If you are someone who likes a lot of spooky lights for your Halloween display but are scared about all the expenses that are involved, here are some clever ways to keep cost low and light up your neighborhood!
- Try using floodlights with compact fluorescent lights. A 20-watt CFL floodlight is as bright as a 100-watt incandescent, but uses one-fifth the energy! They come in many colors, are weatherproof, and only cost about $10.
- Paper window silhouettes help keep the fun quotient high but the cash outlay low. Make cutouts from black paper, stick them on your windows, and back them with a translucent shade or sheet. Turn up the background lights to create a whole-house luminary!
- Put a smile on your driveway with a rainbow made of plastic pumpkins. Stakes on either side of the driveway are all that is required to anchor your rainbow. Attach your pumpkins using zip ties and use a string of Christmas lights as your lightning.
- Looking for a place to stage your Halloween Scarecrow? Second-story displays give everybody the creeps! Stash a ghoul or two on the upper-level balcony and add some dramatic uplighting.
- Repurpose your Christmas light displays for Halloween! Turn Santa’s elves into ghosts, and candy canes into snakes!
- If you don’t have the DIY chops or the time to pull off something epic, a store-bought inflatable with built-in lightning will instantly boost your Halloween curb appeal!
- Homemade eyeball string lights can be hung from your front entry and will have trick-or-treaters double taking when they see them! This can easily be made by using Christmas lights and ping pong balls. You simply color in eyes with sharpies on the ping pong balls then install a light in each ball!
- To add to your eyeball string lights, another low-cost idea would be to get toilet paper rolls and cut out a pair of fanciful eyes and light them up with glow sticks. Strategically place them in your bushes and trees, giving you an “I’m watching you” touch of creepiness.
- Give your house a full Halloween treatment by blending interior and exterior lighting. Orange curtains, sparkly lights, and cat-eye shades in the upstairs windows mix with colored exterior landscaping lights and some holiday string lights on the outside.
- Set up your Halloween lightning without having to worry about extension cords and power outlets. A string of LED lights can operate on 3 AA batteries and will burn steadily for 15 days straight. Switch over to the “twinkle” setting and they will go for 30 days! A 23-foot-long strand (around 100 lights) cost about $24.
- Can’t decide on a color scheme for your Halloween extravaganza? Try a monochromatic look — one color makes everything appear dreamlike! Try LED bulbs to use less energy and save utility expenses!
- Use a hollow porcelain baby’s head. Light it up with a battery-powered LED tealight that flickers for an extra dose of weird. Great as a centerpiece for a Halloween dinner party!
Riha, John. “12 Clever Ways to Light Up Your Home for Halloween: Scary Good Savings.”Houselogic, 31 Oct. 2017, www.houselogic.com/photos/painting-lighting/outdoor-halloween-decorations/slide/scary-good-savings/?pred_search_link_clicked=12%2BClever%2BWays%2Bto%2BLight%2BUp%2BYour%2BHome%2Bfor%2BHalloween.