Halloween Decorating Ideas – Indoors and Out

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Halloween is the decorating. You can have so much fun decking out your home and your yard. Here are some ideas for Halloween decorating, both indoors and out.

Indoors

First, let’s talk about what you can do in your house. There are homemade decoration ideas and things you can buy from the store. Here are some ideas for indoor Halloween decorations.

1. Lamp covers

You can buy spooky covers for your lamp shades, either white cobweb types or black lacy ones. Place these on lampshades for a haunted look. Just make sure no fabric is touching the bulb. Speaking of bulbs…

2. Colored light bulbs

Wouldn’t it look extra-spooky to have red or orange light bulbs under those lamp covers? Colored light bulbs are usually inexpensive, even if you use CFLs.

3. Black and white images

Using white paper plates of various sizes, you can make spooky decorations with your computer printer. Print out images of anatomical drawings, skeletons, bats, cats, and so forth. Then cut them out in circles and use glue to mount the images to the paper plates before hanging them on the wall.

4. Candy “crackers”

Are you familiar with Christmas crackers? This is a similar idea. Using toilet paper tubes or paper towel tubes cut to shorter lengths, you can make something like crackers. Put candy inside each tube, then wrap in orange, black, or white paper. Tie off the ends with appropriately colored ribbon or curly pipe cleaners. Put Halloween stickers on for a nice effect.

Outdoors

Now let’s go out to your yard! As long as you’re respectful of your neighbors and any local codes, you can have a great time decorating the outside of your house.

1. Ghosts on stakes

Using old sheets, shower curtains, or any white fabric, you can create a ghostly legion on your lawn. Drive tomato stakes (or something similar, such as metal fencing rods) into the ground at various places on your lawn. On top of the stakes, mount a Styrofoam ball or wad of newspaper held together by masking tape. Drape the white sheets over this arrangement and draw eyes and a mouth with a black marker. Dress your ghosts up with hats and other funny or scary accoutrements.

2. Graveyard

Make your lawn into a temporary graveyard with faux tombstones. These are usually made of lightweight material that is water-resistant and looks remarkably like stone.

3. Spider webs

You can purchase these ready to hang on your outdoor shrubbery, windows and doors, or you can stretch cotton balls and place those on bushes and trees. If you have a porch, it can give your entryway a really spooky look. If you like, add plastic spiders in various places on the “webs.”