It’s that season again! Before the little “monsters” start canvasing for candy, you may want to get your house in the Halloween spirit. Here are five easy and inexpensive options:

1. Creepy Crawlies

Cover a grapevine wreath with a plethora of plastic snakes from the local dollar store. You are one hot-glue-gun and 15-minutes away from a slitherin’ scary front door! Or, have handfuls of snakes “crawling” out from under your welcome mat!

2. Wash-Away Fright Fest

“Paint” wicked sayings, nerve-wracking warnings, or scary pictures (or even a whole colony of bats in flight) on the side of your house or on your front door, using laundry detergent. Add a black light and watch the phosphorous in the detergent begin to glow eerily in the dark. (After Halloween, just rinse it off!)

3. Jack-o-lantern Windows

Cut large pieces of cardboard to fit one or more of your windows and paint them black. Cut out a jack-o-lantern’s face—or a collection of flying bats. Tape orange tissue paper behind each cut-out and mount the board(s) in your window(s). That’s it! Just be sure to leave lights on in the room at night, so the orange cut-outs will glow from the yard. 

4. Pumpkin Witch

Rather than waiting for snowflakes to fly, you can create a “snowman” style witch by painting and stacking three pumpkins—large, medium, and small. Cut the tops off the two larger pumpkins (so they’ll stack), cover them with black paint, then add dots, stripes, or other patterns. Paint the smallest one green and add eyes, nose and mouth. Plop a witches hat on top (secured with a hot glue gun so it doesn’t blow away) and you are done! (To ramp up the creepy factor, cut out the face and add a battery-powered luminary inside!)

5. Glowing Ghost

The season for growing tomatoes may be over, but you can turn one (or more) tomato cages into a glowing ghost. Turn the cage upside down and wrap a strand of small orange lights around the frame. Then, take a white pillowcase, and a black marker, and draw two round eyes and a larger round mouth on the top half of the case. Now, slip the pillowcase over the cage, plug in the lights, and voila… a glowing ghost!

No matter how you choose to decorate, have a boo-tiful, spook-tackular October!