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