Well now that it’s all over, (Halloween that is) I hope you all stayed safe and sound. Ordinarily I’d have wished you a Happy Halloween but I knew this year was going to be different. Very different. For many it meant no trick or treating. For others it was as extreme as no decorating this year. Some of you might have just stayed in your room, sucked your thumb and cried. Well, I’m here to say that it really wasn’t that bad at all. Okay before you throw stones my way I know that for kids it was the pits. But hey, mom and dad should have thrown you a party or a candy hunt or told you ghost stories or… ok. There is really no substitute for candy on Halloween night.
This year it was all about the yard haunts! Lots of people in my neighborhood really went to an extreme in setting up awesome displays for Halloween. Keep reading so I can share with you the newest additions to my yard haunt The Ghoulie Graveyard and how it looked this Halloween.
The Ghoulie Graveyard 2020
Even though it was a weird year, the ghosts and ghouls of The Ghoulie Graveyard still materialized on Halloween night. This year I created a new tombstone for Sarah Proctor. She was hung for being a witch in Salem at Gallows Hill in 1692.
My new Dracula tombstone came out better than I could have imagined. In the daytime the stone is silent and grey. At night a hellish red takes over. Dracula 1827-1912 “Death is but a door, time is but a window”. Easter egg: The second date 1912 is the year Bram Stoker died.
I couldn’t be more pleased with how the Frankenstein tombstone turned out. It has more architecture to it which make it more interesting than the other tombstones. I realized that I am making an error in not referencing the Frankenstein monster but I wanted to keep it generic and didn’t want to carve more letters so forgive me. “He started off as a slab, then came to life in the lab”. Easter egg: The first date 1797 is the year Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein was born. The second date 1818 was the year the book was first published.
Lon Chaney was one of the most versatile and powerful actors that ever existed. The characters he portrayed and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup earned him the nickname of “The Man Of A Thousand Faces”. I knew I had to make a tribute tombstone to him. After seeing his silent film London After Midnight I realized his character known only as “The man in the beaver hat” had to be on his tombstone. It is one of the freakiest scary looking characters I have ever seen. The cool thing is he did all his own makeup. Remarkable. A master of the macabre! Easter egg: The dates shown are the dates Lon Chaney was born and the day he died.
Ever since I was a kid, the wolf man was my favorite monster. I used to pretend I could howl and change under the light of the full moon. I had quite the imagination. Ok that was last month when the full moon was out too. Don’t judge. But really I had to make a tombstone that would be good enough for my favorite. I like how the claw marks across the stone show up above the dates. Easter egg: If you look at the dates you might notice he’s a teenage werewolf. Also 73 was the year I was born and 91 was the year I graduated from high school.
A zombie pumpkin pattern of a witch. They have really great templates to help you carve pumpkins. This is supposed to be an easy level template but damn it took me what seemed like forever to do it. It always looks better when the candle is in the pumpkin.
Halloween Battle of the Monsters
On Halloween night as the full moon rose the wolf man growled and terrorized the graveyard. People were frightened and ran for their lives. That is until the dark witch showed up to cast her wicked spell upon him. The werewolf learned the hard way never to battle a witch on All Hallow’s Eve. Her spells are too powerful.
Did someone say Great Pumpkin? This one looks more like an evil pumpkin. He grins wickedly at the ghosts and ghouls in the graveyard.
Davy Jones lies here in this dark damp grave. Is that his ghost peeping from behind the grave? I took the lantern and changed it so now they flicker with an amber light effect. Reminds me of those spooky lanterns from Knotts Berry Farm. My final DIY project of 2020 completed.
By midnight all the ghosts and ghouls silently returned to the grave. There they will wait for another year and another Halloween before returning.
We only got about 15 trick or treaters this year as opposed to the 700+ kids we got the previous year but somehow that was ok with me. All month long neighbors passed by the graveyard. Sometimes they were enjoying walks with their family or walking their dogs. One guy even yelled out from his car “I love your graveyard”! No matter who passed by each person stopped and carefully read each tombstone. I heard kids getting excited seeing the wolf man or daring each other to run past the graveyard. It was probably the most fun month I’ve ever had hosting The Ghoulie Graveyard. I am really proud of it and how it’s growing. Now time to plan for more effects and monsters for next year!
