Decorating ...How much, how soon

I just spent the entire weekend (pretty much) putting everything up. I did most of the props on Saturday and the remaining props and lights on Sunday. Now everything is done and I don't have to worry about it. However, I always finding myself tinkering with some things between now and 10/31, if it seems out of place.

I still have to put out our fog machine, but I only bring that on Halloween to scare the Trick or Treaters as they walk by my house.

I get mixed thoughts about putting everything out at once or leaving some for Halloween night.

Afraid after the kids see it everyday during the day light it will spoil it for Halloween as we have two school bus stops right out side our house

I wait until Halloween afternoon. We don't have a ton of stuff and our kids and their friends run through the yard playing most days. I don't want anything broken or kids tripping and hurting themselves.

I used to do it the day of, for fear of theft (lived in Las Vegas at the time). Now that I live in a much smaller area, where I know more locals, I put some up ahead of time.

This will be our first year with a fence, provided that I get it done. So, I may put more out than the last two years.

Wind and rain are bigger problems for us.

Yeah I have never have had any problems with theft in our area (knock on wood) so I am not worried about setting up early due to that.

I do have issues with wind, rain, and snow sometimes due to living here in Ontario Canada, but I am optimistic this year that there wont be snow LOL
As we are hitting up to 68f/20c off and on these week (thats good here!)

I started Saturday and didn't get nearly as much done as I'd planned (as usual) so it's probably going to take me the rest of the month to get it all done and I'm ok with that. The kids on the school bus get a kick out of seeing new things added so I pretend that's my master plan. In truth, I'd probably be better off and a lot less tired if I'd wait till the last week or so and put it out all at once and be done with it. But October 1 comes and I just cannot wait to get something out there! So I start and keep adding and sometimes subtracting and rethinking and wishing I'd gone another way until October 31st comes and I have to call it done!

I usually wait till 2 weeks before, due to weather. Lots of rain.

Inside garage and house now, outside closer to Halloween (around the 14th)

We pace ourselves because we have a LOT of stuff. The only things that go out last minute are electronics like the jumping spiders (they don't react well to rain) and those damn spider webs my kids put up that start sagging after a couple of days.

Bruzilla said:

We pace ourselves because we have a LOT of stuff. The only things that go out last minute are electronics like the jumping spiders (they don't react well to rain) and those damn spider webs my kids put up that start sagging after a couple of days.

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Yep..That's the down side I have when setting up the first weekend in October. The spider webs start to bunch up and sag when saturated in the rain. So this year I have a lot of my web props against my house (under the soffit) so it's mostly protected. However, I do have a good amount of webs out in the open that I'll probably need to fix as the month goes on thanks to the rain.

I spent this past week diggin my stuff out and setting up. I'm about 80% finished! I like to enjoy it as long as possible. It really gets the rest of the neighborhood in the spirit too.

I too have wondered about this issue? I put some stuff out on my porch and in the house. I spent some time on a projection display using the fearfx dvds and a projector. It beams on a large set of windows on my second floor. Then I got to thinking...I live at the end of a cul de sac and only have about 5 houses around me that can see the darn thing. It seems kind of silly to have that projector running for a couple hours a night???? IDK?

I usually put out my static prop during the first two weeks of October : Cemetery fencing, columns, tombstones and various lights.
The two weeks before Halloween is when I display several animated props. Only because I couldn't stand more than to weeks of bringing the stuff back inside every night.
Then, Halloween day everything gets put out.

Bruzilla said:

We pace ourselves because we have a LOT of stuff. The only things that go out last minute are electronics like the jumping spiders (they don't react well to rain) and those damn spider webs my kids put up that start sagging after a couple of days.

Click to expand...

I don't even bother with webs anymore. If I ever do, I will buy the beef netting next time.

I hate those webs, but my kids love them because they think they look creepy.

Those webs can look good, but the problem is 95% of the time they haven't been put up properly, so they end up just looking like clumpy strands of cotton. I used some in a tree last year and it was a complete PITA getting it all out of there, so I won't be doing that again.

I used to put up decorations a few days before Halloween, or a week before, but I've gotten to where I do most of it at the beginning of the month these days. Why go to all that trouble to only enjoy it for a few days? The only things I hold off on are my projector (that only gets turned on Halloween night) and some of the larger, weather-sensitive stuff that I don't have room for on my covered porch.