| Halloween is a uniquely special time of year, | | | | infinite variety of faces or scenes, and your |
| regardless of whether you're a kid or just a | | | | pumpkins will last much longer. There's also |
| kid at heart. It's a holiday time that offers | | | | none of the mess involved with carving them. |
| lots of wonderful opportunities to decorate | | | | Place your pumpkins in groups of three to |
| your home creatively, since the subject | | | | five of varying sizes and shapes. It makes |
| matter is different from any other holiday. | | | | for a much more effective display. Graveyard |
| If you're thinking about decorating your | | | | FunA little paint can go a long way in |
| porch and yard for the spookiest night of the | | | | creating great-looking tombstones, too. You |
| year, you can do it without having to spend a | | | | can paint simple boards gray and then use |
| lot of money. Here are a few low-cost ideas | | | | black paint to add silly or scary epitaphs |
| for showing your Halloween spirit to the | | | | that will delight visitors. Things like: |
| world:Crime Scene to Fright SceneYou can get | | | | "See? I Told You I Was Sick" can bring |
| rolls of yellow Caution tape (the type you | | | | smiles, but you can also create scarier |
| see at crime or disaster scenes to keep | | | | epitaphs to bring out the more ghoulish side |
| people out of certain areas) fairly | | | | of your nature.Craft Fun for ChildrenChildren |
| inexpensively at most hardware stores, and if | | | | love this craft. You can create some |
| you put it up around the perimeter of your | | | | wonderfully spooky scenes in your windows by |
| yard, accompanied by a sign that says | | | | cutting out silhouettes of the various |
| something like "Fright Scene: Enter at Your | | | | Halloween icons, such as black cats, witches, |
| Own Risk," it can give an eerily spooky | | | | and skeletons, out of construction paper. |
| ambience while also offering guests a wary | | | | When it gets dark, your windows will take on |
| smile.You can enhance that spookiness either | | | | a lovely macabre look when the light is |
| more by replacing your regular porch light | | | | blocked out by those eerie objects.Simple |
| with a black light bulb. Adding a few | | | | scarecrow-type figures, topped with rubber |
| Halloween-oriented items like skulls and | | | | Halloween masks, can also be effective in |
| ghost figures that glow in the dark will be | | | | adding some scare factor to your front porch |
| even more effective.Pumpkins and Paint FunIf | | | | and lawn. Just stuff a shirt and pair of |
| you want your pumpkins to last longer (and | | | | pants with straw or leaves, add the mask, and |
| even to be reusable when you scrap your | | | | you've got an instant horror figure for just |
| Halloween decorations and begin decorating | | | | a little time, imagination, and very little |
| for Thanksgiving), don't carve them. Paint | | | | money.Jeanette Fisher helps home makers have |
| them with acrylic paint. You can create an | | | | fun decorating their homes. |