Just curious if anyone has any strategies on how far in advance you put stuff in your yard. Does time build interest among your neighbors or does the effect get stale if you get too far ahead?
I ask because this will be my first time decorating a yard that's really visible to passersby. Plus I came up with a theme that if I get it together I can add or change props a little every day or so to suggest a story. So I'm wondering how much time to give for the story to unfold. This is not for a paid haunt or walk-through, just for the neighbors and maybe TOTers.
I usually start 3-4 weeks into October. Slowly at first as if my creepers are saying hello. My neighbors last year loved the set up. Ran out of candy for a change. (New neighborhood) we try to theme it up.
We live a block away from a busy elementary school so we get the buzz going a few weeks before. We normally put our cemetery fence and columns out the first week of October. We'll add a couple things each week, usually inexpensive tombstones, or props that can be secured against theft, etc. If we do the cemetery scene in the yard display, we'll set it all up a couple days before with lights, etc but any expensive props don't go out until Halloween day itself. Our haunt structure goes up a week before and people who walk/drive by see it and know things are brewing. A big factor is also the fact that we've been haunting for about 20 years so people know our house is one to hit up on Halloween.
We set up on Labor Day weekend. LOL we look at it like that is the last holiday before Halloween and if people can start decorating for that other holiday before thanks giving then we can set up Halloween in September. It is amazing that for nearly 2 months we have people driving by all the time and stopping to get pictures and if we see them then we go out and say hello and explain a bit and answer questions and such. We do add quite a bit of stuff ( Lighted plastic pumpkins down the driveway that flash to music playing, window projectors, and the inside of the garage is open only on Halloween night that is completely decorated. So yeah we set up quite early. But that is the fun of it.
Usually first weekend of Halloween get it started then the next few weeks finish it up except for the high-end (animatronics and projectors). Usually I spend the majority of the time working on our garage haunt but I like to get the excitement building beforehand!
Everything goes up Halloween Day and then comes down again that same night (late). It's a lot to do in one day, but the pirate's graveyard suddenly appearing and disappearing overnight has always been part of the magic of Halloween for me.
When possible (if other stuff in the schedule doesn't get in the way), I try to have decorations up the whole month of October. If not that, then most of the month. Sometimes I will see people putting stuff out slightly before October, and I really admire and envy those people.
I normally do it the first week of October. Every year I try to hold off until 2 weeks before Halloween so it doesn't lose the effect by then, but I can't help myself, as soon as it's October, I go for it.
I do most of my decorating on Thanksgiving. I'm Canadian, and our Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October. I put out a few minor things out before then, and the most expensive things the weekend before Halloween, but the lions share goes up on Thanksgiving. We don't really do much else that day, so it's a day off work for decorating for me.
Labor day weekend the fence goes up and items are added regularly up to the DAY.
Some items get moved regularly (the zombie flamingos) some items go out and come back in.
Lighting starts Oct 1st. Many items go out Day of.
Jerseyscare
I setup about half of the front yard on whichever weekend is closest to October 1st. I'll add the rest a bit each weekend. I'll start to setup the backyard a few weeks before Halloween and open it only Halloween night. I'm near an elementary and a high school, so everyone gets to see the front build up, but then has to come on Halloween to see the back.
My daughter's birthday is 9/28 so the day after is fair game! I will have at least the cemetery fence & headstones out on the 29th (I was out in the rain last year!!) and the skeletons and stuff come out later but is all out by mid-October. Then I just tweak here & there as needed.
I put them out as early in September as the weather will allow. If I lived further north they'd probably be going out the first week of Sept. most years. As it stands I usually get the middle or late Sept. I need it to be cool enough I can tolerate it, and also cool enough to slow down the bugs so I'm not covered in ticks.
I get into an argument with myself every year on when's the best time to get stuff headed to the front lawn. Like a couple others have said, I really don't want my display to get "stale", but I do want plenty of time to enjoy it as well!
I get my more durable items - resin tombstones, blowmolds, wooden fencing, etc..etc... in the front lawn around the 1st of October. By then, the weather has cooled down some. If I start creeping stuff outdoors too early on, it will still be 90 degrees out (here in Kansas), which doesn't seem like a good fit for beginning my Halloween decorating. Leading up to Halloween, I'll keep adding more things while keeping an eye on the long-range weather forecast once October 25th or so hits. If I feel the few days before Halloween will bring good weather, I'll sneak some of my "perishable" items outside - animatronics, webbing and other more fragile props - outside a little early. Then I'll always take the 31st off of work to complete setup for everything not already outside. Usually a couple "centerpieces" or some of my bigger items would be set up during this time.
Great question! As to when I take everything down....the answer to that is - I do so verrrry be-grudgingly Perishables go inside late that evening or the next day. Everything else stays outside just about until I hit the point of "social tackiness"....and then I start removing everything.....aaafffter another few days have gone by.
Not to de-rail but that last post made me think of a pet-peeve. I love seeing more people decorate on my street for Halloween but I cringe when I see them put up the stretchy webs on their bushes and trees in the beginning of October. I know it will be a couple of thick strings by Halloween and seems a waste but I never want to say anything since I'm just happy people are getting in the mood.
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