subject: Simple Ways To Decorate The Home In Preparation For Halloween [print this page] Preparing for Halloween can be almost as much fun as the night itself. In the weeks before the festive holiday, decorating the house can be a fun chore that involves the whole family. Each person can take an assignment, and everyone can work together. Once everything is ready, the family can have a party, or happily torment any trick-or-treaters coming to the house. Here are just a few ways to decorate the home in preparation for Halloween.
Window Decorations
Choose a front window with a table beneath or a bay window to set up a Halloween display of seasonal decorations. Include stretched cotton balls to make cobwebs and sprinkle the area with black plastic spiders. Put a pumpkin front and center with a black or white doily underneath. With a few weeks to go before the big day, draw a face in bold black marker. Choose a happy face or a scary one. With a few days to go, the pumpkin can be carved and the insides scooped out to make a jack-o-lantern. Use decorative dolls to fill out the window display. Choose from stuffed animal dolls bedecked in costumes as pirates, witches and scarecrows. Black cats in hats and bears in festive garb will get the neighbors and passersby into a festive mood. For an added twist, suspend some of the decorations from the top interior of the bay window. Try hanging mice on a broom from clear twine for a spooky effect. Make tissue ghosties tied on a string and hang them among the mice witches.
For the Party
When decorating for the party, hang orange and black streamers from the ceiling and along the walls. Wrap it around stairwells and on the front porch railings. Tie helium balloons onto curling ribbon. Use black, orange, yellow and white balloons and ribbons to set the festive mood. Netting can be secured to the hallway ceiling on the way to the room where the main party events will be held. Make some more tissue ghosties or borrow some from the bay window. Decorate the nets, tables and shelves with some costumed decorative dolls to remind party-goers of the festive holiday. The mantel over a cold fireplace is always a special setting for Halloween decorations. Parade visitors through the living room or set up refreshments there so that they can enjoy villain elves and bandit pumpkins precociously posed on the fireplace mantel. Using a display of decorative dolls and ceramic pieces will help the household get ready for All Hallows Eve. Pose dolls around dishes filled with candy corn and butterscotch discs. Turn on some scary music and let the fun begin.
