Haunt Your Home This Halloween
Last updated Monday, October 27, 2008 10:25 AM CDT in Your Home
By Marla Hinkle
THE MORNING NEWS
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A glittery spider the size of a miniature football dangles from the ceiling, his black furry legs grazing the craggy face of a pirate skeleton key.
Witches and fairies populate gnarled branches on a Halloween tree, and black owls with yellow eyes peer around the corner.
The October scene unfolds as visitors enter Interiors Galleria in Rogers. The store owned by Peggy Treasure has gone all out this year decorating its storefront for the season.
Spending for Halloween continues to grow each year, and researchers with the National Retail Federation expect 2008 to exceed expectations, even in a weaker economy.
The federation’s Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that more consumers plan to celebrate the holiday this year (64.5 percent vs. 58.7 percent), with the average person spending $66.54 on the holiday, up from $64.82 one year ago. Total Halloween spending for 2008 is estimated to reach $5.77 billion.
“Consumers — who have been anxious and uncertain for the past several months — may be looking at Halloween as an opportunity to forget the stresses of daily life and just have a little fun,” according to Tracy Mullin, NRF president and chief executive officer.
Jakey Amos, leasing agent with Interiors Galleria in Rogers, points out the pieces that are most popular with customers along with some of her favorites.
“Scary and traditional are what have been most popular this year,” she says. “We’ve sold a lot of these spiders (with velvety material and glitter), spider webs and a heavy cardboard-material candelabra with black glitter.
“Magical and fantasy is a trendy theme this year. Everyone is decorating a Halloween tree with ornaments. I put mine on a candelabra,” she says.
Several collectible dolls sit around tables decorated with hanging ornaments. A huge skeleton ghoul with gauze dressings lurks in the corner.
Creepy black twig-like garlands are also on shoppers’ lists.
“They remind me of the Spanish moss you see hanging from trees in Savannah, Ga.,” Amos says.
Halloween Tradition
Village pieces are what gets Steve Melody’s customers excited, he says. The owner of Melody’s Choices at the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville and Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers says this year’s window display at the Fayetteville location is the best yet.
It showcases collectible Department 56 Snow Village lighted Halloween buildings and accessories.
The new Rickety Railroad Station and Haunted Rails Engine & Coal Car are extremely collectible pieces, Melody explains, because the company will release three consecutive railroad cars to go with the first piece in the coming years.
“We always have a window display, and people ask how we create certain effects. I’m really proud of the train track we used,” he says. “Department 56 doesn’t sell a black train track, so we spray-painted a white picket fence for the track and added some gravel.”
Other customers have inquired how Melody’s staff produces realistic fall leaves for the display. Melody shares his secret:
The staff picks them off a nandina tree, which exhibits great fall leaf colors. After gathering, they pulse the leaves in a food processor a couple of times, then microwave for about 45 seconds to get that crunchy look.
The leaves are then fluffed out and dried to get a brittle fall leaf effect.
Melody’s Choices also carries other Department 56 lines like Glitterville and several serving dishes. Melody says they used to carry a selection of Christopher Radko Halloween ornaments, but customers were not willing to spend so much on a more expensive Halloween ornament.
Old World Christmas offers some more affordable Halloween and fall ornaments, he says.
“With the village pieces, people are starting a tradition. You can really create a monster in your home,” Melody says of a collector’s village and its tendency to expand over time.
Frightful Frenzy
If you’re one of those people who cast withering looks at Christmas trees in July, then you probably turned away from pumpkins and black cats in August.
Falloween, a term coined for the extended celebration of Halloween, often begins several weeks before the day. The retail season extends from the beginning of fall through Halloween and Thanksgiving in the United States.
Think you have plenty of time to shop? Not so. For example, Yankee Candle Company sold out of its adorable — and affordable — Boney Bunch line for Halloween.
Stores displayed the goods in early August and quickly sold out of several items like candle holders. They have become so collectible that a piece retailing for around $14 now is selling for nearly $200 on eBay.
Although Halloween approaches, there’s still time to search for some of the season’s hottest trends.
Bubble fogger machines at Walmart and Target offer a spooky twist. The bubbles contain “fog” that is released into misty white puffs when popped.
For more ghoulish gore, check out Halloween Express in Rogers and Fayetteville, or Spirit Halloween, also in Fayetteville.
Several life-sized animatronics do the work of scaring trick-or-treaters for you. Seen this year are 5-foot witches, some sweeping a broom or stirring a cauldron, a headless bride who asks if her hair looks all right, pirates, cowboy skeletons, crawling corpses and characters from classic movies.
Also popular are do-it-yourself homemade cemetery kits featuring Styrofoam or resin tombstones and skeletons.
Another option is to go the silhouette route by placing store-bought black, flocked rats and cats along a wall, or download templates from marthastewart.com.
Vintage looks are still popular, such as 1940-inspired postcards depicting grinning pumpkins, moons and costumed revelers bobbing for apples.
The trend towards realism expands for 2008. Graveyard scenes and haunted houses will set the mood, with fog machines and strobe-lights enhancing the eerie effect.
Bubbling cauldrons, window covers, animated figures, hanging creatures and lighted Halloween icons are other traditional choices that will emerge again this holiday.
Dreadful By Design
Going the do-it-yourself route is a fun process that won’t stretch your budget too far.
Ordinary items like a silver candelabra, black dishes or twig hearth brooms may be found at flea markets.
Britta Peterson, author of “Eerie Elegance: How to Host a Haunt and Other Fabulous Frights,” (Britta Blvd Publishing, 2008) makes some frugal suggestions.
“Your party decorations can be as simple as a food table with a few fun accessories, as elaborate as stone castle walls with a starry sky ceiling in your living room, or anywhere in between.”
Some of her tips include buying an inexpensive black plastic cauldron and placing dry ice in it.
Collect fallen twigs and branches and place around sconces for a forest fantasy effect.
Incorporate Halloween costumes from years past as props. For example, a mask placed over a Styrofoam model head can make a life-sized prop when added to a hanging or stuffed costume.
Sometimes, simple is best. Mary Carol Garrity owns three home-furnishing stores in Atchison, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo. She writes a column called Style At Home for Scripps Howard News Service.
Her recent column on Halloween decor outlines her tips for taking the usual and making it unusual. She lives in historic Atchison, which has been named one of the Midwest’s most haunted towns.
In her column, she writes, “One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when decorating for Halloween is thinking they have to fill their homes with scads of props.
“Personally, I’m spellbound by Halloween displays that incorporate the things you already own, reinvented with a few spirited touches.”
One of her favorite themes is “Ghoulish Elegance,” a decorative approach that is high style but with a sinister slant.
For crafty designers, Matthew Mead shares several tips for making your own decorations in “Halloween Tricks and Treats,” (Time Inc. Home Entertainment, 2008).
Affix a single letter to each mug with double-stick tape or decoupage medium (such as Mod Podge). Place a second letter on the opposite side of each mug to provide even more spelling options. Fill with candy and offer as part favors.
Example of words to spell out: Trick or Treat, Spooky, Boo, Wicked.
Once you’ve found a squash or gourd with the right “mouth,” carve a spot for a tea light with a paring knife or grapefruit spoon. Cut a small cavity for each eye with a paring knife and insert black-eyed peas, lentils or other dried legumes to make bleary eyes.
Nature may yield some interesting textures. Asparagus stems make gothic, swampy grass or weeping willows. Moss-covered rocks and smooth stones can be used in displays, and squash and gourds may be painted a variety of spooky colors.
The most important decorating tool is to have fun and let your imagination be your guide.
FAST FACT
Halloween decor is still trending up, often displayed with seasonal fall merchandise. This year Halloween falls on a Friday, which means more parties for both adults and children.
Source: National Retail Federation
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