Homemade Decoration Ideas

Construction Paper Creatures: Use construction paper to create ghosts, pumpkins, bats, spiders, and other spooky creatures. Get as creative as you like, and make half ghosts that peek out around corners as an example. For the pumpkins, orange paper creates the body, brown for the stem, green for the leaves, and black for the cutouts to make the face.

If you are using black construction paper for the bats and black cats you can use chalk rather than gel pens. If you want to make the bats and ghosts fly, punch a small hole at the top of the creations, and thread a fishing line through the hole and hang over vents or near a door that is opening and closing frequently so that they "fly."

Ghost Balloons: Blow up balloons. Take a large piece of lightweight material, such as a small white bed sheet, and place it over the balloon. Tie the neck with a string, and use a black marker for a ghostly face. Suspend the ghosts using the fishing line and suspending it from the neck of the ghost.

Tin Can Lanterns: Take some empty tin cans and clean them out with warm soapy water. Fill the can with water and freeze it overnight. (The ice keeps the can from collapsing; when it melts the water goes away.) When the can is filled with solid ice, take it out and have an adult use a nail and hammer to punch out holes in the side of the can--making a design of your choice. Paint the can a color you like, put decorations on it like jewels or glitter. Put a tea light or battery-powered candle inside.

No-Carve Jack-o'-Lantern: Take an empty milk jug and clean it out with warm soapy water. Then refill with clean water. Pour some food coloring into the water (green or orange will fit the pumpkin theme). Clover the milk jug with the cap and shake the water around so the color is evenly distributed. Take scraps of yarn or ribbon and glue to the top of the milk jug to give it some hair, or throw on a hat to top off the look.

Old Clothes Scarecrow: Take an old pair of jeans, plaid shirt, work gloves, shoes, and hat and a brown paper bag to create a Halloween scarecrow. Have the kids rake up the leaves in the yard to collect the leaves for stuffing the scarecrow. The face can be the brown paper bag stuffed with the leaves and the hat pulled down over the bag to hide that there really isn't a face there. Place the scarecrow either in a chair on the front porch or sitting under a tree in the front yard.

Cardboard Graveyard: Make a graveyard out of your front yard by using old cardboard appliance boxes. Cut them down to tombstone size, spray paint them black, and then use white paint to outline the headstone. Using a small paint brush, paint different, spooky, funny, and anything goes epithets on the tombs. Place them in the front yard, weighing them down with a brick.

  Spider Web: A spider web that you buy at your local drugstore will go a long way in decorating any corner area of your home and/or front porch. They often come with some plastic spiders as well for further decorations