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