Here are some ideas for Halloween decorations that can be used indoors or outdoors. Decorations like these were popular in the 1940's and many are still common-place today.
A traditional and easily prepared outdoor decoration is made of autumn leaves (real or fake) with corn stalks from your local farmer and lit Jack o'lanterns around the base. The corn stalks can be attached to a porch support beam, a light pole or a shepherds hook that held the summer's flowers.
Decorating
Another traditional Halloween decoration is the Jack o' lanterns. Put them in groups, line them up on a fence, porch railing, along a walkway or along a driveway. Candles, dishes of alcohol and salt were popular on Hallowe'en. Add blue Christmas lights to give a ghostly illumination.
Free hand silhouettes/cuttings of black and/or orange construction paper hung on the windows and walls make for a neat effect. Some items to draw include witches, pumpkins, cats, bats, elves, fairies, spiders, owls, cauldrons, broomsticks or peaked hats. Search the internet for figures you can print and trace. You can also create unique lamp shades for your Halloween party. Use stiff orange and black paper cut out like Jack-o'-lanterns, witches, cats and other popular Halloween symbols.
Popular decorations were created from various fruits and vegetables. Apples, turnips and carrots can be cut into grotesque faces and displayed as is or used to hold candlesticks. You can also create Halloween goblins from the fruit and vegetables. Use Jack o'lanterns for the heads. The body is a smaller pumpkin and carrots are used for arms and legs which are fastened to the body with wire.
What would Halloween be without ghosts? Use a Jack o'lantern for the head which is attached to an upright post. Drape a white sheet or tablecloth from the post. You can then pin/stake the ends of the sheet out a few feet or just allow the sheet to blow in the wind.
Whatever your taste in Halloween decorating is, you may find that some of these vintage halloween decorating ideas may be ideal for your own haunted home this Halloween.
Halloween Decorating Ideas - Vintage Halloween Decoration Ideas Inspired by the 1940's
Beth is a fan of everything Vintage Halloween. She maintains the Vintage Halloween Ideas web site where she shares nifty Halloween ideas from the 1890's to the 1960's - including Dennison's Bogie Books. Halloween Party Ideas, Invitation wording, decoration ideas and more.
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