How to Decorate Your Spooky Halloween Graveyard

Creep out passersby with a spooky graveyard display.

Since Halloween is the eve of All Souls Day, a religious holiday that commemorates the departed, it's fitting that graveyards are a focal point of the holiday. On ordinary days, these spaces have a spooky air about them; on Halloween, these locations are particularly spooky. While retail stores sell graveyard elements, creating your own adds a personalized effect to your Halloween decor. Visit real graveyards to gain inspiration for this decoration. Use craft supplies, props and some creativity to create a display that is sure to produce a creepy effect in your yard. Does this Spark an idea?

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Instructions

- 1
  
  Draw shapes for tombstones on gray poster board. Draw traditional, arched shapes. Also put some creativity into the shapes; create tombstones that have pointed tops and tombstones that are broken in half.
- 2
  
  Cut out the tombstone shapes. Use black paint to print epitaphs on the front of each tombstone. Incorporate simple "RIP" epitaphs, as well as clever sayings, such as "Here lies Barry M. Deep."
- 3
  
  Glue the tombstones to wooden dowels, leaving about two feet of the bottom of the dowels uncovered.
- 4
  
  Insert the bottom portion of the dowels into the ground in haphazard rows along your front lawn.
- 5
  
  Cut a leg off of a pair of pants. Stuff the leg with newspaper and tie the top closed. Place the top of the leg underneath one of the tombstones. Place a shoe near the end of the leg to create the look of a leg coming out of a grave.
- 6
  
  Place a fake plastic hand next to one of the tombstones. Alternately, attach it to a wooden dowel and insert the end of the dowel into the ground next to a tombstone to make it look as if a hand is reaching out of the ground.
- 7
  
  Put plastic skulls next to some of the tombstones and at random locations on the ground of your graveyard display.
- 8
  
  Set out plush black cats and plastic rats next to the tombstones to add a creepy effect.
- 9
  
  Drape fake spider webs from one tombstone to another. Suspend plastic spiders on the fake webs.
- 10
  
  Set up a fog machine behind the display to simulate fog rolling into the area.
- 11
  
  Position black light spotlights onto the graveyard display. Turn a strobe light on next to the graveyard to create the look of lightning flashing.