Halloween in the house

Jeff Schnaufer

There are so many new ways for you to decorate your home this Halloween that it's, well, scary.

"With parties becoming more and more popular to the season, decorating is becoming key to the holiday. Enthusiasts want to 'wow' their guests even before they walk through the door. Animation and entertaining accessories are the hottest trends this year," says Brian Powers, home décor expert for Egg Harbor Township, N.J.-based Spirit Halloween, which has 725 stores across the United States and Canada.

Top animated products for 2009 from Spirit Halloween include the Life Size Michael Myers, the Dead Lift Zombie and the Tombstone Lifter. Scare up some fun outside with self-inflating lawn decorations from Dallas-based Gemmy Industries, which are sold at national and local retailers. Your endless options even include an Animated Hot Rod Hearse that features the Grim Reaper at the wheel and an animated vampire that rises from his coffin.

Create your own haunted house with indoor décor from iParty, which has stores throughout New England and Florida. New products include the Psycho Shower Curtain, a bloody shower curtain with a knife-wielding silhouette that plays the famous Bernard Herrmann's shower music, and a five-foot cocoon man, wrapped in a webby cocoon that hangs from the ceiling. For entertaining, consider decorative painted glassware by Lolita, sold at Macy's, Von Maur and Hallmark stores nationwide.

If you can't afford a large animated fright, consider small animated items like moving books and crawling hands, says Cindy West, a Halloween expert from Peculiar, Mo., who blogs at halloweenmaven.blogspot.com. Like most decor tips, West says where you place your frights is a key to a fun evening. She suggests the following five ideas for a hauntingly happy Halloween:

1. "Stage little vignettes on tabletops - laying out a book on witchcraft or how to kill a monster makes your guests wonder about your sanity. Fake bugs and spiders invading a tabletop and placed in various areas will sometimes produce an eek or a scream."

2. "If you are going to buy cheap foam tombstones, you may want to glue them to a piece of cutout plywood to add weight so they don't blow away on a windy day/night."

3. "Antique shops are a great place to get old pictures, old mirrors, books and old furniture pieces that you might want to stage a scene. You can also buy clip art from electronic scrapbooking sites and create your own photos for your antique frames."

4. "Lighting is very important. I change light bulbs outside to yellow bug lights. I also buy flicker bulbs for my indoor lighting."

5. "Always go online and look for coupons at the store you're going to be shopping at. I saved 30 percent off of my Halloween [purchases]."