We’re THAT Halloween House in the Neighborhood (And We Have No Regrets)

DIY Halloween decorations, resurrected skeletons, and the questionable decisions that turned our front lawn into a neighborhood attraction.

Some people decorate for Halloween with a few pumpkins, a festive wreath, and maybe a cute little ghost on the porch… And then there’s us. We have a graveyard. Skeletons. Witches. Pirates. Disembodied body parts. A giant Pumpkin King who has survived more natural disasters than he reasonably should have.

Oh, and Pennywise lives in our storm drain.

We’re THAT Halloween house in the neighborhood.

And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

How It All Started (And How We Completely Lost Control)

What our house USED to look like on Halloween!

When we first moved into our house, our Halloween decorations were relatively normal. We had two kids under three, so elaborate outdoor displays weren’t exactly at the top of our priority list. Between diapers, toddlers, and general parental exhaustion, we managed a few tombstones, some skeletons, and a witch on the porch. There has ALWAYS been a witch on the porch. Some traditions are sacred.

But by our third Halloween, something changed. Apparently, I decided our front lawn needed to look less like a suburban home and more like a cemetery with some serious management issues. We bought more skeletons. Reinforced our tombstones. Added jack-o’-lanterns. Started creating themed scenes.

And in 2019, we built our Pumpkin King.

There was no going back after that.

Over the years, we’ve had pirate skeletons climbing our old flagpole, complete with a pirate flag and a mermaid skeleton. The pirates have since relocated to the porch, where they’re apparently planning their next hostile takeover. Last year, I even built a group of Handmaids inspired by The Handmaid’s Tale. Unfortunately, several suffered catastrophic structural failures, so they’re taking this Halloween off. Hopefully, they’ll be resurrected next year.

At this point, I don’t think we could go back to a couple of pumpkins and a wreath even if we wanted to. The neighborhood would probably file a complaint.

Meet the Pumpkin King: My Seasonal Boyfriend

Let’s talk about the love of my October life – My Pumpkin King.

I designed him back in 2019, and my husband helped me bring him to life using PVC pipes, reed fencing, fabric, and a whole lot of determination. His legs and torso are wrapped in reed fencing, while his shirt and cape are made from repurposed fabric, including curtains and tablecloths. His enormous, creepy pumpkin head is actually a mask that we replace every few years because, well, Long Island weather isn’t particularly kind to giant outdoor monsters. Inside his head, we use solar-powered fairy lights to illuminate his creepy eyes.

And let me tell you, this man has been THROUGH IT. Every year, without fail, some ridiculous storm comes through and knocks him over. The wind picks him up like he’s auditioning for The Wizard of Oz, and suddenly my beloved Pumpkin King is face-first on the lawn. This year, his hips popped out, so we had to perform some emergency orthopedic surgery before putting him up. He finally made his 2026 appearance a little late. But he ALWAYS comes back.

Seven Halloween seasons. Multiple storms. Broken joints. Countless repairs. Still standing. Mostly. I’m genuinely proud of how he turned out and how long he’s survived. He’s one of my favorite things we’ve ever created. And yes, I refer to him as my boyfriend during spooky season.

My husband has accepted this arrangement.

If It’s Broken, Make It Creepier

Here’s one of my favorite things about our Halloween decorations: We don’t necessarily throw things away when they break. We just give them a more disturbing backstory. Honestly, Halloween is the one holiday where a broken decoration can actually become an improvement.

Last year, one of our pirate skeletons snapped completely in half. Rather than tossing him, I painted blood along his spine and teeth, handed the other pirate a bloody sword, and created an entirely new scene. Now it looks like one pirate brutally murdered the other. Problem solved.

Our skeleton mermaid lost part of her tail, so now she’s propped up looking like she’s desperately flailing for help.

Another skeleton lost his hand. Naturally, I arranged him to look like he’s walking a creepy little skeleton creature that has his missing hand in its mouth. Perfectly normal suburban behavior.

And when we end up with miscellaneous skeletal body parts, they go into the witches’ cauldron or get scattered around tombstones to look like the dead are climbing out of their graves. We’ve also repurposed old, weathered wooden pallets to create the illusion of zombies emerging from holes in the lawn.

And speaking of using whatever Mother Nature throws at us, let’s talk about the skulls on stakes scattered throughout our graveyard. This one was actually my husband’s brilliant idea. A few years ago, after a particularly nasty wind and rainstorm, he recruited the neighborhood kids to collect fallen tree branches. You know, normal neighborhood activities. Some kids collect leaves. Ours collect potential murder weapons. 😂

He then drilled holes into some skulls, mounted them onto the branches, and poured red paint over them to make it look like blood was dripping down. And just like that, we had a collection of severed heads on stakes.We originally displayed them together in their own little section, but over the years, I’ve started scattering them throughout the graveyard. I think they look even creepier when you unexpectedly stumble upon one lurking between tombstones or behind a skeleton.

They’re now a permanent part of our Halloween display. So apparently, when life gives us fallen branches, we make a medieval horror scene.

Reduce. Reuse. Re-terrorize.

Nothing goes to waste. Well, almost nothing.

Our graveyard gates are mostly from the dollar store, and some have definitely seen better days. But honestly, a broken-down cemetery gate looks significantly more authentic than a pristine one. Why replace it when the deterioration is doing half the decorating for you?

The Witches’ Coven (And Their Socially Rejected Friend)

One of my favorite little scenes is our group of three witches gathered around a cauldron filled with bones; they’re having some sort of horrifying ritual. You know, witch things.

But nearby, there’s another witch. She’s sitting by herself, drinking from a beer bottle. I’ve decided she was kicked out of the coven and is now drowning her sorrows. The other three are busy summoning demons or whatever, and she’s just trying to get through another October.

Honestly, relatable. I feel like she deserves her own spin-off series.

Pennywise Lives in Our Storm Drain

Now, this might be the decoration that gets the most attention. Because we’re on a corner property, we have a storm drain right by our house. And because we’re enormous fans of IT, I decided that storm drain was practically begging for a resident clown.

Enter Pennywise.

We use a Pennywise mask mounted on a black tension rod, positioned so his face appears to be peeking out of the drain. The black rod blends into the darkness, making it look like he’s actually down there watching you. At night, we illuminate him with a red light.

And people LOVE it.

Kids scream when they notice him. People walking by do double takes. Drivers stop to comment. On Halloween, there is literally a line of people waiting to take pictures with Pennywise.

A LINE.

For a clown in a storm drain. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me.

We’ve taken the theme even further with Govee curtain lights on the house displaying Pennywise and his floating red balloon, plus a projector showing Pennywise creepily appearing on another wall.

And of course, we have Georgie. Our Georgie animatronic sits near the storm drain alongside a sign reading, “WE ALL FLOAT DOWN HERE.” He’s missing an arm, which, considering the storyline, is actually quite appropriate.

My youngest son absolutely adores Georgie. And when I say adores, I mean he walks around hugging this one-armed horror movie child and telling us Georgie is his best friend. I have successfully raised a tiny horror enthusiast.

Parenting achievement unlocked.

The Rest of Our Haunted Graveyard

While Pennywise and the Pumpkin King get plenty of attention, the rest of the lawn is basically one enormous collection of creepy little scenes. We have skeletons climbing, crawling, sitting, drinking, fighting, and generally making questionable life – or death -choices.

There are tombstones surrounded by hands and heads emerging from the grass, skulls glowing red, sinister jack-o’-lanterns, creepy fencing, and gauzy figures gathered beneath our trees. We also have light-up pumpkin and skull decorations that were originally designed to be stacked. This year, we’ve spread them throughout the yard instead, which helps create little pockets of light across the graveyard.

I love using our actual landscaping as part of the display. The trees, shrubs, and fallen leaves make everything feel more like an old, overgrown cemetery. And once the sun goes down, the entire atmosphere changes.

Our solar-powered spotlights illuminate the decorations in different colors. Some of those lights are broken and just cycle through colors instead of staying on the setting they’re supposed to. Do I care? Absolutely not. The random flashes of purple, red, green, and blue actually work surprisingly well.

Sometimes malfunctioning technology is just free special effects.

The Porch Is Not a Safe Space Either

If you somehow make it past the graveyard, the Pumpkin King, and the murderous clown without being traumatized, congratulations. Now you get to approach the porch.

We have a motion-activated witch who jumps and screams at unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. There are glowing jack-o’-lanterns, a bubbling jar filled with eyeballs, and an electrocuted hand in a jar near the doorbell.

Some years, we add a fog machine for extra atmosphere. And near the corner of the property, two skeletal dogs bark and growl when people pass by. So basically, the entire house is conspiring against you.

But we do give out candy!

Where We Find Our Halloween Decorations

One thing I want to emphasize is that our display didn’t happen overnight; we’ve been collecting decorations for years. A lot of our larger pieces have come from Home Depot and Lowe’s. We’ve also found plenty at Target, Amazon, dollar stores, and random places over the years.

Our graveyard fencing? Dollar store. Creepy cloth and black gauze? Usually Amazon or the dollar store. Our glowing pumpkin and skull sets? Home Depot purchases from a few years ago. And plenty of the other decorations have been with us for so long that I genuinely couldn’t tell you where we originally bought them.

The point is, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars in one season to create an elaborate Halloween display. You can build it gradually. Reuse things. Rearrange things. Make your own props. And when something breaks, figure out whether you can make it look like something even more horrifying happened to it.

It’s amazing what a little imagination, some creepy cloth, and a pile of miscellaneous skeleton bones can accomplish.

Four Hours, Two Adults, and Some Very Questionable Help

I usually aim to have everything outside by the last weekend in September. This year, a Nor’easter interfered with my plans, because apparently Mother Nature didn’t get the memo that I had a cemetery to open.

If I’m decorating by myself, the whole process takes about seven or eight hours. This year, my husband was able to help, and we got most of it done in around four.

I am, naturally, the creative director. I have a VISION. And then I execute that vision with my husband’s help, engineering abilities, and plenty of his own creative ideas. The boys also “help.” By which I mean they mostly play with the skeletons. But honestly, I love that they enjoy it so much.

My youngest is my little horror buddy, happily hugging Georgie and embracing all things creepy. And my oldest will walk around admiring everything and tell me how amazing it looks and what a great job I’ve done, which is genuinely one of the sweetest things ever.

Even if I have somehow raised two children who consider a yard full of dismembered skeletons perfectly normal.

The Best Part? The Neighborhood Kids

As much as I love creating everything, my favorite part might actually be seeing how excited the neighborhood gets. When we start putting decorations out, the kids come over absolutely thrilled that the Halloween house is back. People stop while walking their dogs. Cars slow down so someone can compliment the display. Neighbors tell us how much they look forward to seeing it every year.

And on Halloween night? It’s CHAOS, the best kind of chaos.

Kids come running down the street yelling:

“WE HAVE TO GO TO THE SPOOKY HOUSE ON THE CORNER!”

Or:

“WE NEED TO TAKE A PICTURE WITH PENNYWISE!”

There are people lined up for photos in front of our house and at the storm drain; it’s become a little neighborhood tradition.

I used to worry that some of the decorations might be too frightening for the younger kids, but over the years, those same kids have gotten older, and now they absolutely love it. Apparently, I’ve gradually desensitized an entire neighborhood to horror.

You’re welcome, parents.

Why We Keep Doing It

Every year, decorating takes time. Things break. The weather doesn’t cooperate. My Pumpkin King’s hips give out. Some skeleton inevitably loses a limb. And at least one decoration requires a level of creative problem-solving that probably wasn’t mentioned in the original assembly instructions.

But I love every second of it.

I love designing the displays, figuring out how to reuse old pieces, and finding new ways to make everything just a little creepier. I love that my husband helps bring my ridiculous ideas to life. I love that my boys are growing up with these traditions.

And I especially love knowing that the neighborhood kids look forward to our house every October. Someday, those kids might not remember exactly which decorations we had or how many skeletons were scattered across the lawn. But maybe they’ll remember running down the street on Halloween night, excited to visit the spooky house on the corner.

And that’s pretty special.

So yes, we’re THAT Halloween house.

The one with the graveyard.

The one with the giant Pumpkin King.

The one with the wine-drinking outcast witch.

The one where Pennywise is watching you from the storm drain.

And as long as we can keep putting our skeletons back together and getting my boyfriend upright after the next Nor’easter, I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Happy Halloween from our haunted little corner of Long Island. 🎃

And remember: just because something is broken doesn’t mean it can’t be resurrected.

Especially if it’s a skeleton.

xx Valerie