Door Scenes

One way to decorate your front door for Halloween is to create a small scene around the door. You might stand a witch prop on one side of the door and place a cauldron at her feet. On the other side of the door, put a black cat prop. On the door itself, hang a haunted mirror. Cover your porch light with a Halloween porch light cover that casts a greenish glow over the scene.

Door Signs and Covers

Door signs are another way to make your door decorations blend in with your party theme without going to a lot of extra effort. Halloween door signs with foreboding warnings like “Haunted House” or “Danger: Keep Out” are easy to find and generally cost no more than $10. For a quick scare, try the motion activated ones that make noise when the door opens.

Then there are more specific door signs like a glowing sign that announces “Bates Motel. Vacancy.” for a Psycho-themed party or “Overlook Hotel. Vacancy.” for a Shining-themed party. Door covers can work well, too. These are plastic posters large enough to cover the whole door and printed with a scene like ghosts floating around in a starry night sky.

Halloween Door Toppers: One-Step Decor

If you want to dress up your door, but don’t want to put out a lot of decorations, get a Halloween door topper, also called a door curtain or fringe. These sit on the upper ledge of the door from where a scary figure like Freddy Kruger or a vampire looks down on approaching guests. From the topper, strips of plastic or fabric hang down over the door opening to create a creepy passageway into the house.

Simple, Fun Halloween Door Decorations

Just a few basic decorations can look fine, too, especially if you’re having a kids’ Halloween party. Put on a porch light cover in the shape of a ghost, Jack-o-lantern or other Halloween symbol. Then add a doorknob cover or hanger. On the door, hang a prop like a skeleton or ghost. Alternatively, just put up a poster or 3D wall décor. Halloween wreaths also make simple door décor. And, of course, don’t forget to put your real or Funkin Pumpkin Jack-o-lantern by the door.

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Scary Jack-o-lantern Decorations

Your average pumpkin isn’t particularly scary until you put a face on it at which point, of course, it becomes a Jack-o-lantern. If you’re not up to carving your own this year, look for a plastic battery operated model with a sinister grin and glowing red eyes. Some also produce sound effects or make comments when a motion sensor is triggered. Place one of these Halloween pumpkin decorations on your porch, in a window or hanging up in some other visible spot.

Halloween Pumpkin Lights

Jack-o-lanterns aren’t the only pumpkins that give off that eerie glow. Frame your windows or door with strings of pumpkin mini lights. Dress up your porch light with a pumpkin porch light cover. Another way to help guests make it to your door is set up some pumpkin driveway markers (electric lights you stick in the ground) or pumpkin tiki torches.

Indoors, get a pumpkin nightlight for your kid’s room or to light the way to the bathroom. Glowing pumpkin window decorations, which you stick on the window, are another simple decoration.

Pumpkin Tableware

Halloween pumpkin decorations for the table come in just about every type you can think of. Cover your refreshments table with a pumpkin patterned tablecloth. The pumpkin’s round shape also makes it ideal for plates and serving bowls. If you’ll be serving cocktails, pick up some pumpkin coasters and drink stirrers.

Dining by candle light? Ceramic pumpkin candle holders come in both cute and spooky versions. For something a little earthier, carve out some mini-pumpkins and turn them into candle holders.

Smiling Pumpkins and Friendly Jack-o-lanterns

Ceramic and terra cotta pumpkin, pumpkin pie scented candles, and carved wooden garlands make attractive Halloween home décor. Pumpkin piñatas, windsocks, window clings, stuffed toy pumpkins are great for kids’ parties. Pumpkins in costume also make good light-hearted decorations.

Put a pumpkin in a witch’s hat or stick a set of construction paper vampire teeth on it. Pumpkin painting is another popular way of dressing up a pumpkin without carving it. If you like carving, but don’t like the mess, try a Funkin Pumpkin. These are carvable foam pumpkins that come in several different shapes. These Halloween pumpkin decorations are fine outdoors, but you can’t use a candle inside them.

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Light, Sound, and More

If you’re on a budget, one cheap way to get interesting outdoor Halloween lights is to go with the typical string of mini lights, but look for a set in an unusual style. Some play blink, play music or talk. Look for more elaborate shapes like skeletons or spiders or a variety of light shapes like alternating skulls and headstones. Fabric ghost lights and Halloween icicle lights are other unique options. If you want something a little mellower than the average bright mini lights, look for LED Halloween lights.

Path lighting and Driveway Markers

Use electric or solar Halloween outdoor lighting to mark your driveway or the path to your door. If you’re planning a party or expecting trick-or-treaters, this is especially important. It’s all too easy to stumble on a poorly lit path, especially when you’re wearing a costume and looking at yard decorations.

Orange jack-o-lanterns, skeleton or monster hands, skulls in a variety of colors, and witches’ hats are all popular styles for path and driveway lighting. For something a little different, try floating ghost lights. These are white plastic ghost lights on top of a black rod you stick in the ground. At night, the black rod isn’t visible and the ghosts seem to float in mid air.

Light-up Decorations

Light up decorations won’t do much to improve visibility outside your home, but they’re still a lot of fun. Porch light covers are one of the easiest outdoor Halloween lights to install. Just hang the cover over your existing porch light.

If you don’t have a porch light, set a “haunted lantern” by your door. These battery operated decorations make spooky noises when the motion sensor is triggered. You can also find hanging outdoor Halloween props equipped with lights. These are typically white figures like ghosts, mummies, and zombies. And of course, Halloween pumpkin lights never go out of style.

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Realistic Ghosts

I’m not talking about a garbage bag with a newspaper-stuffed head here. What you want, at least for your main ghost, is something that looks like it used to be human. A life-sized figure with a human, albeit twisted, face and skin that’s either white or greenish works well. The eyes may be either empty holes or “alive” looking.

If budget isn’t an issue, look into a ghost illusion prop. These make semi-transparent, 3D and very realistic looking ghosts appear and disappear. They’re good scares, but can run to $2000 or more. A cheaper option is a Halloween special effects “scary faces” DVD running on a TV placed in a window.

Ghoul in a Cage

This one’s blessedly (or should I say “cursedly?”) cheap and easy. Pick up a suitably unsettling looking ghoul or other creature. The creepiest ones tend to look at least partly human, which makes you think such a thing “could be real.” Put your critter in a cage such as a small dog kennel or fence covered with chicken wire. Scatter dismembered body parts from the ghoul’s dinner and splash fake blood to taste.

Witches’ Coven

Depending on your budget or inclination to make your own props, your coven may be a party of two or half a dozen. Give your girls a cauldron that steams (equipped with a fogger). Supply them with spell books made from Styrofoam or plywood. Make sure each has a broom, too. Add a few black cats and ravens, as well as bats suspended from the trees.

The Devil and his Demons

For this you’ll need one—just one, but as realistic as you can find—devil prop. Skip the cutesy red guys with friendly smiles and get one that looks like he’s real enough to reach out and grab your soul. Good demons are fairly cheap. You don’t really need a lot of detail because they’ll be viewed from a distance. You can even animated tree-hanging demons for between $10 to $30. In addition to the tree hanging models, pick up a few demon dogs to guard your property.

Criminally Insane on the Loose

Where there’s one escaped psycho, there are bound to be others. Place your best dangerous wacko crouching in the bushes where he appears to be hiding, but is easy enough to see. Then put his fellow crazies partially hidden behind trees or other objects. The idea is to set the scene with one obvious prop and make a few others hard to see until your right up on them. If done right, just for a second, your guests will think someone’s really lurking there. Decorate with appropriate weapons like bloody machetes. A discarded “muzzle” mask or other restraints also suggest danger.

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Enhance Your Skeleton

Few Halloween skeleton decorations are impressive right out of the box. That’s not such a bad thing because half the fun of using skeleton décor is seeing how gruesome you can make it look. Turn your skeleton into a corpse by coat the bones in latex, stretch a gauzy cotton material like cheese cloth over the sticky bones. When dry, paint and corpsify to as you like.

Animated Halloween Skeleton Decorations

Part of the reason human skeletons give us the creeps is that somewhere in the back of our minds, we’re afraid the thing is going to come to live. Play into that fear with a motorized, motion-sensor activated skeleton that rattles and shivers when someone walks by. Extras like flashing and jangling chains add to the effect. The most basic animated skeleton props start at around $50, but you can find torsos, arms and skulls for less.

Set a Scene

A skeleton is a lot scarier when you let your guests’ imaginations work on what made that skeleton in the first place. Instead of leaving your skelly lying around by himself, create the scene of his demise. Cover a large area with spider webs and place a giant spider inside. Lay the skeletal remains of one of the spider’s recent victims, wrapped in webs or not, beneath him. Create a prison scene complete with rats and chains. Dress your skeleton in striped prisoner garb and ankle shackles. Put your skeleton in pirate hat and stick a plastic cutlass through his ribs.

If you’ve got a graveyard scene in your yard, include some “ground breaking” Halloween skeleton decorations. These are the upper body and hands (sometimes other parts) of the skeleton designed to look like the undead is digging out from the grave.

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Truly Scary Halloween Ghost Decorations

A decent ghost decoration isn’t that hard to manufacture, so even the moderately priced props can look disturbingly realistic. These are typically the models with a carefully detailed face that looks properly undead. Hang one of these ghosts in a corner of the ceiling in the bathroom or hallway, where your guests will least expect it.

String up some white ghost lights (a string of holiday lights in ghostly shapes) or a banner of paper gut-out ghosts. Light your living room with a ghost lamp that glows an eerie purple, green, or pure white.

Friendly Ghosts

Whether your party is for kids or adults, a few Casper-style friendly ghosts lighten the mood a little. Cute inflatable Halloween ghost decorations are cheap and easy to hang. Ghosts decorations are also some of the easiest to make yourself. Make little ghosts by wrapping gauzy material around lollipops and securing the “neck” with ribbon. Create large outdoor ghosts large white trash bags by stuffing one corner with newspaper, tying the neck with string or ribbon, and if you want, drawing on a face.

Deaden up your refreshments table with a ghost serving bowl, ghost-printed plates and napkins, and other Halloween party tableware.

Haunted Objects

Haunted Halloween party decorations change and move seemingly all by themselves. In reality, of course, they move when the internal mechanisms are set off by a motion detector or timer. When set up just right, few things scare guests more than a seemingly normal object that starts moving and talking like a thing possessed. Take the “haunted radio” for example described at the ScaryGuys.com Website.

For a simpler haunted item, try a changing portrait that shifts from a normal face to gruesome apparition depending on your angle. That added haunted atmosphere will make your Halloween ghost decorations that much scarier.

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Indoor Halloween witch decorations

If you’re working with a witch theme for your Halloween party, a good quality life-sized witch prop will do a lot. A simple standing or hanging witch prop, without sound or animation, can be for less than $50. If you really want to go all out, look for an animated talking witch prop.

Cheaper models go for less than $100, moderate high quality ones for around $250 and professional haunted house props can easily top $1000. In addition to life-sized models, witch dolls, posters, window clings and other Halloween witch decorations range in style from the friendly good witch variety to the scary Blair witch type.

Witch accessories

Besides the witches themselves, add some Halloween witch decorations to help your witches feel at home. Pointy black witches’ hats, flowing capes, witch shoes with curling toes and of course, brooms.

A few books of witches’ spells, tarot cards, crystal balls and other magical objects will help you witches get some work done, too. In addition to the traditional ravens and black cats, fill your house with other spooky animals like bats, owls, spiders, snakes, and lizards.

Lighten the mood a little with a crashing witch decoration (a flattened “crashed” witch you mount on your wall so only her back is visible). Use serving wear shaped like cauldrons and goblin hands and ornate goblets to serve your witch’s brew.

Outdoor Halloween witch decorations and scenes

Use heavy cardboard (or plywood, if you’re handy with a saw) to cut out the silhouette of a hunched over witch. Place her in front of a fogging cauldron. Add a few of her familiars, like black cats and ravens. Set up a fog machine and replace your porch light with a green light to add to the eerie atmosphere.

Put out a few extra cauldrons, possibly with a ghouls or goblins peeking over the edges. Give your garden witch a sister and hang her, mounted on her broom stick, from a nearby tree. Before you buy Halloween witch decorations for your yard, though, make sure they’re made for outdoor use.

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Autumnal theme

If you like breaking out the Halloween decorations the first day of October, consider a fall theme. The main benefit is that seasonal décor wears better, so you’re less likely to be bored with it by the time October 31st rolls around. It’s also less limiting. You’re no longer restricted to orange and black, but also have red, brown and yellow, and deep green to work with.

The main theme here is the harvest. Place a bunch of dry corn stocks and gourds near your door and a wreath of colored leaves on the door itself. As Halloween approaches, start adding more holiday-specific décor. Replace the pumpkins with Jack-o-lanterns and hang a ghost in the nearest tree.

Cute and Kid-friendly

If you have kids around, provided they haven’t yet been desensitized to gruesome decorations, you may want to keep the décor in the “cute and charming” department. Friendly looking ghosts and scarecrows, smiling Jack-o-lanterns, and black cats wearing orange bows all add a touch of spookiness without giving the kids nightmares. Reasonably well-mannered witches and vampires also tend to go over well with kids. Any one of these figures can be found as useful items like soap dishes, throw pillows, rugs and lamps.

Spooky Gothic and Victorian Décor

You don’t need to live in a dilapidated mansion to get the creepy look of an abandoned haunted house. String fake cobwebs on the trees and shrubs around your home. Mount a gargoyle over the door (extra points for glowing eyes) or frame the doorway in a Gothic . Then add a few rats or ravens to the mix.

Inside the house, more spider webs and gargoyles will look great. Hang a “changing portrait” in among your family portraits. Replace your ordinary home décor and items with a Gothic style clock, candelabras and wall lighting, chalices or goblets, crosses and elaborately framed mirrors. If you get tired of the Gothic or Victorian, bring in a few unusual pieces of Egyptian home décor for the mysterious feel of ancient Egypt.

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Choosing Your Halloween Props

The only down side of a lot of Halloween props is the price. Some of the better haunted house props go for $200 or more. It’s not unusual to find professional quality animated props priced at over a thousand dollars. In the upper price range, they typically have very realistic detail and look good close up.

Some of the cheaper Halloween decorations, props, and supplies look fine from a distance, but when you get within a few feet in decent lighting, you can tell it’s “a fake.” That means if you’re looking for outdoor decorations, you really don’t need to spend a lot. For indoor or haunted house props, though, the more realistic the better. Still, you can get some excellent props for less than $50. Even $25 can get you something fairly nice.

The quality you need also depends on how often you’re planning to use the props. Although you can use Halloween props year after year, they may only be worth the investment if you’re having a fairly large Halloween party, setting up a yard display for a steady stream of trick-or-treaters or designing a whole haunted house.

Animated Halloween Props

The best animated Halloween decorations, props and models provide an element of surprise. They move or talk when your guests–or even you–least expect it. Most work with a motion sensor, but others turn on at random or are switch activated.

Remember that scary props don’t necessarily have to look like Halloween decorations. When there’s a zombie standing by the door, you kind of expect it to do something. It’s a lot scarier when a seemingly normal object starts acting like it’s possessed. The elegant chandelier starts shaking, the radio switches itself on and starts dialing through stations, something jumps out of the trash can, an antique on the mantel piece starts starts talking or a face in old portrait morphs into a skull.

The Creep Factor

One of the cheapest and easiest ways to get scary Halloween decorations is to use “normal,” yet creep-looking objects. An antique doll or mannequin, a pine box coffin used as a table, a Ouija board just laying around, and realistic looking plastic spiders or other bugs scattered somewhere can all be rather disturbing.

It sounds simple, but it works. My grandmother kept one of her childhood dolls in a doll-sized rocking chair in her bed room. Everyone but her felt the thing was creepy even on a bright summer’s day.

The “thing in a jar” in another cheap, yet creepy prop. Just get a big Mason jar, put a life-like doll, ghoul or alien inside, and fill the jar with water tinted with blue or green food coloring.

Setting up Your Props

Set up is “it” when it comes to using Halloween decorations, props and other trappings. After all, no mater how realistic that rubber disembodied head looks, it won’t be very impressive if you just leave it lying on the sofa in broad daylight. Props work best when you create a scene around them. Drop that head in the bath tube and splash some fake blood around the tub and wall. Put a ghoul in a cage with a disembodied hand followed by a trail of fake blood. Place a head with glowing eyes

Lighting is another way to add to the effect. Black light creates an eerie feeling and, of course, makes white objects glow. Lights in “creepy” colors like red, green and purple lights are disorienting. Strobe have an even stronger disorienting effect. Flicker bulbs work for “haunted” lights. Throw in a fog machine for that extra touch of spookiness, too.

So, before you buy a prop, think about how your going to use it.

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Kids’ and Adults’ Party Decorations

It’s hard to know who loves Halloween more—the little kids or the “big kids.” What I do know, though, is how frustrating it is to be searching for cute kids’ party decorations and keep coming up with gory haunted house props. On the other hand, those pleasantly smiling Jack-o-Lanterns and friendly scarecrows don’t do much for the grownups. That’s why I’ve separated the cute kids’ stuff and the truly scary adult Halloween party supplies into their own categories.

Halloween Home Decor

Given the weather in late October in many areas, chances are your party guests will be spending the majority of their time indoors. That means home decor for a Halloween party had better be good. What it doesn’t have to be is expensive.

A good part of creating a creepy, spooky atmosphere in your home is knowing how to set up your decorations. Not to many decorations look good if you just stick them on an end table somewhere. Using soundscapes and lighting effects will also work in your favor. In fact, I’d say you really shouldn’t do without them.

I’ll also give you some ideas for Halloween door and window decorations, some of which can be surprisingly disturbing is used just the right way. Presuming your guests aren’t too nervous to eat, Halloween table decor adds a finishing touch to your party. If you want to go all out in this department, you won’t have any trouble.

Halloween Outdoor Decorations

Nothing sets the mood for your arriving guests like a well designed outdoor display. Besides, they’re just plain fun to create. In warmer climates, holding some part of your party outdoors around a bonfire adds an special element. Halloween yard decorations like…

If you really want to go all out, You might be surprised just how much of this stuff you can get on a tight budget if you know where to look. Even if you’re not really planning on doing much outdoors, a good Halloween tree decoration hidden behind a big elm or up in the branches of an old maple adds an element of spookiness.

Halloween Decoration Ideas

Decorating for a Halloween party sounds like fun until you really get into the details of what kind of decorations to use and how to use them.

A large part of the problem is that many party hosts don’t come up with a theme. Without a theme, you can end up spending way too much on decor and still not getting much of an effect. Your party decor end up looking like a haphazard second thought.

Choosing a Halloween party theme will help you do more with less. Decor themes include like a graveyard, insane asylum, pirate ghost ship, vampires’ or witches’ ball, horror movie (like Friday the 13th or Psycho), zombie invasion, and a Gothic haunted house for classy party (think “The Addam’s family hosts a dinner party.”)

Halloween decorations and props range from mild creepiness to all-out gore, so whatever theme you choose, you’ll have plenty of decor ideas to select from.

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