Is it just me or are Halloween decorations on houses getting more gross and stupid?

[CTyankee]

Some of the stuff being put outside of houses are chintzy looking, unimaginative and sometimes threatening. We had an example of one house whose inhabitants put out a hanged "man" that some neighbors thought looked black. It made the evening news. It was taken down, however, I've seen other "hangings" in front of houses this year and I'm starting to wonder...

[Drunken Irishman]

1. You wouldn't like my house...

[CTyankee]

3. Actually, your decorations, tho over the top for my taste, at least show some

creativity. Most of the stuff is so cheap and tawdry, it just looks like a mess. Yours at least has a touch of the absurd...

[Drunken Irishman]

4. Thanks.

I'm a horror geek, so I soak up Halloween.

I actually put a lot of time into it.

[CTyankee]

6. Just don't put up "realistic" hangings! People are a little sensitive

at this time, what with nooses left around to intimidate black people.

[Drunken Irishman]

7. I would never.

That is stepping over the line, IMO. The guy I have hanging is obviously a freak and not human. I did think about putting him in a Brigham Young University t-shirt, though. They are the Utah Utes' rivals after all. :D

[CTyankee]

8. Yep, I didn't even "get" your "hanging." The ones here are chilling because

they look like those photos from the 30s of the lynchings of black men.

I don't think the people whose house was featured on the news really meant it to be racist, because they immediately took it down when a black family on their block complained. I'm sure having the TV publicity helped, but I can't help wondering how many copycats there are out there...

[crim son]

12. I LOVE your house!

We have the guy who pulls his head off and screams, but you've got it all! :loveya:

[Drunken Irishman]

18. Thanks!

Lot of time spent, but the neighborhood kids love it! :)

[Amaya]

16. Wow!

That's quite a display! I like it.

[Drunken Irishman]

19. Glad you like it!

I think everyone enjoys my house. We have a private school just up the street and a class always comes over each year to look at it a couple of days before Halloween.

[Rhythm]

22. If you weren't in SLC, i would go to your house FIRST!!!

2500 miles is a little far to go for popcorn balls and snickers bars...

But WOW! I am in awe...

Halloween is my favorite holiday by far, and i have always thought that the best houses were the ones that weren't trying to be 'cute'.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. This is like a lifetime project. LOVE the huge BAT! Where did you get it?

Bats rule at our house, I try to find a new stuffed one for my daughter every year, and we have at least 2 bats in our Christmas tree ornaments. She and I also have silver bats on our charm bracelets. Oh yeah, one of my cats tried to kill one of our stuffed bats, just to keep it in the family.

Fudge Stripe Cookays needs to see this !!!!

[Drunken Irishman]

34. I got it from QVC one year!

And you're right, it is a lifetime project. It isn't like I went out and purchased all of these things at once. I started small and it's grown a lot over the years. I add to it and actually just added a huge clown. :D

[fudge stripe cookays]

26. Put er there, pal!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=4233977

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=1922028

There is no such thing as over the top on Halloween. :D

[Drunken Irishman]

35. I LOVE IT! :)

[yellowdogintexas]

37. and it was a fun party too. I can say that because I was there

I can only aspire to decorate like Fudge Stripe and Drunken Irishman!

[REP]

27. That is most awesome

I've got bloody windows (3D gel blood!) and a nasty rat on the door - in other words, nothing! You rule.

[stuntcat]

28. The best is that big bat!

:headbang:

[Inchworm]

29. I always loved taking daughter to houses like yours

complete with 10-12 year olds jumping out from behind a bush on way up to the door.

Thats awesome!

:yourock:

[DarkTirade]

32. You, sir, have earned my admiration. :)

[redqueen]

36. Hah... love it!

Houses like yours are the ones that make trick or treating fun!

:hi:

[bigwillq]

2. Yes

I don't excessive Holiday decorations. We have four pumpkins: one medium-sized, one smaller and two small ones on the steps and a three ears of corn hanging on the door. I think that is enough.

[CTyankee]

5. Hey, that and a couple of potted mums of bright colors, would

be just right for me!

I'll get started on Xmas decorations in December. Look for the thread!

[Highway61]

9. I hate that plastic

"blow up" crap from Wally World

[Deja Q]

10. I had no idea they sold that sort of doll over there...

:hide:

[Highway61]

21. Yikes

I guess I should have worded that differently :eyes:

[Drunken Irishman]

11. Me too! Halloween should be scary, not cute. :)

[crim son]

13. I was just going to mention that.

Somebody down the street has one of those monstrosities on their front lawn... I mean, it's about 8'x8' and tacky as hell.

[SPKrazy]

14. That stuff scares the shit out of me

I'm driving down the road and I see a giant fucking black cat in the yard of someone :scared:

:rofl:

[Westegg]

15. I've been driving around upstate New York....

...in recent weeks, two hours or more out of NYC. Some of the most beautiful autumnal vistas you could imagine, and yet, in every small town there seems to be a rash of these massive blow-up black cats, pumpkins, skeletons, whatever. On the front lawns of otherwise charming homes. So I keep thinking, "Wal-Mart, K-Mart, whatever-- they must be making a BILLION dollars a year selling this hideous trash (because that's what it is) to people.

What happened to dried corn and carved pumpkins? Why do we need to announce our celebration of All Hallow's Eve with a six-foot plastic fucking monstrosity?

[applegrove]

17. There are more than enough kid friendly Hallowe'en decorations available

that people don't have to become gorish. What happened to grapes as eyeballs and making kids put their hands in bowls of wet spaghetti?

[Drunken Irishman]

20. Gorish is fun, though.

And the kids love it. My house has constantly been a hit on Halloween because it's not cute. In fact, I think people are getting too cute with those damn blow up decorations (the same ugly ones you see at Christmas). Halloween is about fun and being scared. My house does that quite well. :)

[yellowdogintexas]

23. we have bats pumpkins cats spiders ghosts and lots of orange

lights. Most of our stuff is homemade art by my daughter..a few cardboard boxes, some poster paint and a staple gun and there you are. She and her friend won 1st prize in the balcony decorating contest at their apartment complex last year, so most of the stuff on my house is from their storage bin. It looks great. I am anticipating a bumper crop of trick or treaters due to the excellent advance publicity that our house is a "Good Halloween House"! I need to take some photos .....

[NewJeffCT]

25. It's not just Halloween - the inflatable Christmas parade, too

I don't mind them interesting & unique, but when somebody has an 8' tall inflatable Santa, Frosty and others in their yard, I think it's a bit much.

[stuntcat]

30. My neighborhood isn't TOO bad

I don't like the silly, Happy-Halloween decorations, but I don't like them to be over-gory either. I like Creepy :)

I have a big spider hanging in front of a bid black web, and I made a lightup eyeball out of the round lamp of a ceiling fan we were throwing away, and I have two bats hanging on the porch, one was handmade and one is plastic, the plastic one I bought a couple of weeks ago and named her Donna. This is Donna, the lesbian vampire bat- (my best friend who's gay named her that okay!?)

I luvs Donna :loveya:

Halloween's a much bigger deal than other holidays. I've already got my candy kettles all filed up and ready to pass out, they have plastic spiders and bugs mixed with the candy and this year I found little rubber black rats to give out too :headbang:

(edited for Donna disclaimer)

[Jokerman]

31. No, it's christmas decorations that are gross and stupid.

Not really, I'm just peeved.

The hardware stores around here had halloween decorations on the shelves since before the start of September. I love to decorate our house but I won't do it until a week or two before halloween.

A couple of days ago I found out that some of my old halloween lights were trashed so I went out to pick up new ones and what do I find?. Halloween isn't even here yet and ALL the decorations are gone. The shelf space has been taken over by christmas decorations.

Heaven forbid that I wait until December to decorate for christmas because by that time it will be valentines day or easter that the stores are pushing.

[Connonym]

33. In our neighborhood a bunch of houses have up lights and everything

it's like mini-Xmas. I find it boggling. My mom's B-day is Halloween so we always had a little bit of decoration for the holiday (like a door wreath or something) but holy cow have people gone nuts! I've seen hanging men, mummies, tombstones, houses covered in fake spider web, etc.

[tigereye]

38. there's a giant inflatable purple haunted house on the way to my son's

school.


I think it's funny, though.

[CBHagman]

39. Check out Terri Sapienza's article on this very topic.

It covers the gross-out factor, though not so much the tackiness. Things have gotten very graphic, though, haven't they?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/24/AR2007102400614.html

From costumes and props to indoor and outdoor home decorations and table settings, experts and retailers agree that Halloween is turning to the dark side, becoming gorier, more violent and more adult.

"This year we are moving away from costumes and more into gory props, because the consumer demand is growing," said Jessica Lutoff, a marketing analyst for Fright Catalog, an online and catalogue Halloween retailer.

[datasuspect]

40. people in general are just more gross and stupid

too much tv

[ruiner4u]

41. I always loved the witch that flew into the tree...