Easy Halloween Decorations
Lay out a pumpkin tablescape. This tablescape gets its natural and pretty look from a row of white pumpkins wrapped in branches of bittersweet atop an orange runner. Simple votives with a few bittersweet berries sprinkled at the bottom add a warm glow. Always be sure to keep candle flames away from anything that can burn, and never leave candles unattended.
Make a pumpkin centerpiece. Put a hurricane in the center of a tub, terra-cotta pot or bucket and surround it with small pumpkins, gourds or both. Using a white candle and galvanized tin tub, as seen here, results in a versatile centerpiece that can be used all season. You could amp up the Halloween spirit by using orange pumpkins and a black candle.
Hang paper lanterns. This incredible Victorian house doesn’t even really need any decorations, as it already has some serious Addams Family-esque architecture going on. But the way the homeowners hung simple, inexpensive paper lanterns along the porch makes the house more festive and welcoming to wee trick-or-treaters.
A Halloween-card garland is an easy one you can have fun making with kids. Get out the school glue, mount cards to slightly larger pieces of construction paper and add a glitter border. Clip the pieces to some twine or raffia with tiny binder clips. Or, as was done here, punch a hole in the top of each card and pop it right over an LED string-light bulb.
You can layer several strings of garlands and lights across a mantel. This one has an overall Halloween look because of the colors, but it actually combines three garlands for different things — “Happy Halloween,” fall leaves and the name of a favorite football team (the game-day TV is hidden behind that lift-up door.) It’s all good — they look good together.
Give your mantel some swag. Hang a garland or two, place a few pumpkins and steal a few twinkle lights or branches from your Christmas decor stash. Garlands are simple to make, whether you string together ghosts made of paper towels, cut out letters that spell out “B-O-O-!” or whip up construction paper witch hats.
Pile your pumpkins. Fun new painting and stenciling ideas for decorating pumpkins are much less time-consuming than taking out all of that pumpkin goop and carving. Arrange a fun pile of pumpkins in various sizes, shapes and colors in your fireplace or on your front stoop.
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