How to Decorate Outdoors for Halloween

By eHow Holidays & Celebrations Editor

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Spook up the outside of your house this year with jack-o'-lanterns and ghosts, and make your house every child's favorite stop on the trick-or-treat trail.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Fake Body Parts
Spider Webbing
Halloween Candles
Halloween Decorations
Halloween Light Sets
Cauldrons And Foggers
Fans
Fog Machines
Jack-o'-lanterns
Tombstones (prop)
Halloween Sound Effects CD

Step1

Set out carved pumpkins and jack-o'-lanterns with votive candles inside them. Put them around your door and along your walkway. Or line your walkway and stairs with jack-o'-lantern candles or lanterns.

Step2

Hang white Christmas lights in trees or along fences.

Step3

Make a scarecrow. Scatter autumn leaves, miniature pumpkins, gourds and uncarved pumpkins around the scarecrow.

Step4

Have the scarecrow hold up a sign that says something fun like, "This way to tricks, that way to treats."

Step5

Make smoke around your doorway with a fog machine or by putting dry ice in a bucket of lukewarm water. The water-to-ice ratio should be about two-to-one. Hang spider webs and large plastic spiders around the front door.

Step6

Hang an old bed sheet and make it look like a ghost. Cut out a face.

Step7

Place a small electric fan underneath the ghost so that it flutters in the wind.

Step8

Display decorative ghosts or jack-o'-lanterns in every window of the house facing the entry.

Tips & Warnings

Never leave candles unattended.

Comments

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Make sure if you line your walkway with candles, be sure that the candles are put far enough away so the kids with sweeping costumes won't catch fire.

Anonymous said

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on 8/8/2006 For our outdoor party, we used a large cauldron with our favorite drink of choice and put a submersible light in it. It's pretty cool-looking at night. Dress it up with a skeleton or witch, whatever your theme is.

Anonymous said

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on 6/30/2006 Have a cheese cloth ghost hanging barley above the ground. Then put a fog machine behind it. Have scary music play, then when trick or treaters come up, spray the fog from behind it and have a blood thirsty scream go through the night.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Have someone sitting in front of your house pretending to be dead. When the kids pass, have them jump up and scream! The children will usually yell right back!

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 I save old coffee cans, Christmas tins, etc. I drill holes in them, either random or patterns, like you would carve a pumpkin. You can freeze water in the tins or just use the drill press. You can use wire to make handle. Paint them green or orange and hang them from hooks or put them along sidewalks (far enough away from the sidewalk to prevent accidents). Use cheap candles and you have inexpensive lighting. I also use mason jars and tea lights in my graveyard to illuminate the tombstones.

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