Halloween, at Home
Every October, I have the same goal with Halloween decorating: I want the house to feel festive, a little bit magical and unmistakably Halloween—but I still want it to feel like our house.
I have kids, so I’m definitely not interested in a perfectly neutral, barely-there version of Halloween. There should be pumpkins. There should be witches. Things should probably be hanging from the ceiling. But I’ve found that the decorations I come back to year after year tend to be simple, slightly nostalgic and mixed in with things I would naturally want around the house anyway.
Here are a few of the ways I decorate for Halloween without letting the decorations take over.
Let the natural materials do most of the work
One of the easiest ways to make seasonal decorating feel a little more elevated is to use as much of the real thing as possible.
Outside, I like masses of mums, pumpkins in different shapes and colors, cornstalks and existing greenery. There’s plenty of orange, but it’s broken up with soft whites, faded greens, straw and the deeper colors of the flowers. Inside, I swap out my normal entry table flowers for gnarled curly willow branches.
I think this is part of what keeps the entrance from feeling overly themed. The seasonal elements are dramatic—the cornstalks (from Rogers Garden) especially add so much height—but almost everything comes from nature.
I also love that the mums, willow branches, and cornstalks aren’t really Halloween-specific. I leave them up through Thanksgiving, so the front of the house and entryway still feels seasonal long after the witches’ hats and jack-o’-lanterns come down. It makes the effort feel a little more worthwhile and creates a nice transition from Halloween into the rest of fall.
I also don’t worry too much about making every pumpkin match. A mix of classic orange pumpkins with striped and pale varieties makes the whole arrangement feel much more collected.
I think that detail actually makes the overall post stronger because it gives the decorating philosophy a practical angle too: use longer-lasting fall elements as the foundation, then layer the more obviously Halloween pieces on top.
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Pick a few traditions and repeat them every year
Some of my favorite Halloween decorations are the ones I bring back in almost exactly the same way every October.
I always hang witches’ hats in our entryway and suspend broomsticks from the ceiling in the dining room. They’ve become little Halloween traditions in our house, and I think that familiarity is part of what makes seasonal decorating feel special. The kids know they’re coming, and I genuinely look forward to putting them up every year.
This year, I added floating battery-powered candles among the witches’ hats in the entryway. It was such a simple addition, but at night it makes the whole space feel a little more magical—almost as if the hats and candles are hovering together. The candles come with a battery powered wand that the kids love to use to turn them on and off. I use command strips to hang everything.
I like that these decorations are playful and unmistakably Halloween, but they still feel fairly sculptural. Because they’re concentrated in just a couple of places, they make a big impact without needing Halloween decorations on every surface.
Buy fewer decorations—but keep the good ones
I’ve also become much more selective about seasonal decor. Instead of buying a new collection every October, I’d rather slowly accumulate a handful of things that I genuinely look forward to bringing out again.
The best Halloween decorations almost start to feel like traditions.
For me, those are the simple things that make a big impact: witches’ hats, old-fashioned brooms, floating candles, baskets filled with mums, pumpkins. Then I fill in around them with fresh and natural elements that change slightly each year.
Halloween is supposed to be fun. I don’t think tasteful decorating has to mean taking all of the silliness out of it. For me, it’s really just about finding the balance—letting the house feel a little magical for a few weeks while still allowing it to feel like home.
And Sometimes, More Is More
As much as I love keeping our own Halloween decorations a little more edited, I still completely appreciate the houses that go all out. Part of the fun of this time of year is seeing what other people create. We love walking through the Port Streets to see the over-the-top Halloween displays, and we always make a point of visiting the giant pumpkin in Newport Heights. It’s enormous, completely ridiculous in the best possible way, and has become one of those local things that makes October feel like October.
So while my approach at home tends to be a little more restrained, I definitely don’t think Halloween always needs to be tasteful. Sometimes the giant inflatable pumpkin is exactly the point.
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