` I really enjoy Halloween. I love "spooking up" my house with colored lights and weird sounds. I don't buy those giant store bought yard decorations, I have very few props. What I do is create a spooky atmosphere and the kids their parents that come Trick-or-Treating seem to really enjoy it. I get comments like, "Every house should decorate like this," or, "Your house is the best in the neighborhood."
` Everything I use to create my inexpensive "haunted house" fits into two shopping bags, so very easy to store. I have three strings of those little pumpkin lights, three sets of light-up eyes, one small rubber skeleton, two small plastic pumpkins, a Spooky Sounds CD, a selection of colored spot lights, and a strobe light.
` I internally light my shrubs with red and green lights which creates very spooky netherworld look, then I add a couple of strings of pumpkin lights around the edges of the shrubs. I strategically place the strobe light between two bushes flashing up the front of my house which gives a "mad scientist" effect. I line my foyer with the little pumpkin lights and colored spot lights, stick the light-up eyes on the front door, and I have the spooky sounds coming from a CD player hidden near the front door. My wife and I dress up in some sort of Halloween outfit (this year I wore a lab coat and spiked up my hair, and my wife dressed in all black and wore flashing pumpkin earrings and a colorful boa) and we hand out candy. It's always lots of fun.
` My favorite moment this year was when a five-year-old boy came to the door dressed as Superman. I looked down and said, "Ooo, you're Superman." He looked at me dead serious and replied, "I'm not real." Cracked me up. Later, another group of kids came up to my door, saw me in my lab coat, then one called out, "It's Dr. Frankenstein." I thought later I should have replied, "I'm not real."
` I added a new lighting effect to my repertoire this year. I placed a five foot long bar with two inch wide, thirty inch long strips of clear plastic hanging from it in front of the window in my dining room. I closed the blinds then put a red spot light behind the plastic strips so the spot was lighting up the blinds. I then put a small fan near the plastic strips so they would gentle move. Outside the effect was striking. The window seemed to wriggle with weird red mystical apparitions.
` I think I'll do more windows in different colors next Halloween. I love figuring out new inexpensive ways to make Halloween fun.
