Halloween Decorations - Show me what you do

[Teken]

Every year when Halloween comes to our city I am always so impressed with the amount of work and dedication people invest in this annual event. I've been seriously considering doing the same for many years but rampant theft and vandalism has always been ever present.  I thought I would buy a few cheap ornaments as seen here to start and if they get broken or stolen it wouldn't be the end of the world.

I would be interested to see what some of you who are avid fans of this annual event do or have seen in your area.

Always wanted a giant spider hanging off somewhere like this: https://amzn.to/3A3O7iz  Really wish I had a much larger mature tree to use something like this because for what ever reason it makes me laugh when I see this: https://amzn.to/3tzz6SZ  I have considered buying some inflatable decorations as they offer that larger presence on the property but obviously requires power. Given our area is always prone to extreme cold during the Halloween season and high winds I'm not sure going with a large ornament is a good idea without some kind of shelter etc: https://amzn.to/3la69JA

Always wanted to put some of these fake tomb stones on the property but the GF feels its bad mojo to put something like that in front of the home.   https://amzn.to/2VyXlEh

This inflatable 8' pumpkin string seems fun for the kids? https://amzn.to/2YDKYYI

Always wanted to have my own smoke / fog machine to add that extra ambience and this model seems to be highly rated: https://amzn.to/3liX4xY

Love to see what you guys plan to do or have seen in your area. Given its still fairly early I don't expect to see too many replies until we are in the thick of Halloween season. 

[Thanatar]

Our neighbors aren't close enough to do trick or treating since we moved to a more rural area, so we don't do as much as we used too. But we made up for it during Christmas. Here's a link to one of our videos. Bonus Points: Some of it is run by Insteon and my ISY. ?

 

[larryllix]

8 hours ago, Teken said:

Every year when Halloween comes to our city I am always so impressed with the amount of work and dedication people invest in this annual event. I've been seriously considering doing the same for many years but rampant theft and vandalism has always been ever present.  I thought I would buy a few cheap ornaments as seen here to start and if they get broken or stolen it wouldn't be the end of the world.

I would be interested to see what some of you who are avid fans of this annual event do or have seen in your area.

Always wanted a giant spider hanging off somewhere like this: https://amzn.to/3A3O7iz  Really wish I had a much larger mature tree to use something like this because for what ever reason it makes me laugh when I see this: https://amzn.to/3tzz6SZ  I have considered buying some inflatable decorations as they offer that larger presence on the property but obviously requires power. Given our area is always prone to extreme cold during the Halloween season and high winds I'm not sure going with a large ornament is a good idea without some kind of shelter etc: https://amzn.to/3la69JA

Always wanted to put some of these fake tomb stones on the property but the GF feels its bad mojo to put something like that in front of the home.   https://amzn.to/2VyXlEh

This inflatable 8' pumpkin string seems fun for the kids? https://amzn.to/2YDKYYI

Always wanted to have my own smoke / fog machine to add that extra ambience and this model seems to be highly rated: https://amzn.to/3liX4xY

Love to see what you guys plan to do or have seen in your area. Given its still fairly early I don't expect to see too many replies until we are in the thick of Halloween season. 

I did live on a city street that got right into this years back. One had a large balloon burner right beside the porch and blasted it off when you were on the porch. Not very festive for the occasion but scary. Best I like were gravestones that hinged off the ground when you came up the driveway. I think he operated them with strings from the house.

Personally with very few children in a semi-rural setting we do next to nothing. We have high winds occasionally and anything inflatable would be ripped off the tethers.
However I do have my outside deck lights grouped by every third bulb so that I can do festive themes. I control a rotating animation of the colour via NRs to my NRbridge software but that can get too corny. For Halloween I use an orange, and two violets groups every three bulbs.  This is all done with WiFi RGBCW MagicHome bulbs costing under $10 each. Now the 9W bulbs are out the older 7W may be even cheaper.

As far as the smoke generator goes, forget it for outside. You will witness a little smoke trail from the immediate nozzle and it will dissipate into the slightest breeze. It needs to be contained to accumulate. The commercial stage ones must go through gallons of solution per hour to get stage effects. Not cheap.

[tmorse305]

23 hours ago, Teken said:

Every year when Halloween comes to our city I am always so impressed with the amount of work and dedication people invest in this annual event. I've been seriously considering doing the same for many years but rampant theft and vandalism has always been ever present.  I thought I would buy a few cheap ornaments as seen here to start and if they get broken or stolen it wouldn't be the end of the world.

I would be interested to see what some of you who are avid fans of this annual event do or have seen in your area.

Always wanted a giant spider hanging off somewhere like this: https://amzn.to/3A3O7iz  Really wish I had a much larger mature tree to use something like this because for what ever reason it makes me laugh when I see this: https://amzn.to/3tzz6SZ  I have considered buying some inflatable decorations as they offer that larger presence on the property but obviously requires power. Given our area is always prone to extreme cold during the Halloween season and high winds I'm not sure going with a large ornament is a good idea without some kind of shelter etc: https://amzn.to/3la69JA

Always wanted to put some of these fake tomb stones on the property but the GF feels its bad mojo to put something like that in front of the home.   https://amzn.to/2VyXlEh

This inflatable 8' pumpkin string seems fun for the kids? https://amzn.to/2YDKYYI

Always wanted to have my own smoke / fog machine to add that extra ambience and this model seems to be highly rated: https://amzn.to/3liX4xY

Love to see what you guys plan to do or have seen in your area. Given its still fairly early I don't expect to see too many replies until we are in the thick of Halloween season. 

I have a small display that I keep contained to a front porch which provides some shelter from the weather and security.  I have some animated features and I also use a projection (https://atmosfx.com/) which are fun and of course very secure from vandals if that's an issue.  The sound for the animation is outside via bluetooth.  The animated features and a smoke machine are controlled with a hand held Insteon remote.  I activate most of it just before the kids arrive so its not running constantly.  See attached video to see the projection in action.  Last year I used a section of gutter downspout to maintain Covid spacing.  It turned out to be a hit with the kids so I might just keep doing it after Covid winds down.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/af076bge17ufjz6/IMG_5936.MOV?dl=0

[MrBill]

@tmorse305  Very cool.  I shouldn't have shown my wife the video, she wants one...?  

Is the skeletons in the window projector on the inside or outside?

[tmorse305]

55 minutes ago, MrBill said:

@tmorse305  Very cool.  I shouldn't have shown my wife the video, she wants one...?  

Is the skeletons in the window projector on the inside or outside?

Projector is on the inside, projecting on to a screen. I got the screen and the projector from the same place as the video.

[MrBill]

11 minutes ago, tmorse305 said:

Projector is on the inside, projecting on to a screen. I got the screen and the projector from the same place as the video.

Ahhh I see the screens for inside windows for sale now at the link.  I missed that part of the magic the first time i followed the link.  Thanks.

[Teken]

Our neighbors aren't close enough to do trick or treating since we moved to a more rural area, so we don't do as much as we used too. But we made up for it during Christmas. Here's a link to one of our videos. Bonus Points: Some of it is run by Insteon and my ISY.
 

Why am I not surprised to see the all mighty Thanatar show case yet another epic feat of home automation with us mere mortals?!?

As was the case with Julie U.S. which continues to operate flawlessly and rock the Teken household!

Thank you my friend . . .

[Teken]

I have a small display that I keep contained to a front porch which provides some shelter from the weather and security.  I have some animated features and I also use a projection (https://atmosfx.com/) which are fun and of course very secure from vandals if that's an issue.  The sound for the animation is outside via bluetooth.  The animated features and a smoke machine are controlled with a hand held Insteon remote.  I activate most of it just before the kids arrive so its not running constantly.  See attached video to see the projection in action.  Last year I used a section of gutter downspout to maintain Covid spacing.  It turned out to be a hit with the kids so I might just keep doing it after Covid winds down.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/af076bge17ufjz6/IMG_5936.MOV?dl=0

Just wow loved the dancing skeletons!


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[Teken]

18 hours ago, larryllix said:

I did live on a city street that got right into this years back. One had a large balloon burner right beside the porch and blasted it off when you were on the porch. Not very festive for the occasion but scary. Best I like were gravestones that hinged off the ground when you came up the driveway. I think he operated them with strings from the house.

Personally with very few children in a semi-rural setting we do next to nothing. We have high winds occasionally and anything inflatable would be ripped off the tethers.
However I do have my outside deck lights grouped by every third bulb so that I can do festive themes. I control a rotating animation of the colour via NRs to my NRbridge software but that can get too corny. For Halloween I use an orange, and two violets groups every three bulbs.  This is all done with WiFi RGBCW MagicHome bulbs costing under $10 each. Now the 9W bulbs are out the older 7W may be even cheaper.

As far as the smoke generator goes, forget it for outside. You will witness a little smoke trail from the immediate nozzle and it will dissipate into the slightest breeze. It needs to be contained to accumulate. The commercial stage ones must go through gallons of solution per hour to get stage effects. Not cheap.

You're correct after thinking about the smoke / fog machine. I would have to be producing a hell of a lot of smoke or have it contained in a small area for it to display correctly. I really didn't want to go the dry ice route to make some of the displays look all spooky and fun for the caldron. ?