Halloween Decorating Memories

In a few weeks it will be Halloween. Do you decorate for the holiday? Many years ago I would decorate my yard with things that I made myself. Back then our house was a favorite with trick or treaters. For a few years, we'd have around eighty children visit each Halloween. My father was a musician. He had an amplifier. He would set up the amplifier on the side of our house and put the microphone in the back yard for my brother and me to use. When trick or treaters came in the yard we would make scary noises into the microphone which scared a lot of kids. The next morning there was a lot of candy on the sidewalk evidently dropped by frightened kids. The fun of Halloween!

As I said at the beginning, I made my own decorations then. They were nowhere near looking professional but I had fun making them! I also believed in recycling anything I could and still do. One decoration was a drunk hobo sitting on a bench. I used my father's old clothes and boots. I stuffed him with rags and clothes. I had an old mask for his face. Beer cans were placed around him.

 I also made a witch using an old black dress. Her head was an old volley ball. My dad cut a crooked nose out of wood and glued it to her face. Of course my cemetery had to have a ghost. I used a white sheet. I tied off a section for the head and stuffed with rags into a round shape. The face was made using magic marker. For the witch and ghost I put each on a wooden stake anchored in the ground. My father had a work shop so tools and scrap wood were available for me to make tomb stones. You'll notice in the photo below the front grave has a mound of fresh dirt with a pair of boots sticking up. ha ha 

I still have some decorations from my childhood in the sixties and seventies. We would tape cardboard cut outs on the front window of our house. I only have three left along with the cat in the tissue paper pumpkin. 

I also have a vintage paper mache' Jack O Lantern that belonged to my grandparents. I don't know the age or value of it. I've seen many on the Internet but never one exactly like this one. 

So look around and see if you can come up with ways to recycle items and make your own decorations. Use your imagination and be creative! Or if you don't want to make your own, then an easy way to decorate is with house and garden flags.

Flagsrus.org has over three hundred Halloween items to decorate with including flags, door mats, spinners and more. Click HERE to see!  They also have fall decorating items too. Get ten percent off all fall decor by using code FALL10 at checkout.  Click HERE to see!  Have fun decorating!