Monday, October 7, 2013

Who or What Is Haunting Your Yard?

The freakish warm fall weather has finally disappeared over the weekend and I finally took my jacket out of storage. Plus, the leaves are starting to fall from the trees. That means Halloween is just around the corner, 24 days to be exact. I've already seen many yards in town have their Halloween decorations up, which I think it is a bit too earlier. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I enjoy carving a pumpkin, decorating the yard and giving away candy to trick-or-treaters, but I don't decorate my yard until a few days before Halloween, as there are a few neighborhood cats and dogs that might knock things down.

For years my decorations consisted of only a blowup Homer Simpson in a skeleton costume and Frankenstein's monster, but last year I bought a tombstone pack from Walmart, two tombstones from a dollar store and two tombstones from a thrift store along with three boxes of Halloween lights, all the items were on sale after last year's Halloween. Additionally, I have made one tombstone from a foam board and ten 29" fences. Which such a big fence, I decided I need a few more decorations.

My local departments stores have a limited quantity of Halloween decorations, so I turned to Oriental Trading, which has a huge supply of indoor/outdoor decorations, candy, and costumes After spending an hour going through their website, I decided to order the LED Skeleton Ground Breaker, the Tombstone with Skull Ground Breaker and the Up & Down RIP Tombstone. I received everything in about a week after I placed my order. The LED Skeleton Ground Breaker arrived first by UPS and the following day I received the other two by USPS.


The LED Skeleton Ground Breaker ($16.00) has a plastic skull and hands that are wrapped in a black cloth, which when stretched out measures around 18". Located on the bottom of the hands are stakes to place in the ground. There are LED lights in the eyes that flash different colors. It requires two AA batteries, which weren't included. The on/off switch is located on the bottom of the skull.


The Tombstone with Skull Ground Breaker ($20.00) has a 19"x11" styrofoam tombstone with a plastic skull. The skull has strands of orange hair, arms are made from wire, stuffing, and black cloth, and there are realistic plastic skeleton hands. There are red lights in the eye sockets. The on/off switch is located on the back of the skull. It requires three L44 batteries, which were included despite the fact the website's description says their not included.

The UP & Down RIP Tombstone ($19.99) is a 22"x13" styrofoam tombstone with "RIP" written in the middle a skeleton suck inside of it. There is an on/off switch located on the bottom with motion-censor activation. When activated the skeleton arms will raise the top half of the tombstone, the skull's eyes will glow, and horror sounds will come out from it. It requires three AA batteries that are not included. Sadly, the product has been discontinued since I bought mine.


I made my first Youtube video with the three Halloween Props!

The tombstone from the Tombstone with Skull Ground Breaker didn't exactly look like the picture on the website did, as it looked more detailed, though it is better than the ones I've seen in the stores. The skeleton that came with it is great and scary! The LED Skeleton Ground Breaker is exactly as it is shown on the website and will great in front of a tombstone. The Up & Down RIP Tombstone is my favorite with the cool sound effects, but there are no stakes for the tombstone, probably because the on/off switch is on the bottom. I may have to add some wooden dial rods after I turn it on to keep it secure. Overall, I really like the three Halloween decorations and since all of them have lights, I think they'll all stand out great in the dark on Halloween night!




Disclaimer - Oriental Trading nicely sent me a $25 gift card that help paid for part of the products in this post. All opinions are my own.

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