
Few things are more thrilling for a trick-or-treater than walking up to a house detailed with ghastly Halloween decorations. Whether you use complicated props like swooping ghosts, or simple, classic decorations, like glowing jack-o-lanterns, scarecrows, and indian corn, your house will delight visitors. A haunted yard, complete with fun Halloween decorations, makes a fine setting for outdoor parties in good weather, as well.
Plan out your outdoor Halloween decor. Choosing a theme makes it easier to chose decorations, and is generally more effective. Transform your front lawn into an old, foggy graveyard, a fortune teller's lair, or a mad scientist's lab.
Themes are easier to work with, but don't let that stop you from throwing in whatever appeals to you, and mixing things up. It helps to lay out your design on paper, to get an idea of what will go where. If you are using pranks and gags, try to set them up where guests will have to walk past them to be surprised by them.
There are some very realistic yard props out there, available for purchase form Halloween specialty stores, home decoration stores, and online Halloween shops. Foam-filled rubber sculptures of ghouls clawing their way out of the grave are very effective. Some other prop ideas are: bloody body parts, grave stones, glowing skulls, gargoyles, and faux-dungeon doors. Yard decoration kits are available, too.
With some time and creativity, you can make your own outdoor Halloween decorations out of relatively cheap supplies. Make gravestones out of cardboard or foam. Craft ghosts out of white fabric, and hang them from the trees. The possibilities are endless!
James writes for Ghoulish Halloween, a site that tries to entertain and inform. For more great Halloween articles, visit our Halloween articles archive.
AP - President-elect Barack Obama's proposed tax cuts ran into opposition Thursday from senators in his own party who said they wouldn't do much to stimulate the economy or create jobs. Senators from both parties agreed that Congress should do something to stimulate the economy. But Democratic senators emerging from a private meeting of the Senate Finance Committee criticized business and individual tax cuts in Obama's stimulus plan.
AP - Vice President Dick Cheney says that his boss, President George W. Bush, has no need to apologize to the American people for not doing more to head off the financial calamity, saying no one saw the crisis coming.
AP - The U.N. suspended aid shipments in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and the Red Cross restricted its convoys after their trucks came under Israeli fire. The threat of a wider conflict arose when militants in Lebanon fired two rockets into northern Israel.
AP - President-elect Barack Obama implored Congress to "act boldly and act now" on Thursday to fix an economy growing perilously weaker, and leading lawmakers set an informal goal of mid-February for enacting tax cuts and government spending that could cost as much as $1 trillion.
AP - The many Bernard Madoff investors who withdrew money from their accounts over the years are now wrestling with an ethical and legal quandary.
AP - U.S. Senate appointee Roland Burris said Thursday he's never been involved in an improper deal in his two decades in government and didn't strike any agreement to become embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick for the U.S. Senate.
AP - "Horrific" is how Tom Cruise described the sudden death of the son of his friend, John Travolta. Cruise struggled to maintain his composure as he spoke on "The View" about last week's death of 16-year-old Jett Travolta. "John just adored him, both of his children," Cruise said haltingly. "... It's something that I don't have the words for."
AP - After more than two decades with the Atlanta Braves, John Smoltz is ready to finish his stellar career wearing a different uniform. In a stunning end to one of baseball's longest runs, Smoltz reached a preliminary agreement Thursday on a $5.5 million, one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox after failing to work out a deal to return for his 22nd season with the Braves.
Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama warned on Thursday that the U.S. economy could stay mired in recession for years without bold action and he urged lawmakers to work day and night to pass a massive stimulus plan.
Reuters - Financial giant Citigroup Inc has agreed to support a controversial rewrite of U.S. bankruptcy law aimed at helping troubled mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure, lawmakers said on Thursday.
Reuters - Recovery teams ventured into battlegrounds of the Gaza Strip on Thursday to gather bodies from the rubble, and Hamas officials said the Palestinian toll in Israel's 13 day-old offensive rose to 765 dead.
Reuters - Wal-Mart Stores Inc and other top U.S. retailers delivered disappointing December same-store sales and profit warnings on Thursday, sparking fresh recession concerns that hit stock and currency markets.
Reuters - Accused swindler Bernard Madoff had signed checks totaling more than $173 million in his office desk ready to be sent out before his arrest, U.S. prosecutors said in court papers on Thursday asking a judge to jail him.
Reuters - Europe on Friday looked for a swift restoration of gas supplies, after striking a deal with Moscow on monitoring gas shipments via Ukraine that have been halted by a rancorous pricing dispute with Kiev.
Reuters - Economic weakness in Europe worsened and U.S. jobless rolls swelled as disappointing sales from Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and other retailers on Thursday showed that consumers are still wary about opening up their pocketbooks in an uncertain economy.
AFP - A UN relief agency halted work in Gaza and protested to Israel on Thursday after an aid worker was killed, while the war death toll rose past 760 after dozens of bodies were found in rubble during a pause in bombing.
AFP - EU-sponsored talks collapsed Thursday between Russia and Ukraine on resolving a gas dispute that has cut supplies to Europe in the midst of a bitterly cold winter, with Moscow blamed for the failure.
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