(Not so Spooky) Halloween Decoration Ideas

Halloween was fast approaching and the boys were begging for more, more decoration – I usually have 3 carved pumpkins at the door and I like to keep things simple! So, here is how I came with a good compromise with my little “zombies”!

Like most families with kids, we are a very busy family and when it comes to homemade (fill in the blank) that means we’ll have to carve – no pun intended! – time to make sure our projects get done when we need it. And this year for Halloween the boys asked to get the house decorated not only outside, where they decorate the yard under supervision, but also inside where is “mama’s” domain! I really wasn’t looking forward to it as I don’t like to spend the time and the money shopping for all the stuff that as a professional organizer I know will need a home “somewhere”. It also means I have to shop for the bins and find the time and the space to store it.

With the mission to get the home a little closer to their liking, I went online looking for Halloween decoration ideas and what I could shop to decorate the house, but also for easy things I could do at home with the kids and that wouldn’t take storage space (or drive me completely bananas!). One of my favorite places to look for homemade decorations is Martha Stewart’s website and I found this super easy template of mice and bats there.

I am showing here our guest bathroom, but we made tons of these little guys.

We placed our little creatures throughout the house and I love seeing them in every unexpected corner!

Next stop was the family room where we spend a lot of time as a family, and because I didn’t want to spend a ton I decided to place the decoration together on the mantle.

We agreed that every year we’ll buy something new to our collection, but we have a cap of 2 large bins. That’s it!

And finally, our masterpieces! First we trace it and then Addie and the boys carve them.

This year the boys did the tracing themselves without a template and you’ll see how nice their pumpkins turned out once we lit them.

The pumpkins are now carved and will look awesome outside at night!

Tomorrow night we’ll go have fun on our costumes – me as a bumble bee! and collect as much candy as we can. As I grew up without Halloween – back in Brazil, much of this holiday “expertise” is coming from my sister-in-law and now from the boys. She has made it a point to celebrate Halloween with them while we were in MD and that was the best treat of all. She also taught us that we actually *need* to use pillow cases and not the fancy, tiny, little baskets to get our treats! She’s too funny. Well, now we have our spooky pillowcases just for Halloween.

Well, these were my simple Halloween decoration ideas that helped us decorate the house with little money and without creating a huge mass to be stored. How did you decorate your home? How do you store it afterward?

I wish you a wonderful Halloween day with your little ones! If you’re a grown up, just place a pumpkin at the entrance with a bowl filled with candy and that already screams Halloween!

Have a super spooky day!

Helena