Halloween, who else goes nuts decorating?

I spend the summer puttering around making scary things for the yard, or for in the house, I Figure I'm a bit out there when it comes to this, but surely there are others who go the extra mile to scare the neighborhood kids!

Here are some pics of some props jammed into the yard at the last minute for last years party the week before Halloween. I get a bit more involved for the kids on Halloween, just rarely take pics, since I'm usually in makeup hiding in the yard waiting to leap out of the fog and make some kid whiz his costume. Maybe I will get pics and video this year of some of the props.

the walk up to the house:


Cheapie foam ground-breaker at the cemetery fence:


Rotisserie corpse spinning over the coals, sorry its so dark, gotta dig up (ahem) more pics taken during setup:


So am I the only one? I want to see your decorations! I would also like to know, did you buy or build them?

You're not! Halloween is my favorite time of the year. I too spend the summer getting ready. I've set up numerous electronics and pneumatics for devices here and there. I built a witch that has glow in the dark liquid coming out of her nose and into a smoking cauldron. I pulse UV light at specific intervals to make it look as if the drops go back up her nose or are stationary. I've also built a jacob's ladder (2 copper rods connected to a neon sign transformer). A "bolt of lightning" rides up the copper rods making this ZZZZAP noise. But it's dangerous. I also do a skeleton in a casket connected to some PVC and pneumatics that quickly comes out at you when someone walks by. Other than that, just a bunch of other stuff all over the place with fog machines, music, movies and stuff. Oh, I also do an illusion that makes it seem as if an object is there but ghost like. You can see it, but when you go to reach for it your hand just touches air. I'll take pics this year for our party on the 30th!

The rotisserie is awesome!

SWMBO LOVES Halloween, and goes crazy decorating. Not as much as azscoob, though!
My job is to answer the door. I love harassing the kids.
"Trick or Treat!"
"Hmmm. Ok, I'll take a trick."
"Umm...what?"
"You gave me a choice of a trick or a treat. I want to see a trick."
"NO! You're supposed to give us a treat!"
"Says who?"
"M-O-M-M-M-M!!!"
I learned VERY quickly NOT to do that when the cute High School girls came to the door!!! You DON'T want to ask jailbait for a trick! OR a treat!!!



I haven't cared about the holiday since the days of grown-up costume parties, and that was mostly for naughty fun!

I used to dream about getting all kinds of stuff made for Halloween, but anymore I just have no time for it all. I have dressed up for friends parties and gone out with the kids every year though. A couple of years ago I dressed up as a cop and got a number of ladies asking to be handcuffed. Too bad most of them looked like their meth dealers do that for them on a regular basis...

I also have a flying crank ghost hidden up in the tree, you can sort of see the sign in the top pic that reads Hell, it is pointing to a lava tube that smokes and glows red, a nice skeleton hand coming out as well. its just a 5 gal pail cut down and covered in great stuff foam, painted up to look like lava, it has a sonic mister with red LEDs to light it up.

Too country to bother and the ceiling is too low for the monster web. I do enjoy other people's efforts. One place in McM always has a witch and broom wrapped around a utility pole.

here is a shot of the rotisserie guy when I was testing everything prior to aging the ropes, and hiding the motor. this year another skeleton is turning a crank on the end.

The extent of my participation is that I give out full sized candy bars. Halloween is pretty dead around here; I think we had 10 trick or treaters. I am hoping word gets around about the full sized candy bars and brings more kids to our place. Because I really enjoyed trick or treating as a kid and it bums me out that these kids don't even do it anymore.

I don't normally decorate.. i just find candy that is really good but hard to find to put in the baskets.
Kids love 'em... parents can't find them for repeat consumption.

I are evil.


This year... It's Banana flavored KitKats found at a Japanese market.

As far as decorating goes, I live in a condo so I'll probably put some Crime scene tape up in the doorway and an Evidence seal sticker on the door.

I love Halloween. We bought our house earlier this year and I've been remodeling it so I haven't had time to decorate. But, wait til next year and I'll go all out. My wife is a teacher so I'm sure we'll get plenty of Trick or Treaters.