Thread: Do You Change Your Haunt Each Year?

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It can be so frustrating! You gather up a great bunch of props and put up your display, only to hear some TOT say, "Oh, they had that LAST year, too!"

Aaargh!

So far, I've managed to move things around just enough to keep it fresh. But it gets more and more challenging each year.

What do YOU do to keep things 'new' after investing time and money in your haunt? Do you keep some things aside? Or do you put EVERYTHING out EVERY year? What changes from year to year? Or do you just stick with the tried and true tradition?

boo

I have soo much stuff I rotate stuff and then add new things each year- of course the old faithfuls (FCG, madlab, etc) are always around because in my neightborhood the neighbors comment if I dont display them!

You have to keep things new & exciting.
Would you want to see the same things every year for the hard earned admission ticket money? No, no one would. Rotate some props in & swap out others for new props every year, that helps keep it fresh. If you have too many store bought props, it lends it's self to a prop museum. Oh, look at that . Can find it at ___________. Changing configurations of the haunt, theme, etc. helps also.

Haunty

Change the lighting on the props, color and intensity and even the direction the light comes from and this will make alot of them seem "different"?
I have one room that gets seen in two totally different lighting schemes and some people will argue that it's a different room some say it's not, pretty funny.

Boo who?,
I have the TOTs who are looking for that "favorites" from the previous years. I also have to "retire" props because the prolonged exposure to the elements can do a lot of damage to my props.
I always add new props and do change locations of the props, the lighting and the location of the fog machines.

Never heard anyone say that, but they may have thought it?

I move stuff around, modify old things, add new things... so most people won't realize it's different.

I'm a party-haunter, since we don't have any trick-or-treaters. Maybe it's harder to impress kids?

Like the others I move things around or upgrade. I am always adding new things and ditching others.
Last year the facade went from 30'x8' to 55'x14', with that much facade it makes it hard to change things.

Oh yeah, gotta keep it fresh or the coroner will show up!

Noah, Your dog is a twin to my dog! It's amazing!

Every year we do a theme.We will reuse & modify our props along with new ones & devise different ways to run/maze them thru the haunt (we use a large patio/yard,garage & driveway area all connected).This way we get the most with the old props & still make enough of a change that no one realizes there are same props.Unfortunetly, my buddies dad is retiring & moving which sucks as he had the perfect house & area to set up in.Been going on now for 20 years & this was the big finale complete with a 12ft smoke breathing dragon on the roof ! (I always wanted to build a dragon,love halloween,lets my insanity out,LOL). So now have to find another place,unless the new owners allow us to continue. I think the neiborhood will help there as we go to a point that we were getting 1500-2000 people thru this last year ! It was crazy.We advertised it as the last & the word was out. (here's a album link to our Final Halloween at this house,the 20th year close-out)
[url]http://new.photos.yahoo.com/merlin64389/album/576460762387329899#page1