talking about the next day, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, here are some inexpensive ideas for decorating your home (and yourself).

Grow a spooky forest by gathering some broken or trimmed tree branches and painting them black. Arrange them in small pots or even stick them into the ground and spray them with a can of spider web spray from a party store.

Infest the forest with creepy crawlers by hanging some plastic spiders or bats cut from black construction paper on pieces of fishing line.

Dump a body on the lawn. Got some old clothes in the back of your closet? Create a torso to sit on your porch or front step by filling the pants and shirt with leaves from your yard. Stuff a pair of old panty hose with white poly fill (pillow stuffing) to be the head or just leave it headless.

Sever a wrist. How about a spooky light that looks like a dismembered hand. Fill a latex glove with Plaster of Paris and while it’s still wet, wrap the glove around a battery powered candle. Once the Plaster of Paris has dried, take off the glove and put red paint around the wrist to look like blood then set it near the torso.

Dig a grave. Old wooden boards or foam sheets can be made into crosses or grave markers and some dollar store fencing can provide a border for your graveyard.

Stomp a path. Create giant footprints leading up to your door by cutting the shape of a foot from a large sponge (car wash sponge) then dipping it in washable paint.

Dim the lights by installing orange bulbs in your porch lights or draping the lights with a piece of sheer cloth to give your entrance a spooky glow.

Howl at the moon. Finish the spooky exterior by recording some scary sounds and screams then playing them when people come to your door.
Now for the Inside:

Craft a web. Use your spider web spray to create a giant spider web in a corner where trick-or-treaters can see it when they’re at your door.

Feed the creepy creatures by decorating around the outside of your candy bowl with plastic spiders, snakes and worms then ask the little ghosts and goblins to reach in and help themselves.

Burn a number of candles to provide the light at your entrance way.

Billow a spooky fog at your entrance by putting some dry ice into a pail of water and placing a small fan nearby to move it around.
Don’t Forget to Dress Yourself in the Halloween Mood

Bare your fangs as a Vampire with an inexpensive black cape, some fangs (from the dollar store) and some makeup on your face.

Scrub for surgery by dressing in a surgical mask and scrubs with paint markings that look like blood spatters.