Halloween is that special time of year whether you’re a child or just a child at heart where you can decorate creatively. Because Halloween is different from all other holidays, you can decorate your porch and/or your front yard for the scariest night of the year. The best part about decorating for Halloween is you can do it without spending a lot of money. Here are a few money saving tips for doing a scary Halloween porch and/or yard to scare away the goblins or maybe those little candy grabbers.

Tombstones being put up
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First off, can get a roll of yellow caution tape the kind you see at a real crime scene. It’s easy to find most hardware or department stores carry it and it’s real inexpensive. Put it up all around your yard creating a “crime scene.” Make a couple signs out of cardboard and some markers warning people to “Stay Out” and “Enter at Your Own Risk” and “Danger Keep Out” and “Not Responsible for Your Life” and give your scene a name, like “Murder on your streets name” or “Hell on you streets name.” You get the idea just have fun with it.

Second set the mood turn off all bright lights that light the way. Instead use a black light bulb or two to light the way. Don’t completely darken everything out you want your visitors to see the signs and start setting the mood. Stores like Wal-Mart, Lowes and The Home Depot carry a very inexpensive glow in the dark paint that will come in very handy to paint more cardboard signs, sheets, linens, rocks, crates, old plastic pumpkins, pieces of wood and any object that can take on an eerie look when painted or highlighted with a little glow in the dark paint. Making tombstones out of cardboard or Styrofoam and paint epitaphs on them will scare your visitors when they read things like “I’m Coming Back”, “See, I Told You I Was Sick” and “You Are Next” and put this year’s date on it.

An old wooden crate can pass as an old rotting wooden casket, sheets with plastic pumpkin heads can pass as ghosts. Just use your imagination.

If you use real pumpkins remember once cut only last for about 6 to 8 days before the mess starts taking place. Instead of carving a pumpkin try painting them with scary faces scenes. Pumpkins will last week’s maybe a month or so. Then you can re-use your gourds as Thanksgiving and/or Fall Harvest decorations too.

Finally the easiest thing to do is make your own scarecrows or stuffed dummies. You will need an old shirt and a pair of jeans stuffing the cloths with old crumpled up newspapers, plastic shopping bags, shoots if you have some hay laying around use it. Find an old rubber/latex mask and add a ball-cap then prop your dummy up on the makeshift casket or crate and leave the rest to the imagination of your little visitors.

I remember when I was a kid; Halloween was a time when everyone could have a great time. Nobody ever got hurt unless of course you were one of the Gilmore boys that lived a couple houses away. They got a good butt whipping when their dad Mr. Gilmore caught the three boys throwing eggs at every car going by, the bad part was, they hit their dad on the side of the head because Mr. Gilmore always drove with the windows down. Some in the old neighborhood say the often hear the ghost of the Gilmore boys crying every Halloween just about midnight. We’ve never seen the boys since.

Anyway try to be a kid at heart and have happy Halloween. If you have any other inexpensive decorating ideas tell us about them right here.

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