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He picked this out. Isn't it lovely?

^{Posted by: MandaJuice}

In the Mandajuice family tradition of "he gets the outside, I get the inside," my husband has taken on the task of decorating the house for Halloween.  Now if it were up to me, we'd have smiley ghosts and adorable-yet-creepy spiders and lots and lots of glitter embellishing our front porch.  It would be young-kid-friendly and cutesy, not scary. 

But a deal is a deal and apparently, when I agreed to let Dave have free reign of the outside of the house (which basically was just a ploy to get my own free reign of the inside decor), that also meant holiday decorations.  Which, at this time of year, means nasty, ghouly, ugly stuff.  So far we're about half-way into our Halloween budget and he's got two vultures, a human hip bone, a giant snake, a gravestone and a ghoulish mummy-head.  I'm starting to wonder if this deal we have is such a good idea.  I mean, his taste in furniture isn't THAT bad.

The hardest part is that Alex, at four, is still very easily traumatized.  He wants absolutely nothing to do with any kind of animatronic device.  Stuff that moves or talks or lights up and makes a scary noise is the WORST.  Last year I tried to put out this tiny little ghost that made a 'whoooo" noise when you walk by and it literally scared him to tears.  It freaked him out so much that I eventually had to take it out of the house because the fact that it even existed bothered him enough to keep him from sleeping.  I have a vivid memory of walking with him out to the dumpster behind our apartment so he could actually witness my throwing it away.

Of course the gory eyeball lights I found at Fred Meyer were A-Okay in his book and are now hanging from his bedroom window ledge.  Boys!

The hard thing is not spending too much money on decorations.  Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday and this is the first year we've been able to decorate anything more than a tiny (shared) front porch.  I haven't been to the pumpkin patch yet, but I'm looking forward to doing some fun Jack-O-Lanterns and maybe coming up with another themed art project, but other than that, I'm going to have to find some restraint (at least until November 1st, when everything goes on sale!).


More decorating ideas in The Ghoul's Guide:
Making the Halloween Scene
Homemade Decorations: Tree Ghosts
Fall and Halloween Decorations
Mama's Latest Find: Halloween Party/Everyday Supplies
Crazy Halloween Recipes and Party Supplies