I love this time of year because that means people start decorating their houses for Halloween and, in the months following, Christmas. Over the years my family and I have really gotten into decorating for the holidays, so I thought I would share some tips and ideas we came up with when purchasing and creating our own Halloween decorations for a reasonable price.
- NEVER buy things for full price.
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On November 1st, nearly everything in the Halloween sections of stores go on sale for half off. As the weeks go on, they eventually are marked down up to 90% off.This is how we found these really cool animated dragon skeletons for $15 rather than paying $150. They light up and move which is really cool! I would never pay $150 for these, but for $15 you simply can’t pass it up. I’m a sucker for a good bargain. Of course, if you see something you really want there is the chance that it will not be on the shelves after Halloween is over, so it is like a game of risk.
- Dollar Tree is your best friend.
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Don’t underestimate Dollar Tree; they have some great stuff just for a dollar. Using these cool—for lack of a better word—hangy things and some string lights that we picked up on sale post-Halloween from Walmart, we created this cool, creative way to string lights outside your home. Just use some fish line to tie the decoration to the string lights.
- Be resourceful
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This is completely my dad’s idea, but instead of buying overpriced figures at the store try and make your own. For this item, we utilized toy soldiers that we use to decorate our house for Christmas. We then put two masks and matching dresses over it that we found at the store post-Halloween. To add a little more ambiance, we put the figures into a wagon I broke as a child and then we have our own little creative figurine. It doesn’t look as good as something from Home Depot up close, but from far away I think it looks really cool. At night it also illuminates which is even spookier.
- A Halloween tree
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This was made with a pre-lit black Christmas tree that was on sale post-Christmas last year for $10. We then bought some various items from the dollar store to decorate it with, like clip-on bats, little pumpkin buckets and stencils with spooky words. Then, we added some ornaments we already had and voila- a Halloween tree for under $30. We didn’t really know what to do for the tree topper, so we improvised and used an old pumpkin bucket I used as a child when trick or treating and added my witch’s hat on top. I think this is super cute and adds a cozy vibe to my living room.
- Get creative with skeletons
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Skeletons are a really cool way to decorate and show off your personality! Again, don’t buy them full priced. You can pose, decorate and accessorize them. I would love to find a 4 foot skeleton eventually for a reasonable price.
These are just a few ideas that you can take for next Halloween. If you have your own creative ideas for Halloween decorations, share them with our social media pages: @hercampusgeneseo on Instagram, @hcgeneseo on Twitter and Her Campus Geneseo on Facebook. We’d love to see them.
Happy Halloween, everyone!