How to Set Up a Great Halloween Path for Trick or Treating

A jack-o'-lantern remains a staple of the Halloween pathway.

On Halloween night, an intriguing Halloween display outside your home could mean the difference between plenty of trick-or-treaters enjoying your candy and barely any children walking up to your home. To prepare your yard for the scariest night of the year, create a Halloween pathway to entice trick-or-treaters to walk up to your door. Using both classic and unique Halloween craft ideas, you can create a festive walkway to truly give the trick-or-treaters a thrill.

Things You'll Need

• Plywood
• Permanent marker
• Staple gun
• Wooden stake
• Pumpkins
• Pumpkin-carving knife
• Candles
• Garden stakes
• Fake cobwebs and insects
• String of lights
• Old clothes
• Black dress
• Black stockings
• Green pillowcase
• Black boots
• Witch's hat
• Green gloves
• Chair

Instructions

1. Mark the start of the entryway to your path by creating a sign. Take two or three slabs of plywood, 1 to 2 feet wide and a few inches high, and write spooky or clever messages on them using a permanent marker. Examples include "Grim Reaper's Path" and "Turn Back." Use a staple gun to attach these to one end of a long wooden stake. Insert the stake into the ground at the front of the path.

2. Carve some pumpkins to make jack-o'-lanterns. Place these on the pathway leading to your door in equal increments. Insert a candle into each pumpkin so that the pathway remains lighted throughout the night. Put your most interesting pumpkin closest to the door.

3. Insert several garden stakes into the ground beside the pathway on either side. Extend fake cobwebs from one stake to the next until you have created a sort of cobweb fence. Add fake spiders and other insects to the cobwebs to add a creepy effect.

4. Extend a string of orange or purple lights from the garden stakes beside the pathway. This will add even more lighting to encourage trick-or-treaters to come.

5. Make a scarecrow witch you can place near the doorway by stuffing and then tying off a black dress, a pair of black stockings and a green pillowcase with other clothes or newspaper. Use permanent markers to draw a witch's face onto the stuffed pillowcase and attach the head to the collar of the dress. Attach the stockings to the inside of the dress, and add boots, a stuffed pair of green gloves and a witch's hat to complete the look. Prop the witch up by sitting her in a chair.

References

• Sunny Stars: Halloween: Prepare for Halloween and Trick-or-Treaters