Our friends who know what we do often ask this question, especially as we get closer to Fall. I am quick to let them know what that year’s theme is and often then follow that up with descriptions of characters we hope to have, big props we want to build and other things I am excited about for the Halloween house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, some years we also create flyers that we keep at the ready to hand to someone who might be interested in coming. These have a theme-based graphic, the sketch of the design, details about when we are open, and our address. These flyers were more important when my daughter was in school locally so she could invite her friends over. I enjoy the process of creating the flyers so while it is less necessary these days, I still like to try to make one if I can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, to answer that question for our neighbors or those who drive by our house, we sometimes put a sign up in the weeks prior to Halloween letting people know the theme. Since we keep our work in our backyard right up until the end of October, rather than having it all out front all month, the sign helps let folks know what we have in store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically it takes about 8 or 9 weeks, with me working on weekends and at night. Though we are excited about Halloween year-round, usually we don’t share our plans until late August or early September. At that time, we publicly announce the theme and share the sketch of our house design on our website and social media. We also announce the dates for our Community Painting Days<\/strong><\/a> which are typically at the end of September and in early October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After the initial announcement, I do design work in Photoshop, source materials, and begin to build the set pieces, costumes and props. The hours stack up as we get closer to Halloween, as you can imagine, as I want to try to cram in as much to the set as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun Fact: <\/strong>We actually know next year’s theme just prior to this Halloween (we have an official family vote and everything), so that we can shop the day-after-Halloween sales and save money on props and costumes for the next year’s house. So, while we announce it in August, we have known the theme for more than 10 months (and personally, I am always thinking about the coming Halloween theme, doing sketches and building things in my mind.) Also, if you ask us on Halloween night, we will tell you next year’s theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When folks realize that we do a different theme every year and then try to envision what happens to all of the stuff, invariably we get asked where we put everything we make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, first I will say that there is a lot of what we make which we DON’T store. Often we make sets with cardboard, which gets soggy in the winter air and which is therefore not something we can keep. This cardboard goes into the recycling and we say good bye to it shortly after Halloween. Yep, our house is a very temporary setup. We also sell off as much as we can. Michelle is in charge of this, but we sell off costumes, props, or set pieces that we think people might want. This helps raise money for next year’s house and it is a way for us to pass fun items on to others. We also give away items as well. We have had people have their next year’s Halloween trunk-or-treat populated with items from our Halloween house this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But, we do store some things, and this is how we do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Along our side yard, I keep lumber like 2X4s that we use for the structure of the set pieces. We reuse this wood every year, and it is always a fun challenge to figure out how we can create this year’s scene out of the wood we already have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After many years of doing this, we finally decided we needed additional covered storage (mostly for the large cardboard we use) and we added a small shed in our dog run. This is for dedicated Halloween related building materials that cannot be exposed to the elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, we store a few things in our attic. If it is a special prop, costume or set piece that was near and dear to our hearts (and it will fit up the ladder), we store a few things up there. For the Open House in 2026, we will get down some of those special items and have them on display for folks to see and remember. That area of our attic is developing into sort of a Goonies type attic, where one day small kids will go up there exploring, only to find Ghostbuster proton packs, Lego Batman heads, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail armor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is a link to a video I made a loooooonnnggg time ago (look how short my hair is!) answering a similar question back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.albertzone.com\/halloween\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/008_FAQ_002.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nQUESTION 2: How long does it take you to build everything?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nQuestion 3: Where do you store it all?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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