[SLCGirl]

We go big (as everyone here) for Halloween, with amazing decorations, toys, and king-sized candy bars. We are fantastic (of course) and have several ToTs every year, including some that come back year after year because they love our place so much. But in our neighborhood, we are down a darker street (no street lights) and families and kids stay on the main road through the place, which isn't far but our house isn't very viewable from that distance (about 3 houses). Every year my neighbors say that we need to put something at the end of the street to direct people to us, since they see first-hand how much work we put into it and how great it looks. This past one, my neighbor suggested a chainsaw guy - lol. What could we do to let families know not to just walk on by - the best stuff is just a short walk away! Is it tacky to put up a sign? It's been heart breaking to watch people go up and down the main street but never come and see us, especially since we have such amazing stuff to offer! I feel like getting a huge Beetlejuice-type neon sign with an arrow!

 

[Frankie's Girl]

I would totally do signs at the popular corners to direct more foot traffic in your direction. I personally would not consider a cool sign with an alert to go check out a really nifty haunt with amazing spooky stuff and FULL SIZE CANDY BARS as tacky but even if one did, goodness, if you can't be a little tacky on Halloween, then when can you?

I've seen several haunters make really nice looking and professional LARGE vinyl signs that can be put up at the head of the street/neighborhoods (in the medians) advertising their haunts. One of the really good sources is Shindigz and Ghost of Spookie (you may want to follow them) is a lovely/awesome HF member here that posts when they see the discounts/sales for sites like this. Like this one (pretty sure it's over with, but you can see the stuff and samples of what they put on sale and the location of the discount announcements on our forum):

Shindigz/Stumps - 25% off sitewide sale thru Mon. 12/14...

Shindigz and sister company Stumps Party have a 25% off sitewide sale going on now thru tomorrow, Monday, 12/14 @ 7:59 pm PST (kind of weird cut off time). I think 25% off is maybe the best discount offer they put up except on clearance items occasionally. Shindigz online code 25DECSZ...

www.halloweenforum.com

For any of the actual signs, I'd check with the neighborhood/houses that are near where you'd like to put them up and ask them if it's okay so it doesn't get thrown out (some counties and even neighborhoods have rules regarding advertising signage so you'll want to get it cleared up before). Make sure to put up a week or so before the big day so you get as many eyes on it as possible!

Also suggest looking at your neighborhood Nextdoor as they do a Trick or Treat map every year and you can also post in the main feed about your haunt so your neighbors can see details (Nextdoor does allow you to restrict posts to your neighborhood only, or to nearby neighborhoods as well). Same with any Facebook groups, and if you have a neighborhood newsletter or website, ask to put an ad in there or write an article to submit for posting.

If you have kids at the local elementary or middle schools, send a flyer or ask the school to post it on their school site. If you get a good deal on vinyl signs you may even want to see if you could put up one right across from the local elementary/middle schools (especially if it's near the car rider entrance/exit so the parents can see it too).

Using social media or advertising at the schools may be a bit of a mixed bag; you may just see a small increase, but you could also risk going viral and ending up with a disruptive/damaging swarm... so I'd weigh the idea with the amount of kids/traffic in your area and decide how comfortable you are with handling REALLY large crowds and have some safety measures in place if you go that route.

 

[SLCGirl]

I would totally do signs at the popular corners to direct more foot traffic in your direction. I personally would not consider a cool sign with an alert to go check out a really nifty haunt with amazing spooky stuff and FULL SIZE CANDY BARS as tacky but even if one did, goodness, if you can't be a little tacky on Halloween, then when can you?

I've seen several haunters make really nice looking and professional LARGE vinyl signs that can be put up at the head of the street/neighborhoods (in the medians) advertising their haunts. One of the really good sources is Shindigz and Ghost of Spookie (you may want to follow them) is a lovely/awesome HF member here that posts when they see the discounts/sales for sites like this. Like this one (pretty sure it's over with, but you can see the stuff and samples of what they put on sale and the location of the discount announcements on our forum):

Shindigz/Stumps - 25% off sitewide sale thru Mon. 12/14...

Shindigz and sister company Stumps Party have a 25% off sitewide sale going on now thru tomorrow, Monday, 12/14 @ 7:59 pm PST (kind of weird cut off time). I think 25% off is maybe the best discount offer they put up except on clearance items occasionally. Shindigz online code 25DECSZ...

www.halloweenforum.com

For any of the actual signs, I'd check with the neighborhood/houses that are near where you'd like to put them up and ask them if it's okay so it doesn't get thrown out (some counties and even neighborhoods have rules regarding advertising signage so you'll want to get it cleared up before). Make sure to put up a week or so before the big day so you get as many eyes on it as possible!

Also suggest looking at your neighborhood Nextdoor as they do a Trick or Treat map every year and you can also post in the main feed about your haunt so your neighbors can see details (Nextdoor does allow you to restrict posts to your neighborhood only, or to nearby neighborhoods as well). Same with any Facebook groups, and if you have a neighborhood newsletter or website, ask to put an ad in there or write an article to submit for posting.

If you have kids at the local elementary or middle schools, send a flyer or ask the school to post it on their school site. If you get a good deal on vinyl signs you may even want to see if you could put up one right across from the local elementary/middle schools (especially if it's near the car rider entrance/exit so the parents can see it too).

Using social media or advertising at the schools may be a bit of a mixed bag; you may just see a small increase, but you could also risk going viral and ending up with a disruptive/damaging swarm... so I'd weigh the idea with the amount of kids/traffic in your area and decide how comfortable you are with handling REALLY large crowds and have some safety measures in place if you go that route.

VERY helpful suggestions. Thank you so much. Also for easing my fears about being tacky. Thank you again!

 

[Cephus404]

I've got the same problem. No street lights, no sidewalks, dark neighborhood with not a lot of people doing displays. We're a couple of blocks from the local high school and there are plenty of kids around, but very few ever go out on Halloween. Usually we get a couple of decent sized groups coming by and there are van-loads that pull up in front of the house, but we really don't get a lot and I don't mind. I decorate for me. I do it because I enjoy doing it. I am "that house" and there are people who go out of their way to come here, but I'm not in it for any crowds. I just want to have a good time.

 

[65Ace]

Full size candy bars always do the trick in my neighborhood. Once word gets out, the ToT's come running.
Especially since my neighbors hand out the smallest size candy bars I've ever seen.

 

[UnOrthodOx]

So...when we FIRST moved in, I was worried about this and had, what I thought, was a brilliant idea.

I bought a weather balloon, and had a can of helium ready to go, was going to tether it so it was about 20' over our house and put some glowsticks in it so a giant glowing ball was over my house.

I'd love to regale you with news of my triumph, but my boys, age 5 and 9 at the time discovered water balloons that summer...and there was this moment of dreadful silence that wafted from the basement. I walked over to the stairs and called down 'what's going on?' 2 boys BOLTED from the bathroom to their rooms.

I head down those stairs and was confronted with an undulating mass that had grown about 3' over the sink, too big for the boys to reach the shutoff anymore. I got out a 'what the...' when it rolled off the sink counter and onto the floor where it immediately became a fire hose whipping water around EVERYWHERE. Did not break until I tried to move it to the shower...

So...I never got around to testing the idea, maybe you'd have better luck?

 

[SLCGirl]

So...when we FIRST moved in, I was worried about this and had, what I thought, was a brilliant idea.

I bought a weather balloon, and had a can of helium ready to go, was going to tether it so it was about 20' over our house and put some glowsticks in it so a giant glowing ball was over my house.

I'd love to regale you with news of my triumph, but my boys, age 5 and 9 at the time discovered water balloons that summer...and there was this moment of dreadful silence that wafted from the basement. I walked over to the stairs and called down 'what's going on?' 2 boys BOLTED from the bathroom to their rooms.

I head down those stairs and was confronted with an undulating mass that had grown about 3' over the sink, too big for the boys to reach the shutoff anymore. I got out a 'what the...' when it rolled off the sink counter and onto the floor where it immediately became a fire hose whipping water around EVERYWHERE. Did not break until I tried to move it to the shower...

So...I never got around to testing the idea, maybe you'd have better luck?

I found this idea with the large black balloons and glow sticks. We tried it out (needs some fine-tuning next year) and this past Halloween is not a good indicator of whether it worked or not. So I will be trying it again.

 

[lisa48317]

I don't know if they do this every year, but our county resident Facebook page posted a map that you can add yourself to so people can find your display. I live on a elementary school bus route but we have no sidewalks or streetlights. On a good year I still have less than 50 kids come by, so the map did help some. I had several cars pull up at various times and they told me that they plotted out a route from that map and were ToTing that way.

 

[UnOrthodOx]

I found this idea with the large black balloons and glow sticks. We tried it out (needs some fine-tuning next year) and this past Halloween is not a good indicator of whether it worked or not. So I will be trying it again.

The reason I chose weather balloons is they are rated to lift a particular weight (and for a couple glow sticks it's around $10), and being just natural latex rather than colored actually glow up when the sticks are inserted.

I never revisited as it turned out I didn't need to advertise and we have plenty of folks come.

 

[SLCGirl]

I will have to look into the Facebook idea. We are new to Next Door and did that, but this past Halloween isn't a good indicator as to what worked and what didn't.

 

[SLCGirl]

The reason I chose weather balloons is they are rated to lift a particular weight (and for a couple glow sticks it's around $10), and being just natural latex rather than colored actually glow up when the sticks are inserted.

I never revisited as it turned out I didn't need to advertise and we have plenty of folks come.

Basically, we did this: Floating Spirit Lights
I think that it's the same idea, with a difference of where you put the glow sticks. I went with this one since we did a cemetery theme this year and I thought it would look cool. It really worked out well for the visual effect but I'm not sure who was able to see it other than those that came to the house. It was a great trial run and I learned what I need to do for next year.

 

[sneakykid]

I would highly recommend creating a Page on Facebook that shows pictures of your house with the setup. Encourage people to Like it, and you can post updates as you decorate to build excitement or do countdowns to Halloween showcasing different props.

Join local Facebook groups (seasonal, buy and sells, etc.) and advertise your home there.

 

[SLCGirl]

I would highly recommend creating a Page on Facebook that shows pictures of your house with the setup. Encourage people to Like it, and you can post updates as you decorate to build excitement or do countdowns to Halloween showcasing different props.

Join local Facebook groups (seasonal, buy and sells, etc.) and advertise your home there.

That's a great idea, especially since I always want a place to do an "in progress". Thank you!

 

[IowaGuy]

I create my haunts fb page last year, 12 people are following it so far. Northwestern Hollow, Ames, IA if anyone is interested

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Ah that was a nice mention Frankie Girl 😘. Nice to know the forum sales/promotions area gets read.

Speaking of balloon lights, I personally like these LED lights that you can turn on and place in your balloons.

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Operated-Balloons-Decoration-Waterproof/dp/B01FF00TIW

Check out the photos in the listing. I wonder if it would be possible and okay to tie one or a few balloons to a sign near the entrance to your street the week of halloween and even if you had to replace the balloon/s each night I think it could help drive traffic down your street to you come halloween night. Definitely something for halloween night if you only do it one night. Problem with putting out signage away from your home is getting it lit. Don't want to use anything expensive as I'm sure it will be taken and balloons and these LED lights would be pretty inexpensive. If you search you will find them in a few different colors other than the white lights.

I recall reading about a helium shortage so not sure how available it will be come this halloween. If it's difficult to find or do each night, maybe a balloon with an LED light inside blown up with air and tied off and attached to a dowel rod and then to signage would work just as well. I like the balloon idea but suppose you could also use the same lights and embed them in plastic corrigated cardboard signage as well to help illuminate the wording on the sign.

This past year I picked up some battery operated LED light strands from a Hobby Lobby that had a chasing function. Had not seen something like this with that feature anywhere else. This could be another idea for signage. I posted about them in a thread I started (along with a movie there).

Animated lit movie sign

One project done today! Super easy animated lit movie sign using personalized sign from Oriental Trading and a 15-bulb Ultra LED light strand from Hobby Lobby. This battery-powered LED light strand uses 2 AA batteries and has 3 settings: Steady On/Twinkle/Off. More details under the YouTube...

www.halloweenforum.com

Here's another post I made about them and finding them in Hobby Lobby (You might have to scroll down to post #22,032 if link doesn't bring you right there--think it's a bug in the forum software it doesn't direct you right to it)

What did you find/buy today?

That orange furry guy in the back left made here today too! Awesome pile of spooky goodies! And in true Goldie fashion we already have started skinning it! Thanks! My JRT does the same thing.

www.halloweenforum.com

I was able to search HL's website with the SKU number on the package and they are still selling them! If you are interested I would order them or look for them in a store if one near you just in case they stop carrying them. Great little lights.

White Ultra LED Battery Operated Lights with Clear Cord | Hobby Lobby | 640326

Get White Ultra LED Battery Operated Lights with Clear Cord online or find other Clear Cord products from HobbyLobby.com

www.hobbylobby.com

 

[SLCGirl]

Ah that was a nice mention Frankie Girl 😘. Nice to know the forum sales/promotions area gets read.

Speaking of balloon lights, I personally like these LED lights that you can turn on and place in your balloons.

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Operated-Balloons-Decoration-Waterproof/dp/B01FF00TIW

Check out the photos in the listing. I wonder if it would be possible and okay to tie one or a few balloons to a sign near the entrance to your street the week of halloween and even if you had to replace the balloon/s each night I think it could help drive traffic down your street to you come halloween night. Definitely something for halloween night if you only do it one night. Problem with putting out signage away from your home is getting it lit. Don't want to use anything expensive as I'm sure it will be taken and balloons and these LED lights would be pretty inexpensive. If you search you will find them in a few different colors other than the white lights.

I recall reading about a helium shortage so not sure how available it will be come this halloween. If it's difficult to find or do each night, maybe a balloon with an LED light inside blown up with air and tied off and attached to a dowel rod and then to signage would work just as well. I like the balloon idea but suppose you could also use the same lights and embed them in plastic corrigated cardboard signage as well to help illuminate the wording on the sign.

This past year I picked up some battery operated LED light strands from a Hobby Lobby that had a chasing function. Had not seen something like this with that feature anywhere else. This could be another idea for signage. I posted about them in a thread I started (along with a movie there).

Animated lit movie sign

One project done today! Super easy animated lit movie sign using personalized sign from Oriental Trading and a 15-bulb Ultra LED light strand from Hobby Lobby. This battery-powered LED light strand uses 2 AA batteries and has 3 settings: Steady On/Twinkle/Off. More details under the YouTube...

www.halloweenforum.com

Here's another post I made about them and finding them in Hobby Lobby (You might have to scroll down to post #22,032 if link doesn't bring you right there--think it's a bug in the forum software it doesn't direct you right to it)

What did you find/buy today?

That orange furry guy in the back left made here today too! Awesome pile of spooky goodies! And in true Goldie fashion we already have started skinning it! Thanks! My JRT does the same thing.

www.halloweenforum.com

I was able to search HL's website with the SKU number on the package and they are still selling them! If you are interested I would order them or look for them in a store if one near you just in case they stop carrying them. Great little lights.

White Ultra LED Battery Operated Lights with Clear Cord | Hobby Lobby | 640326

Get White Ultra LED Battery Operated Lights with Clear Cord online or find other Clear Cord products from HobbyLobby.com

www.hobbylobby.com

Wow! Some really great suggestions, links, and products to think about. I love the pic with the car and the balloons. I will have to start coming up with a little somethin'-somethin' that fits our theme and design. Thank you so much!

 

[hjg0989]

We use a couple of fog machines, decorations, 2 10x10 tents with a table for books for the real little ones, big candy bars and a bar with beer, wine and shots of Jack Daniel for the parents. I think we get more parents than kids now. 😁 We have a house party going on for friends inside and some of the friends hang out outside to help hand things out to the neighbors. It took a few years to get the word out.