Thread: Decorating outside for the first time

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Though I've been a part of the Halloweenforum for years now, I've always concentrated my decorations inside my house rather than outside (the most I'll do outside is a jack o'lantern, spooky lighting and maybe some lanterns for the path). My husband surprised me today by saying that he wants to decorate the backyard this year. I'm thinking a graveyard, my 7 foot inflatable gargoyle, spooky lighting (by the way, where can I get cheap spotlights and bulbs? Does Home Depot have them?). I am also thinking of having my entertainer perform his show outside so I'll probably have some chairs out there. All depends on the weather though.

I'm wondering how soon I can start getting the decorations out there without them getting ruined with any bad weather, e.g., rain. How do you manage your outside decor - do you take certain things in when you know that the weather is going to bad?

That's great - you will have so much fun setting up your yard display!

Yes, any home improvement store will have spots pretty cheap. I love the effect of green spots on my graveyard and I like to add a blue here and there too.

The only problem I've had with the weather was last year when we had a really bad wind/rain storm in the middle of the night. I had covered my witches with 5 ft long leaf bags and tied them at the bottom and thought everything was ok but the next morning I found one had lost its bag and got pretty beat up. I put her back together though and everything was fine. My tombstones and groundbreakers held up fine.

Have a great time setting up and be sure to post pictures when you're done!

Walgreens has cheap weatherproof green spotlight holders for something like $6. They carry them year-round in the same section that the lightbulbs are.

I've picked up the colored floodlight bulbs at places like Home Depot or Lowes for around the same price or a little less.

I usually use green but blue is starting to look better and better for graveyards to me.

We don't put out the big stuff or anamatronics until the night of (just basic fence and foam stones before) so we don't have to worry about things like weather, but if you do want the display up well before, I would think arranging things where they could be anchored down well, and removed quickly or have tarps at hand (in the case of delicate/electronics) to cover.

Hope you have a good time making your display. In my area we're asking for stuff to get stolen if we put things out at night too early before Halloween (sucks).

We've had trouble with the wind in years past. Last year especially. Our tombstones blew all around the yard because they weren't staked down very well. If you were to have a wooden privacy fence around your backyard that would probably help block the wind, but if not I would recommend securing things as good as possible, otherwise you'll be like me last year chasing your stuff all over the yard

What a great husband! Always more fun and easier workwise to have family that supports and shares in your decorating. Mine lets me do what I want but really has no interest in it. This year however I told him I wanted to make some props (have always decorated outside to some degree before) so we are learning electronics together and will tackle some ideas I have.

If you have a Big Lots! near you, they have some good prices on everything from Halloween decorating and props to candy to power cords, paint, and lighting. Two or three years back I bought these oscillating and fixed outdoor floodlight fixtures from them along with purple, orange and green bulbs (all outdoor). Also various kinds of strobe lights. I saw them again last year and picked up a few more but have to say I haven't seen them in my stores this year. But you never know what sells from place to place and year to year. This year I purchased a few Coby 1GB tiny USB stick mp3 players so that I can add sound to my outdoor haunt. Powered speakers for $6 and up. They generally carry outdoor extension cords, lighting timers and such all year round. If you decorate at Xmas time they can do double duty.

I've read that people are having flaking problems with colored spot/floodlight bulbs they are getting from HomeDepot, Lowe's. The color is coming off leaving you with a patch of white light where you don't want it. So be careful and check to make sure what you buy is holding up.

Anchor as much as you can. I used some spooky lit trees last year and added a tether line from the top of the trunk to a fence nearby. It helped when the stakes at the tree stand base pulled up during a windy night.

One thing to do with "blowing tombstones"... goto HD or Lowes (or similar) ...goto the paint department and ask for stir sticks... jam one end into the ground and hot glue the stone to the stick (or sticks)... they're usually FREE!