Halloween is right around the corner, and if you haven’t decorated your home for the holiday yet, now is the time! This month we’ve put together a helpful guide of local family-friendly happenings, as well as tips for decorating the outside of your home to show your community your festive spirit.
Featured Local Happenings:
Hinsdale
Friday, October 28, 6:30-8:30 pm
@ Hinsdale Humane Society
Sunday, October 30, 3-7 pm
@ The Community House
Clarendon Hills
Thursday, October 27, 6 pm
@ Clarendon Hills Library
Halloween Walk and Witches Ride
Saturday, October 29, 11 am – 9 pm
@ Downtown Clarendon Hills
11 AM – 2 PM: DOWNTOWN TRICK OR TREATING W/ LIVE MUSIC
2 PM – 4 PM: HALLOWEEN WALK SPOOKY SOCIAL W/ DRINKS & DJ
4 PM – 5 PM: WITCHES RIDE FOR INFANT WELFARE
5 PM – 9 PM: WITCHES AFTER PARTY WITH DRINKS & DJ
Oak Brook
Sunday, October 30, 12-4 pm
@ Graue Mill & Museum
Burr Ridge
Boo! Ridge Village Center Trick-or-Treat
Saturday, October 29, 2-4 pm
@ Burr Ridge Village Center
Westmont
Monday, October 31, 5-7 pm
@ Westmont Community Center
Prefer to make your own Halloween magic at home? Here are some tips to get your home into the Halloween spirit…
Add Spooky Touches to Your Current Fall Decor
If you still have your Fall porch décor outside, feel free to use it as the foundation for your Halloween decorating. Using the decorations as a base and adding a few Halloween touches can make them that much spookier. Simple additions can include a Halloween themed door mat, wreath, and cobwebs. You can also pile pumpkins around your front steps (make sure you don’t set them out too early!) to further add to the Halloween feel.
Make a Pumpkin Planter
It may sound intimidating, but it really isn’t! Making a pumpkin planter (i.e. a pumpkin vase to hold flowers) takes just minutes but can be very impactful. It is also a beautiful way to display Fall flowers, and you can even decorate with Halloween trinkets to coordinate with the holiday. Simply carve your pumpkin as you normally would, and then trim flowers to size so they will fit well within the pumpkin. As long as the flowers can stand the drop in temperatures outdoors, the pumpkin planter should last you for much of the season.
Don’t Forget the Lighting
With the sun setting earlier and earlier, make sure you select proper lighting so neighbors can see your decorations in the evening! We love lights that line a walkway or path up to the front porch to showcase all of the decorations. There are also many solar-powered lights that are easy to setup and use. You can also consider lights that are staked into the ground so you can use them near walkways as well as in the yard. Spotlights are a wonderful option too if you want to highlight a particular area or prop in your decorating. Colored bulbs are also very fun and can tie all of the decorations together!
Save a Surprise for Halloween
Decorating for Halloween is a fun way to get in the spirit and generates excitement – especially for children – around the holiday. We think it is always fun though to save a decoration for the big night, as an extra surprise for trick-or-treaters. This could be recently carved pumpkins, a new creepy character statute, or spooky music. Some people even go so far as trading a decoration for a real person (i.e., a stuffed scarecrow decoration for a real person in a scarecrow costume!) for an extra scare on Halloween night.
Halloween is such a fun holiday, and a wonderful time to dress up your home and do something different. We love walking and driving through our local neighborhoods to see all of the creativity when it comes to decorating. We hope you enjoy decorating your home for the holiday, and have a very Happy Halloween!