I always enjoy this time of year – in close succession I can decorate for Halloween then Thanksgiving and right on to Christmas and then even a short time to Easter. I grew up with a Mom who left no corner of the home not touched by whatever holiday was coming up. I want to pass this down to my Daughter Aurora – I want her to have these wonderful memories of the holidays surrounded with fantastical creatures from ghosts, Santa to pilgrims, turkeys and the Easter Bunny along with everything in between.I didn’t get it all put up this year (only two thirds) as having an eighteen month puts challenges up for decorating since she always wants to touch and pull.

I really enjoy the aspect of blow ups and have them now for almost any holiday. I get ones that are mainly upright and around four feet so they can sit on top of the entertainment unit or other service with little interruption to things in our everyday use. Up his year I have my very first blow up Mr. Frankenstein. I also started out with the eight foot stacked skull and a pumpkin with ghosts pouring out – but my little one got scarred of it and we had to get something she could relate to more so Hello Kitty vampire is in its place.

The tree is new (well not really new as I have had it for about a year and haven’t used it since I got it on after holiday sales). This is an all wrought iron design about eight foot tall. It makes for an interesting tree and now that I have had it up I want the white version of it for Easter or other holiday. Ornaments range from wooden coffins that open, skulls, bats, spiders, crows, pumpkins, skeletons, gravestones. Most of these I had acquired over the years – old light strings with the push on figures were converted to ornaments. Skeleton garlands were cut down (bought at dollar store) and made into ornaments, clip on crows are light activated and other odds and ends. Then we put on Halloween garlands and added a strobe light to the bottom shining up which gives awesome designs on our two floor high ceiling.

Now I am a big collector of animated figures and have several hundred when adding them from different holidays. All of what you see on the shelves (which I made to accommodate them) are push button or lever controlled animated figures. I have ones that go back over a decade. Some have not made it that well over the years but I glue or screw em back together the best I can.

Behind the tree I have Halloween nutcrackers (Mickey, Minnie, Day of the Dead bride and groom, Frankenstein, witch,skeleton and vampire). These are hard to come by so I grab them early when I see them. Some can be found at Michael’s but I have also located unique ones at CVS so you never know where you might find them. My suggestion for any holiday collectible you want is to go early and buy it when you see it since these items are time sensitive and usually once they are gone they are just gone.

What do you do for Halloween in your home? What holiday collectibles do you collect? Have any budget friendly diy projects for holiday decorating? Send the ideas and/or photos in – I may just make a post to show your information off with accredited information and a link if you like.