Halloween?

Question

Hi! My family just moved into a new community and halloween is coming up (sort of). We want to make a good impression on the neighbors and have the best trick or treating house. I would like some ideas for a great halloween house. What candy? What decorations? Should my dad hide in the bushes and scare people with a chainsaw? ;)

Answer 1

I'd advise against your father hiding in the bushes. It might be too much for the littlest ones in your neighborhood, especially since you're new to the community and your want to make a good impression. Still, I'm up for a good scare. Care to join me?

I have to tell you that I don't dress up for Halloween, but I am proud to say that I have the best-dressed house on the block when it comes to All Hallows Eve. I try to balance the effects between the macabre and the not so frightening. As my display has grown each year, I've begun setting up earlier and earlier in the season. This year I plan to start placing fall figures near the house on the Autumn Solstice. I will begin building my actual Halloween display on October 1.

Here's some of what people have come to expect from me. I place four large inflatables around the front yard to draw the attention of passing motorists, as I live adjacent to a busy thoroughfare, including the Homer I use as my avatar, a vampire Bart sitting atop a stack of jack-o'-lanterns, an enormous spider and another huge jack-o'-lantern. I'll transform the yard into a cemetery using very expensive and very realistic looking tombstones--not the cheap ones you see some people display. I place two other large static figures near the front door, one a mummy and the other a "Gjenganger." I'll create mad scientist tables filled with the gruesome, like hundreds--and I mean hundreds--of realistic spiders and insects crawling everywhere, including some gigantic ones touched by radiation, boiling cauldrons, disintegrating hearts and brains, percolating blood and maggots, an alien autopsy, and life-size reptiles ready to pounce on the meek. I set up a glow-in-the-dark tent over the driveway last year that guests had to pass through to reach the front door. Within they heard haunting music and eerie sounds. Glow sticks hung from the ceiling. I laid out a Ouija board for people to play--but no one did. I plan on doing something slightly different this year. I will build an even larger jack-o'-lantern wall, filled with dozens of intricately carved "fun-kins" that I can reuse year after year. Last year I carved 24 jack-o'-lanterns, this year I plan to add an equal amount to the wall and yard. Skeletons and ghouls will again hang from the trees. Ghosts will roam the yard. Adjacent to the house I will place fun Halloween figures so as not to scare the wee ones completely. Crows and ravens will sit on the haystacks I will place near the stoop. I'll light torches and lanterns to guide my guests to the entrance. I'll decorate the large spruce tree with Halloween lights--it's my Halloween Tree. I have placed eerie faces on the other deciduous trees and they remain there all year long. I'll personally march out bloody steps a half-block from my house again to the front door. I'll lay out paper jack-o'-lantern luminaries along the sidewalk. I'll also place many skulls on posts to deter trespassers. I'll encircle the yard with crime tape. Finally, I will give out gobs of candy and trinkets, including skull and body parts key chains and skeleton key rings. I have spent literally thousands of dollars on my Halloween display over the years and I expect to spend hundreds if not thousands this year.

Trick or Treat?

Happy Halloween!

Answer 2

Judge how much candy you will need based on your street. Ask these questions:
a)Are there already a lot of kids?
b)How long is the street?
c)How well kept up is the street?
d)How close together are the houses? &c. Maybe talk to the neighbors. The street I live on is really long, the houses are close together, it's well lit, safe, the police station and hospital are near by, and one year we went through 19 bags of candy and had to turn of the light. However less people trick or treat anymore. We have a store within walking distance so if we run out we can buy more, but don't go on Halloween or the day before because they will run out of candy.

For decorations drive to the local kmart or something and see what they have. There are skeletons, tombstone, that cottony spider web stuff, scary music, strobe lights fog, jack-o-lanterns, &c.

Someone down the street from my house did the chainsaw thing, but he stayed out on the lawn the entire time so noone would get hurt in surprise (one little brave cow boy started shooting him with a water gun! So cute ^_^) or gave a warning and did it on the porch with lots of fake blood and body parts.

I hope I helped!

Answer 3

I'd vote no for the chainsaw. There are kids of varying ages and you can terrify some of the little ones. It's also tough with groups coming and going at the same time to work out the logistics of a good pop-out-and-scare.
Personally I like having several carved pumpkins with candles and different types of electric lights. A graveyard on the front yard is good- styrofoam headstones with funny names and sayings, cobwebs, fake limbs sticking out of the ground, what have you.
As for what to give out- I like to go for something other than candy. They get candy everywhere so unless you go for very expensive candy they won't notice. My secret is to go the sales they have every year at Walgreens. I wait for all the bags and trinkets to get down to 75% off and I buy a lot of them. I put together little packages with a small candy, a spider ring, and a toy of some kind, a sticker or two and a pencil- getting them at 75% off and saving them for a year makes being generous inexpensive. A good alternative is buying some glow sticks- it's a safety thing for the kids walking around and everyone asks where they got them so your house gets a reputation.
I always wear a costume of some sort. But remember that some little kids will be scared no matter what the costume is. You can decorate inside (only where they can see with the front door open) with things like dry ice and radiator fluid for the eerie mist effect.
You can download sound effects off the internet if you look around.
Don't try to get all your stuff at once, add over the years and don't make it overkill. As long as you are all having fun, it should be contagious.

Answer 4

The chainsaw idea is great. You could also get a wooden box made up like a coffin and you dress up and climb out of it. Scary music in the background is good as well. Candy is what the kids around here judge you by...lol. I always go for chocolate...mini bars of various kinds. Have fun!

Answer 5

By all means have your dad come out of the bushes with a chain saw (not running) and mom at the door with white make-up to appear as a ghost, serve mini-candy bars, they make great snacks for the next few days.

Answer 6

MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY!

I suggest the following, which we all do:
We become a family of monsters.
We do most of the makeup using anything we can find.
I set up two or three stereos or boomboxes. Put scary music on one, and get a cd or tape that plays horror or torture sounds or scary laughing. TURN THEM WAY UP.
The whole house is lit ONLY by candles - everywhere.
I put up a huge (lifesize) cardboard CryptKeeper which you can buy on line. I set it up so that it blocks the rest of the house - that way you can concentrate on making your entranceway scary and not worry about the rest.
Put blinking lights (strobe) outside, or lots of pumpkins with candles in them.
I hang spiderwebs all around the doorways. There are also scary things that work with a blacklight (I put that in my lamp) -
you can get all this stuff at walmart or anywhere except the crypt keeper. it's cheap, easy and fun! get the bowl with the hand that moves when someone tries to get candy. Boo!

Answer 7

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!

Yeah that chainsaw thing would be great.
Throw out a big variety of candy,, just make sure it is wrapped.

Decorate however you want, Halloween is about freedom of expression.

Answer 8

The chainsaw might scare little kids so I wouldn't do that.A guy around our house dresses up as a scarecrow in a chair and when kids come by he jumps up.Then he gives them candy. Kids love gummy stuff.

Answer 9

YEA!!! Your dad should definatly hide in the bushes with a chainsaw!!! This way you don't have to give out candy...they will be to scared and run away....but if you want to give out candy then i suggest Reese cups....there awsome.

Answer 10

Fiona the Human, mixed with Ciel Phantomhive, I'm gonna have Ciel's hair and eypatch, with the clothes of Fiona. I know it sounds stupid, but i want to be both Ciel and Fiona, so im just mixing it up. Plus, I did order a Ciel costume, it's not gonna ship until next week. (and it's coming from Hong Kong)