Halloween Decorations--From the Spooky to the Silly
Halloween originated as a religious holiday to honor the souls of saints who have passed away. But, over the centuries, most of the religious aspect has taken a back seat to people dressing up in ghoulish costumes and celebrating at parties with a spooky, macabre atmosphere.
If you’re planning on making a Halloween party at home or work, or if you just want to decorate your house for the kids coming trick-or-treating, you’ll find that there are lots of great Halloween decor ideas. They range from the off-the-wall gory to some very innovative attempts to help you convert your home to a haunted mansion, like “The Munsters” or “The Adams Family”. Or maybe you can use them as ideas in decorating a storefront display.
We’ve composed this buyer’s guide to help you look through the options when selecting Halloween decorations. We’ll help you:
-
Choose the right type of Halloween decorations for your preferences,
-
See useful tips about that particular type of Halloween decorations,
-
Read reviews of different Halloween decorations, and what customers are saying,
-
Select the right brand of Halloween decorations, and
-
Compare prices and find the best deals.
Types of Halloween Decorations
-
Stickers: There are some amazing decals that can lend your house a gory look for Halloween. For example, Dogode makes a set of waterproof stickers that you can apply to any smooth surface, such as a window, tile, or bathtub. They also include decals that you can attach to your skin to look like realistic wounds, or for cosplay.
Dogode Halloween Stickers
-
Yard decorations: There are also Halloween-themed decorations that you can put on your front lawn. For example, Leicho makes yard signs that give your house the air of a haunted house. And Trooer makes a artificial spider web that can stretch over 1000 square feet--with 130 black fake spiders!
Leicho Halloween-themed yard signs
Trooer Artificial Spider Web
-
Lights: Halloween lights don’t exactly sell as much as Christmas lights. But, with a little searching, you can find that there are some lighting sets that are meant to give your house an eerie, spooky atmosphere. For example, Chokeberry makes a set of water-resistant LED lights that are long enough to string around your entire house or front lawn!
Chokeberry LED lights
There are also garlands of lights with an autumnal theme, such as that made by Amandir. (You can use the same lights for Thanksgiving as well--just without the jack-o-lanterns.)
Amandir Halloween Garlands
-
Props: There are also some seriously gory (and realistic!) Halloween-themed props. Blue Panda makes bloody severed body parts to scare your friends!
Blue Panda Gory Body Parts
On the more conventional side, Blue Panda also makes party accessories that are appropriate for Halloween: paper plates, napkins, and cups in Halloween traditional orange and black.
Blue Panda Disposable Party Accessories
What reviewers say
-
Scary decals on windows: You might think that scary decals on windows of bloodstains might scare people away. But customers actually said that the kids that came by trick-or-treating loved them!
-
Body parts don’t look so realistic: Before purchasing the Blue Panda fake body parts, or any other brand, look at the reviews of people who already bought them. Some customers complained that the dismembered fingers were convincing--but the larger limbs, like an arm or leg, looked more like a dog’s squeaky toy!
Important Features
-
Use more than once a year: Maybe you’ll be interested in Halloween decorations that don’t have such a short “expiration date”. For example, the Amandir strings of lights with falling leaves lend a warm, autumnal ambiance throughout the holiday season.
-
Durability: Check if your decorations are intended to make it through more than a single year. For example, the Trooer Artificial Spider Web may look cool one year. But you might have trouble putting it away for next year. Also, check out whether outdoor decorations are waterproof, or at least water-resistant, that they won’t get ruined from water penetration. The Liecho Halloween Yard Signs are made from corrugated plastic and plastic stakes, so they should have no problem standing up to rainy weather, if necessary.
-
Water-resistant electrical lights: Whether you purchase the Halloween lights featured here in the Top 10, or another brand, take note of the IP code. It stands for “Ingress Protection”, and indicates how the device (in this case, electrical lights) are resistant to dust or water seeping in. The Chokeberry set of lights has an IP rating of IP44. That means that it’s protected from dust particles of a size greater than 1 mm in size, and from splashes of water from all directions.
