Page 28 - Real Estate Now Sept-Oct 2022

Halloween Décor Tips

That Are Hauntingly Awesome

Jules Torti courtesy REALTOR.ca
t’s fun to get into the spirit of Halloween because there are
no sticky rules when it comes to costumes, candy (and what
Itime of day you consume it) or decorating your home.

Halloween was once known as “All Hallows’ Eve,” an evening
where people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward
off ghosts. All Hallows’ Eve (meaning saints) is celebrated on
October 31st and precedes the Christian All Saints’ Day or All
Souls’ Day (November 2), which commemorates the faithfully
departed (the souls of Christians who have died).

Nowadays, we take our kids trick-or-treating, throw parties
and deck out our homes in spooky décor.

When it comes to decorating your home for Halloween, it helps to have a theme. Your theme can be classic, the stuff
of nightmares, organic, elegant or a style nod to National Lampoon’s Griswold family. For many neighbours, it’s a
cut-throat competition of who can outdo the other with inflatables, expansive graveyards and live zombies lurking
in dark corners.

Here’s a helpful guide to dressing up your house this Halloween.

Classic
Remember when Halloween was a little bit scary but
mostly witches and a few Draculas? Keep things kid-
friendly with a carnival atmosphere. Set up stations for
gummy worm counting, pumpkin bowling and a wrap the
mummy contest. Hold a scavenger hunt for candy or rent
a popcorn machine and host an outdoor screening of the
1966 staple, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. For the
adults? Serve headless gingerbread men and caramel
apple cocktails.

The stuff of nightmares

Cue up the colony of bats, rats and bloody mannequins.
Glow-in-the-dark paint, ghosts made out of chicken wire
and a black-light spotlight add an extra creepy factor to
ghouls suspended in trees. Create your own “shelf of gross”
with a collection of mismatched jars featuring submerged
fake teeth, rubber snakes and gelatin brains. Plastic bones
and a bag of topsoil are just the fixings to suggest recent
escapees from the graves in your yard.