I don’t know about you, but Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It’s the time when all the precious little ghouls and goblins appear together on one magical night and sprinkle chilling entertainment throughout the town. It’s the time when people can leave their identity behind and transform into alter egos. What better way to enhance this spine-chilling evening than with outdoor Halloween decorating? Through creating DIY decorations, scavaging local farmstands for natural decor, and purchasing a few unusual trinkets, you can transform your front door, porch and aging backyard and/or frontyard gardens into a haunted extravaganza.
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DIY Projects
Make DIY ghosts for your front yard.
Create a floating ghost to place on your front porch.
Make a life size spooky witch for your yard or porch.
Door Decor and More. Here are some ideas that will welcome your guests with a bit of a fright!
Front Door
Add some store bought spiders and bats. Go to your local farmer’s market to complement them with chrysanthemums and scarecrows. Check out How To Grow Chrysanthemums to keep them looking fresh throughout the fall season.
Hang a scary looking witch on your front door.
Side Window
Add a skeleton scene to a long window in your home.
Here are some creepy cat eyes to illuminate your window!
Front Porch
Tomb stones always add a little fun to the season.
Add an audio effect with some creepy sounding ghouls.
Outdoor lights add a spooky ambience. Replace the white bulbs with black or purple bulbs for a ghostly effect.
Decorate Your House
There is nothing like ghouls and grim reapers to add some more fright!
Halloween Outdoor Scenes
Spiders attached to black creepy gauze make it easy to decorate your home.
Skulls and window coverings are an easy way to create a Halloween scene.
Add a Halloween flag and some bales of hay to an outdoor shed.
More ghouls and mummies, and coffins!
You can’t have enough witches!
Crazy Creatures
These scary creatures will add a fright to your front yard. Try adding some zombies!
Creepy Halloween props.
More costume faces to create a frightening scene.
Creepy zombies.
Other Ideas – Pumpkins and Broomsticks and Witches, Oh My!
It’s easy to create different scenes on a pumpkin by using stencils and proper carving tools.
Hang some broomsticks from trees for a spooky scene.
Free standing witches will keep from year to year.
Conclusion
As you can see there are many ways to decorate for Halloween. You can go the easier, more economical route and create your own decor, or purchase a few accessories that will enhance your look.
Whatever you decide to do, have fun with it. Let your imagination run wild and enjoy the season.
One activity we as a family like to do with friends is have a BYOP–Bring Your Own Pumpkin party. We supply carving utensils and stencils along with some pizza and everyone brings their own pumpkins. The young kids love it!
We also supply some Fresh Mulled Apple Cider.
Ingredients:
- 1 gallon apple cider from a farm stand or supermarket
- 5 to 6 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tsp of nutmeg
- 1 tsp of ground cloves
Recipe:
- Add all ingredients into a large pot over an open fire pit or on a stove.
- Steep for at least one hour.
- Sift the brew.
- Serve with a cinnamon stick as is, or add a splash of rum for a little kick. (Adults only if you add rum!)
At the end of the evening, we illuminate and display all the creations on a table and turn on a fog machine to add a spooky ambience. We then tell scary ghost stories around a firepit. It’s always so much fun!
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Happy Halloween!
Nina
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The spider web looks so real, but I can imagine it’s hard to get rid of it afterwards. I’m not a big decorator, to be honest, but I’m thinking of putting in a little bit more effort this year.
Haloween is only 20 days from now, so I hope I can up with something. I’ll definitely go for the pumpkins and spider web. Any other suggestions that don’t take as much time and are easy to do?
Thanks! I appreciate it.
Gorjan
Thanks Gojan for the comment. Yes, it does take time to remove the spider web. You may even have to cut some branches from the shrubs you displayed it on. But they will grow back.
Try buying pumpkins and paint some faces on them. Or add a hat to the pumpkin and pin it down with straight pins so it doesn’t blow away and paint a scary or funny picture on it. You can group a few together. Also, check out my post https://bestgardeningforbeginners.com/fall-outdoor-decorating-ideas-in-harmony-with-nature/ for some more ideas.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Go to your local farmstand or supermarket and get some chrysanthemums or gourds and decorate with them.
Thanks for commenting and good luck. Send me some pictures after you’ve decorated. I’d love to see them!
Nina
Hi Nina,
Great post just in time for Halloween! I am really impressed with your lawn ghosts, and they are simple enough to get up in plenty of time for the big night. The floating ghost will take a day or two to dry, but i am sure it will scare a few little trick or treaters. One year I sat on my front porch dressed like a living dead person, and was very still looking like a dummy. And when the trick or treaters arrived I quickly stood up! What a delightfully scary Halloween it was!
Another year my wife and I wore very realistic old man and women masks for a granddaughter we knew was coming, she was so frightened she cried. We felt a little bit guilty for that one, but she never forgot it!!
Some of your porch scenes are wonderful, and give me plenty of Ideas!
Thank you for the spooky special post!
Hi Chas. Thanks for the comment. I have to laugh because my husband did the same thing to one of our young neighborhood ghouls! He was sitting very silently and looking quite spooky and then moved and said woooooo. It scared the little girl so much that my husband ran after her saying “Alex, it’s just me!” I think that may have scared her more!!
I have quite a gallery of seasonal pictures that I plan to post real soon. I’m sure you’ll be inspired by some of the photos. So stay tuned!
Nina
These were some really cool decorations! I particularly liked the skeleton scene in the long window. We currently live in an apartment so our options are a bit limited, but I do like driving around the neighborhood to see what others have done. I also like that activity, pumpkin carving, that you listed. It’s been ages since I’ve carved a pumpkin, maybe this year we’ll have to make it happen! Thanks for sharing these awesome ideas to get in the halloween mood!
I’m glad you liked the post. One twist on the story telling is one person starts a story and then the person next to them takes over, and so on. You’d be surprised at what people come up with! We usually do this around the fire in a circle.
Happy Halloween!
Nina
Great stuff.
I loved how these all look real. Although in my country we don’t really celebrate this event but when I moved to another country I had to participate in Halloween and had no ideas and this article came in handy. Thank you.
PS: The Creepy witch loves so scary
I’m glad you liked it. Halloween is really big in the United States. It has really exploded in the last decade or so. Everyone really enjoys decorating their homes. Have a great Halloween!
Nina
Hi Nina, what a pictures! They look so real and it’s certainly super funny to have some of these creations in the backyard. Although these figures are very interesting, I prefer to make something by hand, such as floating ghosts or carving pumpkins. In the video you gave fantastic ideas on how to do it! Thanks also for the recipe for apple cider, it looks so delicious, I will try it.
I can’t wait to start decorating because I enjoy it so much.
Keep writing such creative and interesting texts!
All the best!
Danijela
Thanks so much for the comment. Yes, I like making things too. I’m glad you found the videos useful! My next post will probably be a gallery of Autumnal photos to inspire you. Have a wonderful Halloween!
Nina
I love your ideas and photos for the Halloween decorations, and it’s time for people to splash their creativity, especially after the lockdown. I am surprised that we could use stencils to make our pumpkins, so this is a must-try for me this coming holiday.
They used stencils in the one picture of all the jack-o-lanterns: aka pumpkins! Use a straight pin to keep them on. Once you finish a section, tear that part of the stencil off and continue further. It won’t be exactly like the stencil since you’re putting a flat piece of paper on a round object, but it will be very close!
Have fun this Halloween!
Nina
Thanks for sharing so many awesome ideas.
I can see that I will have some fun decorating with my nieces this year. We missed out last year so will have to make up for it this time.
It’s great to see so much variety of what is possible. I know pumpkins and witches are a must-have, but now I am also inspired to add stuff we haven’t done before.
I’ll share this post with my nieces and let them decide which direction we should take.
Thanks for the ideas 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed my post. Yes, I feel we all missed out on a lot of things last year. At least we’re headed in the right direction now! Send me a picture of your decorating. I’d love to see it. Have fun with your nieces!
Nina