If you have been bitten by the haunting bug, you’ll notice that everything you see brings this question to mind : “How can I use this for Halloween?”. And Christmas stuff is no different.
Here are a few ideas for you to think about, as the tradition of Christmas markdowns gets underway. Think about picking up some of these products to use or alter next October 31st.
Flicker Light bulbs – These are often overpriced any other time of the year. However, during the holiday season, you can usually find strings of flicker lights rather cheaply, especially during after-season sales.
Angelic decorations – anything angelic can be used in your cemetery. Use tree ornaments and statuary as tombstone embellishments.
Window Candles – plastic window candles (both the plug-in and battery operated) can easily be used for haunting.
Animatronics – Dancing and talking life-sized figures can be altered with your own soundtrack. Imagine a jolly Santa becoming a drunken singing pirate!
Floodlights and Spotlights – LED floodlight and spotlights have become popular, and for some reason are thought of as being a holiday product. But us Haunters know that good lighting as key to an outdoor display. LED’s provide a lot of light for very little current, which is good when you have 100 watt foggers kicking off every 5 minutes!
Light strings – holiday light strings have lots of uses, especially the new LED lights. Those cool-white icicle lights, with the sequenced lighting, would work well in a mad-scientist lab. Flickering or sequenced red lights can be placed under a witches cauldron for easy firelight. Fading multicolored light strings in the frosted globe of a light fixture make an interesting ‘crystal’ ball prop. Any light strings would work well for back-lighting signs or display, or mood lighting. Use your imagination!
Christmas miniatures – Cheap miniature ceramic houses can make interesting tabletop displays, when painted black and embellished with miniature jack-o-lanterns. Check the dollar stores for these.
Fake gemstone and gold garlands – Shiny gold and acrylic garlands and ornaments might substitute well for jewelry. Use for Victorian period costumes or pile it in a pirates chest guarded by a skeleton!
Light Stakes – If you make your own LED spotlights like me, or just have a lot of things to mount in the yard (Skeleton hands, foam pumpkins), yard stakes for Christmas lights are a handy thing to have around. The plastic ones are fairly sturdy, don’t rust, and are cheap. The metal ones are painted to resist rusting, and can be bent to stake down wires and such.
So get out there and find those deals! Halloween is only 310 days away!