Halloween Yard Decorations – Outdoor Halloween Decorating Ideas

Halloween yard decorations are essential if you want to create that perfect ‘haunted house’ ambiance for your Halloween celebrations! Many people like to decorate both the inside and the outside of their home for Halloween, and luckily doing so is easy, thanks to the huge range of outdoor Halloween decorations that’s available. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular types of exterior Halloween décor.

Different Types Of Halloween Decorations For The Yard

Exterior Halloween decorations can be classified in three groups – lighting, props and sound. Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

1. Halloween Lighting

Spooky Halloween lighting plays a huge role in the effectiveness of your decorations. There are various types of outdoor Halloween lights available, including small string lights, large stake lights featuring Halloween characters such as zombies or witches and black lights (these are great if you have fluorescent props – and even if you don’t you can spray your existing decorations with special black light paint). Other options include floodlights and strobe lights, which can do a great job of illuminating your outdoor graveyard or other decorations.

Don’t forget about jack-o’-lanterns too, which look especially effective when placed around your porch or doorways, or along the garden path to welcome your party guests.

Make sure that you only use lights that are suitable for outdoor use, otherwise you might create a safety hazard. You can read more about outdoor Halloween lights here.

2. Halloween Props

Halloween props will probably form the main part of your decor. Props are individual objects which usually take the form of various Halloween motifs. These include:

Statues

Halloween statues will add an instant creepy touch to your yard, and there are lots of different types to choose from. Try looking for witches, skeletons, zombies, vampires or other classic Halloween characters. You can also get hands that appear to be coming up from the ground, or even zombie torsos which look like they’re digging their way out of their graves – these go very well with Halloween tombstones.

Statues aren’t just restricted to use on the ground though, as you can also get hanging Halloween props that are designed to hang from your trees, including figures which attach to a hangman’s noose – great for an extra-ghoulish effect!

Spider Webs

Spider webs are another classic Halloween decorating idea, and work well both indoors and out. You can get spider web lights for hanging in the trees, or try using a spiderweb gun (like the Webcaster) to create realistic looking webs around the yard. If you don’t want to use a spider web gun, you can also buy them ready made.

Tombstones

Tombstones are great Halloween props, and for best effect you should get a few of them so you can create your own little graveyard. Make sure you leave plenty of space between them for a realistic effect. Unlike real tombstones, the Halloween versions are normally made from lightweight plastic material, so they’re very easy to move about, but they can look extremely realistic nonetheless. As an alternative, you can get cartoon-style tombstones for a more light-hearted effect.

Halloween tombstones will often feature a fluorescent coating which glows in the dark under black light. If they don’t already have this, you can spray them with a black light paint. This is worth doing, as it really helps to create an eerie glow at night under your Halloween lights.

Hanging Critters

Hanging bats, spiders, witches, ghosts and other Halloween characters are a very easy way to decorate your yard without spending huge amounts of money. Try hanging them from the trees, bushes, fences or the eaves of your house.

Pumpkins

We mentioned jack-o’-lanterns earlier, but if you can’t face carving your own pumpkins, you can also buy plastic pumpkin props which can look very effective as well. These may be mounted on stakes, so they can easily be secured in place on your lawn.

Fog

If you really want to pull out all the stops to create the best possible Halloween atmosphere, try buying or hiring a fog machine– tendrils of fog wrapping around your tombstones will create a genuinely chilling effect, or you can really ramp it up to create a thick mist for that horror movie ambiance.

House Decorations

Halloween exterior house decorations are another good idea, and can easily be added to the walls or roof of your house. Examples of this kind of prop include ghosts, Halloween wreaths and banners. You can also get Halloween-themed light covers which you can add to your existing exterior lights – this is a great way to create spooky Halloween lighting effects without having to worry about wiring.

3. Halloween Sounds

Lastly, don’t forget to pick up a soundtrack for your Halloween celebrations. If you’ve ever seen a horror movie, you know how much the music adds to the chilling impact of the visuals, and it’s the same with your Halloween decorations. If you don’t have an outdoor sound system, try placing a speaker near an open window, or using a portable stereo or MP3 speaker system to flood your yard with ghastly screens and howls, or chilling music. Halloween music and sounds can easily be bought online; try Midnight Syndicate for especially good recordings of this type.

As you can see, there are lots of ideas to choose from when creating your Halloween yard decorations. Just make sure that you plan them in plenty of time, and try to buy everything you need well before Halloween actually starts, especially if you’re looking for the best prices, because many retailers will increase their prices in the immediate run-up to Halloween.

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3. 3 Easy Halloween Tree Decorating Ideas That Won’t Break The Bank
4. Easy Halloween Decorating Tips For Indoors And Out
5. Home Decorating For Halloween – 4 Easy Tips