I confess it - I'm a sucker for Hallowe'en, even more than Christmas.
Having run a theatre I still have an array of lights, costumes and props and, with my teenagers, we've become a neighbourhood attraction on October 31.
Our preparations begin the day school starts, hauling out the boxes and designing our layout. Kids enter through the garden which features a 10 foot wraith looming over them as they enter. To the right is an array of mounted masks. When the kids pass one of the masks turns out to contain a person who clutches at them. First round of satisfactory screams. The kids proceed past the garden shed, now with its doors open and "iron bars" turning it into a straw strewn prison. A quaking figure is huddled in the corner under a black light. The quaking is triggerd by sound, so the first screams activate it. Previous years featured a live "psycho in the shed". He's still there - just hidden, ready to seize an unsuspecting hand that dares poke through the bars.
More SATISFYING SCREAMS.
The kids then move past the gated section behind which a skeleton is "riding" a bicycle, into the fortune-telling tent of the Head of Madame Zelda. (my daughter with a rig that makes it appear her head is on a small table) who invariably predicts horrible doom and gloom. As they exit the tent, they see on the left is the pumpkin array (including our famous puking pumpkin) The huge motinless figure of the executioner that has stood there suddenly comes to life (courtesy my neighbour who is very good at standing still) Screams as kids run into the kitchen urged by the swashbuckling handsome prince Charming who is there to comfort the kiddies. (A friend of my daughter's in an beautiful velvet costume and my epée)
In the kitchen is the Mad chef, cooking various body parts for the diners in the dining room. The ghost of the bride and the headless groom.
On the floor is a tape outline of a body with crime scene tape. A pool of red wax makes a very effective (and easily picked up) pool of blood.
The living room then forms the Mad Doctor's office replete with waiting room signs, ancient magazines, and a fully decomposed patient waiting for the doctor.
It's all about organ donation, really... and he wants your organs now, thank you very much.
Kids run screaming out the front door collecting candy as they leave.
(There is a special stash for the couple of diabetic kids in the neighbourhood - they get sugarless soft-drinks.
The people in the adjacent high rise tell me they can see kids streaming toward my house across the whole development then run screamin all the way out. Throughout are various little jokes and gags for the parents. A melted witch with an empty bucket beside; A gravestone saying "I told you I was sick"
All of which begs the question "why?"
I used to do it for my kids and though they are too old for trick or treating they still enjoy the extended preparation and the "show"
Not only does it make us feel a good part of the community celebrations I enjoy that my teens and I can work on something together still that is so much fun.
By starting early the celebration lasts a whole month instead of one night.
All our displays reply on theatre stock and crafted materials/devices - very little flimsy plastic.
Ours is NOT happy scary it is fun scary but realistic. except for the 15 foot dancing inflatable tree outside the date (it was a gift from my neighbours, each of whom now takes pasrt with a vengeance, tuerning our row into Hallowe'en Alley
A guy nearby did an incredible array of laser-casrved pumpkins a couple of years ago.
Did I menton the clown's head on the pike with an axe in his forehead?
I hate clowns.
Remember: as the sign in the kitchen says:
GIVE BLOOD GENEROUSLY.
IT TAKES A LOT TO MAKE A PIE.
Anyone else do this kind of stuff? What are your display ideas?
I wanted the skeleton on the bike to have a cracked helmet on but I couldn't make it stay.
CKA Uber 
