Decorating for Halloween

A few years ago, my family decided that it was time to go all out with our Halloween decorations. We'd always decorated for the trick-or-treaters, but this time my teenagers wanted something really scary and special. The only problem was that I was out of work at the time. Just how were we going to create a great effect on a tight budget?

We sat down to brainstorm ideas. At first it was hard, because everything my girls thought of had a price attached to it. When added together, I thought our tight budget of $15 would not only be stretched tight, but it would no longer resemble a budget at all.

Amy wanted dancing ghosts made of white satin and gauze. Caroline thought we should build a backdrop on the porch that resembled a graveyard. And both of them insisted we build a full set of gravestones with mummies traipsing about.

"Not only can we not afford all that, but just how would we fit it together on our porch?" I exclaimed, staring hopelessly at the girls. Our porch was small... not exactly tiny, but not roomy, either.

Both girls assured me that they would take care of everything, from buying what we needed to figuring out how to create our haunted house. "You just need to give us the money and we'll do the rest, mom." With some misgivings, I handed over the cash.

I was amazed as I watched my daughters work over the next two weeks. Not only were they were inspired, dedicated, and hard-working, they also exhibited a willingness to work together to achieve their goal. Not that arguments didn't erupt, now and then, but they managed to smooth over their differences, in order to get the job done.

Once finished, I was amazed by the cleverly intricate design. No, they did not stay in budget, but I am happy to say that they managed to keep the entire project at an affordable 18 dollars and 49 cents.

• A couple of old white sheets were sewn together and used as the backdrop. This "canvas" was painted with old paint leftover from numerous household projects and stored in the garage. The backdrop showed a classic haunted house with a graveyard surrounding it.
• In front of the backdrop, the girls had built several gravestones from cardboard boxes they got from grocery stores willing to give them away. Each gravestone was able to stand on its own. They were painted in gray, with black lettering for the names of the deceased.
• They purchased some black twill fabric from the clearance table at our local fabric store. This fabric was torn into long strips, which were stapled to the porch ceiling for a gloomy effect.
• Ghosts were created from a couple of old pillowcases (matching the white sheets they had gleaned from our linen closet. The ghost heads were made by stuffing each pillowcase with a throw pillow. Beneath the throw pillows, they tied some twine, which was long enough to also staple to the porch ceiling. The pillowcases actually resembled ghosts flying through the black strips of fabric.
• More one dimensional gravestones were created using the extra cardboard; duct tape attached large dowels (purchased from a home improvement store) to the back of these gravestones. dowels, purchased from a home improvement store. The dowels were pushed into our yard at various angles, so that the graveyard began at the front of our walkway.
• A headless adult mummy was created by stuffing old clothes with more old clothes and throw pillows, all bought at a second hand store. Some surgical gauze was wrapped around the mummy in tatters. An infant mummy was dressed in a sleeper and also wrapped with tattered surgical gauze. These figures were placed in the midst of the black strips hanging from the ceiling, mostly hidden from view until someone crested our porch steps and braved stepping through the fabric blackness.
• They used twine and cotton balls to create spider webs at strategic places. The cotton balls were stretched apart until they were in thin layers of almost see-through cotton.

New purchases consisted of 2 yards of 60" black twill, a small paintbrush for lettering, twine, surgical gauze, and 3-4'dowels. A second-hand store provided several throw pillows, old clothing and a baby sleeper. In our own supplies, we had duct tape, cotton balls, staples, old paint, and a large paint brush.

I was dazzled by the result. Who knew that Amy and Caroline's imaginations could create such a fun and "scary" scene? Our house was the hit of the neighborhood that year.