Halloween is one of the most fun and creative holidays of the year. There are tons of ideas to turn your property into something that will not only scare your neighbors but also look great and catch the eye of everybody passing by.
Since there are tons of outdoor Halloween decorations, choosing something suitable can be overwhelming and time-consuming. That’s why this article covers the best of the best inspirations that will turn your yard into a scene from a horror movie!
Table of Contents
Front Yard Halloween Decoration Ideas
Blooming Autumn
Not only do leaves bring the brilliance of the fall. Bright greenery and blooming mums create the perfect tasteful contrast to the many decorations available to celebrate the holiday.
A Pop of Color
Geraniums are known for their bright, overflowing colors all through the summer and fall. Plus, they complement the bright colors of autumn well. Stack your Halloween pumpkin stash alongside your bright blooms for a colorful curbside appeal.
Freaky Reflections
Popular within decorations season round, light projectors are the perfect way to brighten up your evenings for guests of all shapes and sizes. Bring to life giant Halloween spookiness with just a flip of a light switch.
The Great Pumpkin
Pumpkins are a great addition to your fairy gardens come Halloween. Add a giant pumpkin or two to your gardens to create a life-sized impact on your carefully planned miniature landscapes.
Pumpkin Patch
Grow an abundance of pumpkins this year? Kids love to haul pumpkins from the backyard to decorate the front porch and yard. Go ahead and create your private pumpkin patch, line your walkway, and make a neighborhood statement.
Hanging Tree
Place your decorations in unexpected places. With a little bit of lighting, anything you hang can take on a spooky look in the dark of the night. When you use Halloween-inspired decor, it becomes even more frightening.
Cob-Webby
You can utilize even the smallest for the holidays. Fun Halloween decor looks even better when you string cobwebs along anything within reach. Plus, it makes the best foundation to hang spiders and other creepy crawlies upon.
Unexpected Visitors
Your sitting areas are the perfect place to welcome unexpected visitors. Scarecrows, skeletons, and other Halloween visitors look perfect lounging within your favorite furniture.
Glowing Faces
Pumpkin carving is a family favorite around here, and nothing looks quite as fun as a plethora of glowing faces staring back at you come Halloween night. Candles, glow sticks, and other bright lights can change your smiling faces and make your display even more interesting.
Larger Than Life
Nylon blow-up decorations are a popular choice as a seasonal focal point. They are easy to store, quick to set up, and have just as easy of a teardown. Plus, they come in a wide variety of fun characters to choose from!
Illuminating Bats
These awesome bat lights are exactly what you need to have people look twice as the sun begins to set. Place either indoors or out to bring a bit of illumination to your decorating, and create a unique style all your own.
Going to the Birds
Nobody looks at a tree full of birds quite the same after watching Hitchcock’s classic movie, The Birds. Step up your decor with a classic look with some well-placed seasonal favorites and an unexpected ‘murder’ of ravens to overlook the proceedings.
Go All Out
Halloween just isn’t Halloween without the standard neighborhood haunted house. Transform your place into something creepy and unusual that everyone is going to slow down to see as they drive by with some well-placed, inexpensive cobwebs, and old boards.
Halloween Fun House
If you have the space, why not take advantage of it? Use up the side of your garage or house to promote your spooky display of a horrific Halloween collection. Kids and adults will love this eclectic originality and be talking about it for days.
Hillside Horror
Sloping front yards create the perfect foundation to display larger-than-life decorations. Take advantage of the added height to place oversized decor and other objects guaranteed to make your visitors look twice, and keep looking.
An Entryway to Remember
If you have the structural support to create a haunted walkway, take advantage of the height to add an all-encompassing experience for your visitors come Halloween night!
Parlor of the Dead
Create your front lawn wake with a variety of life-sized monsters ‘moaning’ the loss of one of their own. What’s even better is if your poor victim pops out at unsuspecting trick-or-treaters as they walk by in the dark.
Celebration of the Dead
Who Doesn’t like a good party? Not even death kept these party-goers from showing up in full attire to dance the night away. Looking for a unique idea to gather attention to your front lawn? Look no further and create your own Halloween Dance for the Dead.
Heading Up
The great thing about blow-up decorations is that they are so lightweight that they literally can be placed just about anywhere with relative ease. If you are lacking in front lawn space, why not take advantage of the rest of your house and place decor upon any, and all surfaces provided?
Invaded
If this spider ever makes it up that web, these homeowners are in for an awfully large and leggy surprise. Oversized critters seem to be a favorite during the Halloween season as they garner the attention of both young and old.
Buried Skeleton
It’s difficult to say whether the reaching arms are more creepy or the skeleton face is. And the question is, how many children hesitate to pass anything that looks as creepy as this to get to your house?
Spook-tacular
From the ghosts peeking out from the rooftops to the pouncing cat, this house is covered in Halloween decor. If you are lucky to have such a home rich in decorative surface areas, take advantage of them as these homeowners have.
Front Door Halloween Decorations
A Touch of Class
Not looking for any bright colors, but still love to decorate for the season? This classy set-up includes all your fall favorites and effortlessly blends them for a top-notch welcome.
Black and White
Not into the mess carving pumpkins often creates? Go ahead and pick out a few contrasting spray paints and a few acrylic picks, and get busy making a masterpiece. These themed pumpkins are fun and whimsical and enjoyable to create.
A Simple Spooky Touch
Sometimes time gets away from you and it’s hard to decorate on any sort of large scale. However, even the simplest of spooky touches can turn into exactly what you need to welcome trick-or-treaters on Halloween night.
Arts and Crafts
If all you have is a window, never fear because arts and crafts time is here! Why not make your decorative landscape right through the ‘looking glass’ and let your visitors take in the detail of your vision every time they visit?
Photo-Realism
You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get some creepy, life-size effects for your decorations. These photorealistic door covers are inexpensive and easy to both use and store. Hang them wherever you need to give somebody a good fright!
Something’s Watching
Make your neighbors look twice through the Halloween season with front door covers that are sure to bring attention to all who pass by. Oversized faces in bright colors and creepy detail are fun for all ages and are a simple way to celebrate the holiday.
Mix and Match
Pumpkins come in all shapes, sizes, textures, and even colors. Have a little fun picking and choosing your perfect combinations for a front porch display this year, and for good measure, set in some colorful fall foliage for added detail.
Simple Detail
You don’t have to go big to have a display worth remembering. If you are short on time, cash, or even space, take a page from this front porch and limit yourself to decorating one simple, detailed area.
Country-fied
If spooky isn’t your thing, but you still love the shapes and colors of the season, then consider creating a scene worthy to be left up year-round (if you just love that sort of thing). Falling autumn leaves and wicker pumpkins provide an enjoyable, and creative way to display some Halloween cheer.
Silhouette Statements
You don’t have to drop a bunch of cash to create a wholly unique, decorative statement. A bit of black construction paper and a pair of scissors is all you need to create the perfect roost for your bats to hang around in.
Cob-webby Alternatives
Looking to cover some large areas with cobwebs this Halloween season? Instead of trying to drape thin, cottony threads everywhere, why not grab a few yards of garden fabric and create a similar effect?
Headless Welcome
He may not be able to recognize you later, but this headless host knows where the goods are. A cheap suit from a secondhand store and a simple wooden stand makes this a welcome statement not soon forgotten.
Backyard Halloween Decoration Ideas
Magical Patch
If you are lucky enough to have your fields in bloom, create your own magical path by taking advantage of the pop of color pumpkins can add to your otherwise bright blooms.
Pumpkin Display
Pumpkins are so easy to decorate. Their varied shapes and textures incorporate well into just about any scene, and their color always provides an interesting contrast next to anything you place it near.
Haystack
This little haystack has become the perfect place to display a variety of pumpkins and other seasonal characters. Anything you have in the yard that can lend height to your decorating can be used to provide aesthetic appeal.
On Parade
Show off your hard work this fall with well-placed lines of sorted pumpkins for purchase. Be sure to take advantage of any gardening or farm equipment and show off how easily pumpkins can be incorporated into your customer’s decor.l
Light the Way
If you have a deck or porch, then placing fun garden lighting upon it is always a way to show off your style. Takes things a step further this Halloween with witchy lanterns using black cloth and colored jars. Solar candles make it even easier to light.
Outdoor Witch Decoration Ideas
Witch Dolls
This witch does the trick to give anyone the creeps. From her wide staring gaze to her gnarly old hands she looks as if she might just have something to say to you.
Complete the Look
Nothing quite completes the look of a creepy Halloween decor without some life-size ghouls and goblins that just may interact with you in some way. This talking witch is the perfect way to greet your guests as they make their way up to your front porch.
Complete the Coven
Why settle for one when you could have the whole coven help lead the way of your evening trick-or-treaters to your front door? These otherworldly witches light up and help guide visitors to your stash of candy all Halloween night.
Halloween Ghost Decoration Ideas
Peek a Boo!
Take a gander at this little guy to help cheer people up and provide a bit of Halloween delight! Let him peek out from your trees and shrubs, or even hang out on the front porch. No matter where you decide to place him, he is sure to be a popular visitor every year!
Haunting Good Time
Take your haunt factor to all new heights at night with these flying Halloween skeleton props. Easy to hang and sure to bring attention to your decor, their sheer construction makes you look twice to see if they are even there.
Spectral Spirits
A bit of cheesecloth, a balloon, and glue is all you need to create your spectral sprites to place amongst your outdoor decorations. Lightweight and easy to hang or prop up, use glow sticks to provide an eerie glow come Halloween night.
Chicken Wire Ghosts
A little bit of chicken wire painted white and shaped as spirits create an otherworldly appearance in your yard. Use them as shown, or as braces for even more spooky decor, either way, you are sure to create a bit of a buzz as people wonder what, exactly, they are looking at.
Cute Outdoor Halloween Decorations
Pumpkin Pallets
Pallets are an excellent source of free wood, and with a little bit of elbow grease and a power tool or two, you can pretty much create anything you want with them. This idea is just waiting to greet your autumntime guests.
Pumpkin Frog
This enormous toad-inspired will catch the eye of any visitor for sure. Stacking pumpkins and gourds to create whimsical characters will bring a grin to your trick-or-treaters.
Living Greeters
Dogs love it when people come to visit, so why not make them your unofficial Halloween critter greeter? Costumes are easy to make or find and create the perfect photo-op.
Happy Scarecrow
This friend has no problem whiling away the time welcoming people. Scarecrows are so much more than garden overseers. They are a happy sight each fall to bring a grin to your guest’s faces.
Cute Characters
This happy couple doesn’t mind rocking away the evening people-watching, and guess who is who under all those costumes. Jack-O-Lanterns everywhere deserve a body to bring life and personality to!
Cute Kitties
Pumpkin decorating can go way beyond the traditional carving of your childhood. Pumpkin painting and a few well-placed props can turn the ordinary into something even more special.
Yard Monsters
Short on time? Love to decorate but struggle to find the time to do so? Take advantage of your landscaping to turn your shrubs, bushes, and trees into a ‘herd’ of watching yard monsters.
Scary Halloween Yard Decoration Ideas
Brain Freeze
This guy is sure to get your guests scared. As popular as Halloween has become, there is an almost endless supply of masked expressions to choose from.
Window Watching
Upper-story windows are the perfect but often overlooked places to create a Halloween scene. Keep your guests guessing at who’s watching from above as they approach your house.
Watchdog
You’d better keep this pooch on a lash or you’re sure to get a citation for the vicious beast. Skeletal remains aren’t just for humans, as this mad dog is happy to remind you.
Little Hipster
Small details, like a pair of glasses, can turn any ordinary object into something cool. Use them as well as your imagination to create a fun decoration that will make your outdoor space look more interesting.
White Wedding
This couple must have been waiting for quite some time to start their honeymoon. Somebody forgot about them as it seems their time has expired.
Catching Some Rays
When you think about it, a coffin is a great place to relax and catch some rays if you’re dead. Skeletal crews don’t feel any bones about it though and are soaking up the sun.
Cocoon Your Corpse
Don’t you hate it when those pesky spiders just leave their latest meal laying around? This mummified cocooned corpse creates a rather disturbing sight when placed on your front porch.
Who’s Next?
When the Grim Reaper collects souls, he doesn’t mess around. This creepy skeletal display shows just how many are taking a trip to the underworld with him, and he acts as if you are next.
Fine Place For a Nap
Even the scariest of goblins and ghouls need a place to rest from all their haunting good times. This little guy will let you know just how fast asleep he is with his nighttime mutterings, snores, and exasperated signs when you attempt to wake him.
Fortunes by Firelight
This skeletal fortuneteller is sure to let you know what you need if you are willing to sit with her awhile. Create characters to remember with your skeleton friends and make smart use of lighting to creep out your neighborhood visitors.
Let Me In!
Make sure to secure your house against zombie intruders each year as they attempt to climb up and over your porches to get through the front door. This life-sized zombie creates a real-life scenario from the living dead and is sure to creep out your trick-or-treaters.
Paper Effects
Silhouettes are incredibly effective at creating life-like, bone-chilling scenes with very little effort. Create your unique display to creep out anyone who dares to come close enough to wonder what’s going on in your house tonight!
Climbing Creatures
Nothing is safe when these nightmares learn to climb. If you don’t have any skeleton at hand, a simple mask and old clothing are all you need to create your army of Halloween misfits set on destruction and mayhem.
Creepy Portraits
Take advantage of a blank wall and use it as a canvas for a creepy portrait- or is it? This 3D creeper looks as if he’ll pop out of his frame as soon as you walk by!
What’s For Dinner?
How would you like your side of your human done? Rare or lightly turned over the spit? Rubber costumes provide endless opportunities for grisly scenes and creative twists.
Pack Your Bags
You might not get away with checking this luggage on your next flight. After seeing something like this, you would find all closed suitcases suspect of something equally disturbing.
Quench Your Thirst
All that trick-or-treating is sure to make your guests thirsty, so why not offer them something to quench their needs? Other seasonal props can come in handy when decorating for Halloween to provide an unexpected twist on the evening.
Pointy Reckoning
It’s a mystery what this guy did to tick off his guests, but beware when using horrifying props, as you may scare off all your trick-or-treaters!
Giant Spider Outdoor Decorations
Originality Report
Black spiders may be all the rage during Halloween, but these homeowners get the award for originality. Somehow giving their spider an unexpected but more realistic, the paint job has upped the ante concerning the spook factor.
Giant Web
You’ll probably want to know where the inhabitant of this giant 12-foot web is before deciding to get too close. Giant webs are the perfect decoration for large porch areas or even along long walls of siding. Pick up a giant spider to go along with it, and you are all set!
Tangled Webs We Weave
One of the biggest spider webs yet, this web can be mounted from the eaves of your house to provide an effect that may have the neighborhood terrified of getting too close. Use it to cast shadows with some well-placed lighting to provide a day, and all-night, spook factor.
Invasion
Some well-placed giant spiders are all you need to make your house look as if the exterminator needs to come for a visit. Either make your own or buy in bulk, whatever your choice, you are sure to draw some stares form vehicles passing by.
Creeps-Ville
Skeletons have enough scare factor with only two legs. Giving them eight is just wrong on so many levels- and is sure to give a scare anyone brave enough to walk past!
Easy Prey
Something about spiders just creeps out the majority of people who look upon them. The plethora of legs, sucking mandibles, multifaceted eyes, and the fact that they create webs that are impossible to remove is scary enough to stay away from them!
Approach if You Dare
This gigantic web covers the entire front house and has not only one but two spiders laying in wait for their next meal. If scaring people is your forte, then this may be an excellent design choice to consider.
Outdoor Pumpkin Decoration Ideas
Toothy Grin
Channeling a popular musical, this toothy Jack is sure to make your trick-or-treaters look twice and provide a wide path around his sitting spot. But on second glance, he does look a bit friendly, doesn’t he?
Eerie Fright!
Not all pumpkins are orange, and if you take the time to search out the differing hues available, your Jack-O-Lantern can take on a unique identity.
Family Time
This blow-up family of pumpkins is sure to bring a smile to any child’s face come Halloween night. They are lined up and ready to welcome your guests all night long.
Happy Curved Pumpkin
Happy carved pumpkin alternates its cheerful glow on your porch and also paves the way to your front porch. If you look closely you’ll see by some other little visitors are interspersed amongst the fallen fall foliage.
Overflow
Old wheelbarrows are a great way to show off your pumpkin stash. ‘Accidents’ do happen, as this one has, displaying the many colors and textures of the colorful squash of the season.
Rooftops
Rooftops make great decorative surfaces and are also mostly overlooked due to the effort it takes to use them. But if you take the time to take advantage of their grippy surface, you get an awesome way to help display your holiday decorations.
Pumpkin Stash
Don’t ignore your gazebos and other property buildings as a source of decoration. Stack your pumpkins, place them along railing and rooftops, and decorate doors and window openings to bring on the season!
Crazy Caricatures
Why not recreate a few of your favorite television characters, or even friends and family you know, with a comical twist to get a giggle from your visitors? Pumpkins make the perfect canvas for caricatures if you have the patience to use them.
Creative Carving
Creative pumpkin carving is always a source of amusement for both young and old alike. Think outside the ‘box’ when planning your designs for a wicked good time.
Colored Lighting
Never underestimate what a colored light bulb in place of a white one can do for ambiance. A reddish cast brings to life this display and casts unexpected shadows where none lay before.
Overindulgence
Be careful what you leave lying around. This pumpkin had a bit too much of something, reminding us just how versatile and creative you can get with pumpkin carving.
DIY Graveyard Halloween Decoration Ideas
Easy Decor
Headstones are an incredibly easy way to fill up yard space and create a frightful Halloween for visiting trick-or-treaters. If you don’t have the time to make your own, pre-made headstones are readily available online.
Create a Story
If you’ve never wandered through a cemetery, you are missing out on the incredible history you may be prompted to explore concerning certain individuals. Create your own stories of the past with unique, DIY headstones for your front yard.
Breaking Free
Halloween marks the time of year when anything is possible, and that includes the dead coming to life. This ghoulish creature is trying to break free of his earthly home and join his buddies in scaring the pants off unsuspecting trick-or-treaters.
The Living Dead
We wouldn’t have an entire franchise based on zombies if the idea of them wasn’t terrifying. The idea of the dead digging their way free to roam for brains isn’t an idea anyone likes to entertain too deeply- unless you love to frighten your visitors every Halloween.
Block Party
Everyone’s come out for a smashing good time at this house, even if they weren’t invited. It seems there must be plenty of candy to go around since all the guests appear to be having the time of their un-dead life.
Spooky Night
Headstones decorating your property is an easy way to create a spooky atmosphere for all to wander through. Plus, they make a great prop for other ghastly creatures, such as these skeletal canines frolicking through the graves of the undead.
Unique & Creative Halloween Decorating Ideas
Family Road Trip
How would you like to go cross-country in this family car? You’ll have to check and make sure it still runs though, as it looks like it’s been in storage for a long time.
And the Award Goes To…
If you are part of a property decorating contest, and this is your neighbor, you aren’t going to win. It would seem Noah and his Ark, made from fall harvest items and foliage is an excellent way to show off your mad gardening skills
‘Tis the Season
Halloween is surrounded by a long history of honoring the dead and all those who have come before us. In some cultures, the celebration is marked by colorful displays, parades, and elaborate costumes
Pyramid of Fall
This multistory of pumpkins is a show stopper for sure and a great way to display your products for sale. Add a little lighting, and you have a pretty wicked autumnal display!
Nothing is Safe
When even the trees begin to turn against you, nothing is safe. Create the unexpected in unexpected places, and frighten your guests by making the most harmless object a creature from their worst nightmares.
All in Good Fun
Halloween doesn’t have to just be about spooky good times. You can also bring to your decorating style a wicked sense of humor to have your visitors chuckling every time they visit.
The Diva of All Scarecrows
Using a pumpkin as part of your scarecrow set-up only makes sense, but who said a scarecrow had to be of the male sex? This fashionista is sure to turn heads, keep your birds at bay, and amuse all autumn.
Ready to Get Your Spook On?
Hopefully, this list has quenched your thirst for creative Halloween decorating ideas. From spooky and humorous to wicked and downright terrifying, every concept is with a little bit of inspiration to get started with your decorating needs.
Comment below what ideas you like the most, and as always, please share!