See My “Over-the-Top” Halloween House (300 Kids Trick-or-Treat Every Year!)

At least a dozen times during the month of September, my husband and I are stopped by neighbors asking the following question: “When are you putting up the Halloween decorations?” We’ve lived in our suburban home in a college town since 2009, and although we started with just one Halloween inflatable decoration (a pumpkin Pac-Man and three ghosts, all still going strong), we’ve been amassing more and more decorations every year, until finally we became what neighbors have nicknamed the “Halloween House.” 

My husband and I love Halloween. We watch our favorite movies all through the spooky season, and turn the trick-or-treating night into an event we enjoy, too. We don’t have kids (except a Corgi fur baby who refuses to wear a costume), so we love putting on a Halloween show for all the little ones in the neighborhood. That means no super-scary stuff — all of our decorations are on the tame side. 

But that doesn’t mean we don’t go all-out. We have a whopping 15 inflatable Halloween decorations in our diminutive front yard, four vintage blow-molds on the front porch, and so many other fun things in store for the hundreds (one year we had about 300!) of trick-or-treaters that usually stop by. Here’s everything we do. 

If you can remember way back to 2020, Halloween candy chutes were everywhere. Many folks understandably didn’t want hand-to-hand contact with others during that uncertain time, so we built a slide so we could still send candy down to the kids. My husband picked it up from a local hardware store: It’s a vinyl gutter that’s 4 inches wide so there’s plenty of room for the candy to slide down. We also didn’t want the kids breezing past the slide to go up the stairs, so we added “caution” tape (which also looks fun for Halloween!). We attached the tape to a couple of garden stakes, and to anchor the candy bowl we included some weighty stones. 

It was an invention built out of necessity, but we’ve kept it because it’s still a really fun way to pass out candy. The slide also comes in handy because our stairs are fairly steep — this way, the kids don’t trip on the way up to us — especially because they’re trying to move around in tricky costumes. 

In past years, we’ve attempted to count how many trick-or-treaters come by our house, and one year we counted about 300! That means we have to stock up on tons of candy, which is why we always head to Costco for their jumbo bags of treats. We also usually have a non-candy option for kids who have food allergies — one of our more fun options has been Play-Doh (something we scored from Costco, too). 

My husband and I used to watch a Halloween movie on the couch while trick-or-treaters came to our door, but getting up so many times in an evening proved to be a bit arduous. Now, we set ourselves up in our front porch chairs, complete with fun music for us and the kids (we make a playlist, and make sure that nothing’s too scary), and if it’s chilly outside (Wisconsin has been known to have its fair share of snowy Halloweens), we set up an outdoor heater, too. We get bundled up in our Halloween best, cuddle up in throw blankets, and enjoy watching the kids arrive in their costumes.

If you’re like us and pack your front yard full of Halloween decorations (and if your yard is right up against a public sidewalk), I recommend putting up signs so that people don’t traipse in your yard — they might trip on an inflatable string, cord, or other decoration! If your decorations are super-cool, they’ll be tempted long before Halloween to take photos or check things out. 

As a solution to this potential safety hazard, I’ve added a couple of signs amid the decorations with a phrase I wrote: “Please admire from afar. Keep to the sidewalk, not the yard. Thank you!” I decided to have a little fun with it while still being polite. 

If your house sees a lot of traffic on Halloween like ours does, make it a blast for you and the trick-or-treaters. Wear costumes, get a spooky playlist going, and don’t forget to buy more candy than you need!