[Kenpilot]

I'm finally moving my yard haunt from my front yard to my garage and into the backyard. I've been using rope light to light the pathway for the TOTs, but unfortunately the path they are now going to take is WAY longer than my previous front yard haunt and thus It would be WAY too expensive to light the whole path with rope light. Does anyone have any cost efficient ideas of how to light the pathway so that it's safe for the TOT's to find their way? It's pretty dark back there and pathway lighting is a must. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Ugly Joe]

100 feet of led string lights are being sold on eBay for $45 ( 100 ft cool white leds ) - they have them in other colors as well.
There's 300 led's, so that's one led every 4 inches, for 100 feet.

Don't know how long the pathway is, but if it's 50 feet, one string would cover both sides (pretty much).

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

I saw someone use string lights one year and when BIG LOTS had their LED strings on super clearance (like 90% off, think I paid $.50 or less for each box), I bought all they had left. Probably over one or two dozen of them, they were so cheap then couldn't pass up. My thought was to use something for posts (maybe concrete poured in a bucket for a form and then add a vertcal post of some sort before it dried or use something for a square or round base and add a post to it, suppose a PVC pipe would work as a pole) then string the LEDs between the posts. I'll probably run a rope between the posts and add the LEDs draped on the rope. LEDs work great because you can connect a tremendous number of strands together to get a lit distance. They give off some light but aren't too bright. Definitely would suggest making the "lit fencing" about waist height. It also serves as a barrier if you don't want the kids venturing beyond in that direction. Hope this made sense.

 

[Kenpilot]

Unfortunately the path will be a total length of at least 300', if not more. X2 for both sides, we're talking over 600' of LED rope lights. Hence the way too expensive part, unless I can score them on clearance like Ghost of Spookie did. I already have fencing, but thanks for the thought as well.

 

[WickedWino]

I use "witch jars" placed on the ground to light our path. I save glass jars of all sizes throughout the year and then paint them with watered down brown, black and red. We use led tea lights and a black cheese cloth cover over the top. Even if you light only one side of the path (you could hang them from the fence and then not need a cover) and spaced them every 4-6 feet, you'd still need a lot of tea lights to cover 300'. You can buy the tea lights in bulk and ours have lasted for a couple years - only in use on Halloween night.

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

Unfortunately the path will be a total length of at least 300', if not more. X2 for both sides, we're talking over 600' of LED rope lights. Hence the way too expensive part, unless I can score them on clearance like Ghost of Spookie did. I already have fencing, but thanks for the thought as well.

Hmm. Do you really need to have lights on both sides of the walkway? And to be clear I bought LED string lights.

I liked WickedWho's jar use. Unless you are afraid to use glass. The batteries for the tealights down the road could added up.

There's always something like Dollar Tree tiki torches with a LED tealight affixed on the top. Being higher up might cast more light for the walkway and you'd have to experiment with how far apart you'd need them to figure out quantity. DT had some nice looking plastic black lanterns with a tealight inside many of us bought. They sell small garden hooks that lanterns can be hung off of to add some height to the lanterns. They also sold solar rocks for a buck too.

Maybe you could experiment with GID paint, painting yard stakes or signage that you could expose to light ahead of time and then quickly install in the ground along your path. GID footprints would be a neat idea. I'm really not sure how long GID paint works. Believe there are different qualities of it for different hours of illumination.

 

[matrixmom]

How about carving some pumpkins or funkins in the entrance (every 10 -15 feet) then finish off with your rope lighting. Also you can do luminarias. Not sure if this matches your theme though -

 

[offmymeds]

Why cant you use just regular twinkle lights.(like white Christmas ones) Use those construction stakes and just string them on it. They will be off the ground and you can place pumpkins with flashing lights along the way for atmosphere?

 

[Kenpilot]

Thanks for your suggestions everybody, I'm taking all of them into consideration. I'm starting to lean towards either using inexpensive string Christmas lights or spacing out some sort of luminary. I just don't want to have to turn on and off 100 of the little tea lights or anything else for that matter. So something I can just plug in is a must. On another note, what color lights do you think would be best? I was thinking either red, purple, green or warm white. I use a lot of fog, so something that will look cool in the fog as well. Up until now, I've used mostly Purple rope lights with red at the exit. Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and suggestions!!

 

[Scatterbrains]

it's been about a week since I've been in big lots, but their summer lighting is on sale...it's all different vatiations of white. I also so that they had started putting Christmas lights out, so they have rope light for $7.50 and I also saw 140 count strands of purple light.

As for colors, I think you would be able to mix it up. Personally, I use orange rope light to light the path I want TOTs to walk.

Without knowing your haunt, another idea would be to put flood lights on poles or up in trees...you can use a variety of colors there to down light your path.

 

[Kenpilot]

Thanks Scatterbrains, I'll run by Big Lots today and check and see what they've got on sale. I thought about the flood lights to light the path but kinda wanted it to stay semi- dark so as not to take away from the rest of the scenes that I have scattered on each side of the pathway. But thank you and thanks again for the heads up at Big Lots

 

[printersdevil]

I have often used just regular string lights (non LED). I have these PVC poles cut and a little niche in the top to sort of hold the wire of the lights. My uncle added a sort of plastic cap to the top to finish them off. These were really done for Christmas and are in spray painted red PVC poles, but I have used them at Halloween before to hold the lights.

 

[Scatterbrains]

Are the Tots walking on grass, concrete, a trail? I would tie the amount of light to safety. If there are things they can trip on, lots of light, If' it's just grass and no tripping hazards, then minimal light

 

[dawnski]

You could use string lights instead of these more expensive globe lights in the photo. The lighting will be higher up (and not stepped on) and it also makes for a dramatic walkway. You could even have some scary props on each of the poles. http://brightjuly.blogspot.com/2012/09/diy-outdoor-string-lights.html

 

[Kenpilot]

Are the Tots walking on grass, concrete, a trail? I would tie the amount of light to safety. If there are things they can trip on, lots of light, If' it's just grass and no tripping hazards, then minimal light

That's a good point. The path will be thru my backyard, then about a 100' trail thru a wooded area and then out to my front yard where the exit will be. I was planning on walking the entire path when it's done, to make sure there are no tripping hazards, as safety is always my #1 concern. The lights were more of a way to just help line the pathway to keep the TOT's along the path, which the majority will be lined with my cemetery fencing. The fencing is black and can be hard to see in the darkness so the lighting was just to help with the fence and keep the TOT's where they need to be, and yet if the lighting is too bright, I think it'll take away from the overall scary, dark ambiance. I'm thinking maybe just inexpensive "Christmas" string lights along the bottom of the fencing which isn't overly bright, but will be obvious to help outline the fencing. I also have all my flood lights and LED lights for my "Scenes" and cemetery, that'll help illuminate some of the backyard and trail, so I think I'll be ok with that. I'll just do it ahead of time and if I find some un safe areas, I can always add some lighting in those areas.

 

[psox16]

Here is what I'm going to try this year, if all goes as planned. We're planning on laying down heavy duty tape (maybe white duct tape or white ribbon or white rope), and putting black floodlights to illuminate them. It will (hopefully) allow the path to be clearly visible without lighting everything up. You'd just have to be careful not to light up a bunch of other stuff unintentionally. Maybe you could put white tape or white paint on the fences with some black lights. I just think black lights are fun.

 

[boo who?]

You can buy single snap-on electrical outlets for about a dollar each. Usually 15amp. All you need do then is spool out a light gauge split cable (looks like household lamp cord) and snap in the outlets wherever you want them. That way, you can cover a lot of area and space out your lighting. If you use those low watt squiggly bulbs - maybe in a color, you can light up a long path with a light every 20'-25' or so.

 

[dawnski]

Another thought, through your wooded trail, maybe you can just use the orange or pink marking ribbon that you can find in the safety section at your big box hardware store. It's super cheap and it also glows super bright with black light. Whether you buy orange or pink, it all glows orange. I couldn't tell the difference under the black light.