# Your best moment this year



## mariposa0283 (Aug 15, 2012)

one of my first tots came up and she just wanted to inspect everything. as different things started going off she had to stop and look at it for a few seconds and take it all in. it was so cute. had one lady park her van across the street and yell out that she loved our yard, tons of people (adults) came up saying how great of a job we did and that our pumpkins look awesome. makes all the stress and money spent worth it. probably my best halloween yet, but im only just getting started (first year haunting) so im sure there are many more best halloweens yet to come.


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## Kelloween (Jun 8, 2012)

We had kids yelling from the street..I am not coming up there if any of those things are alive!! My favorite moment though was a huge truck stopped out front..they had skull and Halloween decor on the truck, loaded down with kids in costumes and even had thier dogs dressed up. I tried to take a pic but the kids jumped out so quick, all I got was kids running to the house! We were the only house on our street lit up and we went through a TON of candy.


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## POOKIE0628 (Mar 31, 2007)

We had a helicopter that kept flying around shining a spotlight at our area. We kept watching it, wondering if there was a missing child or some crazy person on the run. About 1/2 went by and a lady came by an saw me looking into the sky and said " Did you know that is because of you, it was on the news that they were sending helicopters out to patrol areas that were getting hit with lots of T.O.Ts. They mentioned your area and some place else in St. Pete. How cool is that?


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## DexterSinister (Aug 13, 2011)

Lots of little moments: I heard one kid announce, "this is the real deal" about our haunt. Two people from the neighborhood said they stopped by daily to see what was new (one of them took regular photos). One grownup suggested that I teach some kind of class at the local community college (maybe someday, but I hardly feel as qualified as some of the folks here). All of the people who I counted as "maybe helpers" showed up, were enthusiastic, and said they'd do it again next year. And; DW enjoyed the whole thing and is talking about what we might do next year - I thought she was gonna' divorce me over the haunt last week.


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## Skelly215 (Sep 22, 2004)

We had at least 5 people ask if we worked for Disney. We're big Disney fans so this is asbolutely the highest compliment to us!


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## DontWorkWithDemons (Sep 10, 2011)

The people that want to take pictures are always my favorites. The yard, our costumes, anything. Then there's the ones who are afraid to come up the sidewalk. Or the ones that loudly exclaim "EEEWW!" looking at the corpses. You can't make me choose just one!


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## mementomori (Aug 19, 2009)

I had a lot of people say they loved it, but my fave moment was the kid too scared to come up. I know I'm doing it right then.


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## LittleBlueBMW (Oct 9, 2010)

being on the haunt tour. I will do this again for sure. For the ToT's, probably people just loving all the decor, calling it the best in our little neighborhood.


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## SirEdward (Sep 13, 2012)

This was the 1st year of my haunt, I got a lot of great comments on yard. Many parents ask if they could go in the yard and take pictures of kids next to the cauldron and skeletons. One mother ask if she could get a picture of her child in the old coffin. I explained that there were lights and a skeleton in the coffin and was no room for a child. Which gave me a idea next year I will build a set something like a skeleton setting on a old bench, with top hat, just for the kids to take a picture with. This was a Great year and all the hard work paid off. I really got blast watching the kids and parents enjoying the yard. But the best comment came from a little girl around 6 or 7 and she said Mister, your yard is awesome, will you come a decorate my yard next year.


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## One eyed Mick (Feb 19, 2008)

For several years we had set up a Pirate Ship haunt at our house that drew lots of ToT's. In 2011, my lovely bride and I retired and moved to the mountains of New Mexico. The folks that bought our house are friends of ours and they kept all of our pirate props with the promise that we would come back and help them set everything up. So this year, that is what we did!

Pretty much every parent thanked us for setting up the Pirate ship haunt again. All of the ToT's thought it was awesome. Several parents asked if I worked for Disney or Lucas Films and when I said that I didn't, they said that I should.....

Despite the rain, it was a great night!


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## PoCoHauntGal (Sep 2, 2010)

Despite the rain and school night Halloween, the turn out was pretty good at the Witches of Wright Dead & Breakfast. I had several inquiries along the lines of " are you a set designer" - Always a good sign! While younger kids have a tendency to just notice the big props, I love it when people really look and notice the fine details and the story in my sets. This year the wedding couple borrowed a page from William and Kate and stood on the balcony to greet Trick or Treaters.


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## IowaGuy (Jul 30, 2012)

I had a few amusing moments 2nite, one I haven't mentioned yet:

I had my Harvester stationed at the beginning of my walkway (pictured in another thread) but I had not "turned him on yet". A group of 4 kids slowing came up my walkways, the tallest was probably a 12 year old boy who (my guess) was dressed as Darth Mall. He just stood in front of my Harvester for 30 seconds making noises and hand gestures. All I could think was "just keep trying, almost got him...don't give up. Oh wait, of course....I haven't even turned him on". Of course I hadn't forgot but it was amusing


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## E_Eisenheim (Nov 7, 2010)

Didn't get many TOT's this year, but every group had it's moments. I always feel like a success when they stand at the end of my walkway, just staring at the front door and candy table and exclaiming that they are not going to go up there. This year was FULL of those exclamations. Parents were trying to get their kids to walk up to the candy table with them, and they still refused. All the parents came up and told me what a good job we did, and how amazing everything looked.

I do have two moments that stand out above all the rest though:

1. A little girl, 9 years old to be exact, caught a glimpse of me sitting by the front door, promptly turned around and walked into my driveway, around the corner of my garage and out of sight. She then declared: "I don't know if you're real, but I'm warning you, if you jump at me, I have a weapon!!!" Her weapon: half a bloody arm prop from Spirit! I about fell out of my chair laughing!! 

2. A group of teenagers came walking up the drive and saw me waiting for them, teens are always the best because they're so easy to scare without putting much effort at all into it. They were with their parents, who were trying to push them into our walkway to get candy, FULL SIZE CANDY BARS I MIGHT ADD! The kids were protesting and refusing to even look back around the corner at me, and then I heard one say, "I can do without the candy, I just want to go home!!!" This has to be the best reaction I have ever had while haunting. What teenager openly refuses free full size candy bars and would rather go home??

I love these kind of reactions, and pride myself on being able to elicit them each and every October the 31st. I had many more good stories from this year, but these two take the cake. I can't decide which one is better: the bloody-arm-wielding-I'm-brave-from-out-here-in-the-driveway-where-I-can't-see-you-9-year-old, or the teen who turned down free full size Snickers in exchange for being able to "just go home", as he put it.


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## debraS (Oct 31, 2011)

My best moment was from a six year old boy, with his younger brother and sister. He said "I know that you will find this hard to believe, but last year when I was only five, I was afraid to come in your yard. Now I think they are cool."


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## Rania (Oct 27, 2011)

I had quite a few best moments. For me personally, it was seeing my giant pumpkinhead finally up, breathing fog all illuminated in all his glory. It gave me quite a feeling of accomplishment. 

But the best feeling overall came from the pre-teen and teenage girls that attended and volunteered this year. The first was a small group of teenage girls that went through the Haunted Woods area. They were screaming so loud, i thought the cops were going to be called for people being murdered. It was AWESOME. And then there were my 2 actresses. 12 years old, with such passion and excitement to act and haunt, and they were so good at it. To see such enthusiasm from teens like that made me feel that i was doing something great for their future - giving them an experience that would fuel their artistic desires, the joy of haunting and the passion for acting and theater. Such a great feeling! And now i feel i need to do something with an arts program for teens during my haunt from now on. Not sure how, but i need to figure it out.


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Made a blacklight ghillie suit that I hide behind a column that is made of the same material. I can easily see out of it but the ToTs can't see in:










Had a dad who got really curious and stepped right up next to my face but still couldn't see me - then I sprung. Scared the #$!&$! outta him


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## OctoberDream (Aug 7, 2011)

I had lots of grown-up make comments on my decorations and that was OK. The best is when they come from the kids. I had three kids out of 100 that made comments on my props. Two were teens and they just said how much they liked them. The other was a small boy, about 6yo, He said to his mom that next year he did not want to come back here because it was too scary. For some odd reason this made me smile all night.


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## VGhoulson (Oct 9, 2011)

I had one little guy in a wheelchair...he made his parents drive him into the graveyard to take a picture! I offered to come down from the porch to give him candy but he wanted his dad to carry him into the house. He saw our haunted foyer and went "HOLY CRAP!" 

We had one dad bring his son up to the house and then came back about 15 minutes later with his other son and his wife who had already gone home. He drove back and made them come to our house! 

We only had one badish incident. One mother starting giving me heck for having a "scary" house. Her words *which I caught on tape* "You really should re consider this useless scary stuff. Little kids would be terrified and traumatized!" As she was giving me ****....my 1 year old ran up and yelled "BOO" and ran away laughing. I said, well the smiles speak for themselves."


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## talkingcatblues (Jan 30, 2009)

I liked the two teenage girls who came walking down the street, saw our display, and promptly ran screaming past it, refusing to look at it. 

I was also fond of their accompanying teenage fella who grabbed one of them, picked her up, and was yelling, "No, you've gotta see this," and dragged her back over to try and make her look. Much merriment occurred.

The little kids were fun too. A lot of them inspected everything very carefully, came to get their candy, and solemnly informed me which parts were the most scary. Very cute.


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## talkingcatblues (Jan 30, 2009)

E_Eisenheim said:


> 1. A little girl, 9 years old to be exact, caught a glimpse of me sitting by the front door, promptly turned around and walked into my driveway, around the corner of my garage and out of sight. She then declared: "I don't know if you're real, but I'm warning you, if you jump at me, I have a weapon!!!" Her weapon: half a bloody arm prop from Spirit! I about fell out of my chair laughing!!


That's adorable. And an excellent weapon - who *would* wanna get whacked with a bloody arm?


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## dariusobells (Sep 24, 2007)

I had so many great moments it's hard to sift through them

I was crouched in the spot lights at the front of the haunt at one point and a 14ish year old boy came in and pointed at me "ah man it's another one of those robots" (Gemmys are pretty popular with a couple of my neighbors) about that time I stood up and took a step towards him laughing maniacally. He jumped ans spun around to look for a place to go and came face to face with one of the zombies. his buddies could be heard giving him grief all the way int the next yards. 


Halloween night 2012 by Don and Monica Riney, on Flickr

One little girl ask me "are you Abraham Lincoln?" I thought her mother was going to choke herself laughing when I replied "No deary, I don't kill Vampires" 

there were so many more it was a very good night for haunting.


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## Ween12amEternal (Apr 15, 2006)

Best comment, from a little 5 yr old, "you make Halloween fun!" Talk about melting my cold, dead heart 

Happily had a lot of fun, great to see all the kids & visit with our neighbors.


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## halloweeny78 (Aug 15, 2011)

The look of awe on the tiny ToTs as they examine everything, even forgetting about the candy!

The people that drive to our area just to do our house, making the return trip each year to see what's new.

The exclamations of "best house", "cool yard", etc. are always a welcome sound.

This year especially, considering the rain and "hurricane hangover", all the smiles on kids and parents alike, making their trip worth while.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Didnt have very many TOTers this year so I didnt have many oppertunities to get any real scares in. Only 3 decent ones to be exact. The best was a Mom that was with her friend and their 2 kids. I heard her tell her son to hurry up because she didnt like Micahel Myers. Really? lol I intentianally waited to giver her son the candy last and as I did I pulled my knife out from the pumpkin (rubber of course) and proceeded to "stalk" towards her. She was yelling "no!no! stop that Myers crap!" LOL I followed her for about 50 feet then let her go. Quit amusing.


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## moshrider1000 (Sep 20, 2009)

I'd say my best moment was the 5-6 year old boy who was slowly trucking up the driveway (sheepish but trying to not look scared). When he got up to me he proclaimed "I'm not scared of your house cuz I'm Superman!" That made me smile.


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## creeperguardian (Aug 22, 2011)

we had a group of kids that came up and as i poped up from the toxic barrel and the all got scared so bad after they went up the steps they would look in ani got back up and they went up the block but stayed around and i pointed to them as if i was picking them out but no one left till i got outta the barrel and chased them. the coolest one was there was a family dressed in costumes from wizard of oz and after i poped up the one lady said i will cast a spell on you she was the good witch and that was funny and cool


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## Captain No Beard (Aug 31, 2012)

The best Moment I had was from a girl my age (25) and her 3 year old little boy. She had said the house reminded her of a house that a family use to decorate up the cul de sac a block over. My parents and I had lived in that house a block away  I then asked her specific details about the house and it was fun to see her eyes light up when she realized I was part of the family. I ended up giving her son 3 goodie bags (That I make for family members and friends) and shen her on her way with a cosmo in a red solo cup.


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## Sflcowboy78 (Oct 12, 2012)

My neighborhood is not too big on Halloween, myself and several of my neighbors are working on changing that. We got the normal wow your yard looks great and a few of the “I am scared” when the parents pushed the kids to go get candy. However my favorite was my next-door neighbor’s 2 year old granddaughter. She was so intrigued by the fog and the thunder strobe but every time her Grandma tried to get her to play in the fog she said she was scared. I finally took her to see that it was all make believe. After I showed her how to turn on the thunder strobe ( I had it on a remote ) it was all she wanted to do all night.


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

I love the folks that come back every year. We had people last night who came from other neighborhoods just to see our haunt. Unfortunately most outdoor dedcorations were down due to Sandy.
There were 2 teens from the neighborhood, 19 and 18, who have been coming to the house since they were little. They haven't ToTed for years, but still come by to see the display and just enjoy the ambiance. I really ought to try to recruit them for next year!


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## pumpkinheadedskeleton (Apr 26, 2010)

I had a good scare % this year. My 2 kids helped me out too. The three of us wore costumes and masks that covered our bodies and we'd stay perfectly still as the kids came up the driveway. one of us would do the "jump out" and the others would stay still. then as they came down the driveway the other two would get them again. So simple and so much fun. 
6 teenage girls refused to come up the driveway. I thought that was a victory. 
My daughter put a oversized hand sticking up out of the candy basket. I just thought it looked cool but one kid after passing the driveway "gauntlet" stopped by the bowl and looked at it before taking some candy....and looked at it.....and looked at it..... He looked like Indiana Jones trying figure out how much sand he needed to exchange the golden statue. lololol
It never occurred to me that they actually make candy bowls with hands that try to grab you!
Near the end of the night I walked down the driveway to see if any more kids were out and when I turned around to look at my yard display the clouds cleared and the moon shone above my house. It looked awesome.
Here's a pic but it came out fuzzy.


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## GodOfThunder (Aug 26, 2011)

For me, I was happy to meet new neighbors since our subdivision was maybe half built-in last Halloween.

That said, I expected more ToT'ers. So the overall crwod was lighter than expected and ended WAY early (Wed night?).

HOWEVAH, I exceeded the 'cry' count by making 6 little kids cry with the whole KISS thing. It was pretty ominous but I lightened up too. 

I broke the ice with the grown-ups with giving away beer. Had a TON of beer left over from the Halloween party so had a cooler set up for refreshments for the big kids. It was a nice icebreaker and was good for our neighborhood I thought.

BEST MOMENT: one little dude was clearly apprehensive coming up, but I had heard his buddy a few houses away yell "Holy Guacamole!" when he saw my lights, cemetery and fog. Well, the first little guy was freaked out. His folks were with them, but trailing behind casually. the Dad is dressed in FULL costume like Darth Vader...I mean, brilliantly done. Imposing, tall, he scared the piss out of me actually. 

He comes up to the house, says he wants to get a pic together, so here's KISS meets Vader, we decide to take over the world, he gets a beer, we toast, and they're on their way. Mission accomplished.


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## Guest (Nov 1, 2012)

We won "Yard of the Month" and a $50 Visa card. Each housing area has a winner, so we were one of 3.


I think we had a nice yard, but this year NOBODY decorated. I could have put out a few pumpkins and a cheesecloth ghost and won. Sad sad sad.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Omg, there were sooooo many of them it's hard to figure out where to begin! The sheer numbers of people who just wandered around saying "This is sssoooooo cool!" 


The 20 or so cars that drove by slowly flashing me a thumbs up!


The portrait artist who lives down the street chatting w/ me for a good half hour before the ToT's came, and telling me that she really wants me to meet her with brother who works for Universal Studios. 


The kids running down the street after leaving the yard yelling about how "That haunted house was the best ever!!!" 


The pair of tween girls that gave me a hug and told me "This is so awesome! I LOVE your yard!" and the other with "Your decorations are the best I've seen!" <- Heh heh, I told her she should see some of my friends (here) yards.


The photographer showing up to take pics for the HOA newsletter.


The 2 ladies and 1 gentleman that told me that they called the local news stations & paper (didn't see them come out, if they in fact did). Nope, I don't do interviews.


About 20 groups of adults that hung around looking at everything closely, and patiently waited while I passed out candy to the ToT's inbetween. Huge amount of interest in the how-to's & why-for's! That always makes one proud when people express that much interest in your hobby! 


Winning the "Best Decorated Yard Display" award.


The family across the street coming over after everything wound down (and I mean the entire extended family, grandparents/children and all). We spent a good hour chatting and they were astounded that I built almost everything right here. One of the wives kept repeating "You build all of this right here? That is amazing! Do you guys (to the family) understand how awesome that is?". 


The 11-12 year old boy who came into the yard loudly saying he wasn't scared of anything jumping out at him...until he walked up right up on me kneeling by the cauldron in a zombie costume, and I growled rising up quickly saying "You'd better be SCARED!". And he promptly wet himself, to scared to even run! Scarred that one for life, I think! Lol!  


But my absolute favorite, was a little girl about 4 yrs old who was as cute as a button in her little witches outfit. Who when I knelt down to be on face level (sans mask, I don't scare the really young ones. Only those with false bravado), said after a bit of encouragement from her mom and I "Twick r tweet!", then gave me a hug. Heart meltingly adorable!


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## Rania (Oct 27, 2011)

Terra said:


> Made a blacklight ghillie suit that I hide behind a column that is made of the same material. I can easily see out of it but the ToTs can't see in:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Oh man that is awesome! What a great idea! Any video by any chance?


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## Papa_K (Oct 15, 2008)

I've been doing my yard haunt now for about 15 years. I stopped for a few years after my kids got older, I thought they didn't like it. But they encouraged me to continue because their friends enjoyed coming over and checking out anything new I might have added. Every year is something different. Last year my best moment was when a little boy dressed in some super hero outfit had this death grip on his dads hand, looked at me stern and said, 'this doesn't scare me'.

This year I found chocolate gold coins that I gave to the kids in their hands. I told them, I wasn't from the 'Black Pearl, but from the Red Lobster and these coins were the real ones from Willy Wonka's chest'. After I dumbed a handful of candy in their bags a coin and a glow stick in their hands they would run out holding the gold coin to show their parents. I think some of the parents wonder if that's all they got. My wife got a kick out of all the kids.


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## BR1MSTON3 (Jul 31, 2010)

I always decorate the In-laws house because that is where we celebrate Halloween with my mother-in-law's birthday being Halloween. This year almost did not go at all with me having emergency surgery and then everyone in the In-laws having the flu. We went over to stay in the front and pass out candy and I have enough stone and skeletons to make a small display to go through. My sons were the big help though in one plays a scarecrow and does great being still while people walk by while my other wore a black morph suit. My youngest in the morph suit did not contain it to just our yard, but the entire street if he could get a scare. I volunteered to walk my niece around and when we got back to our street, a neighbor asked who was in the black suit and I said my son. Her response was my moment as she said, 'I knew it had to be one of your relatives!, He is doing awesome!' At that time we heard a scream and looked up in time to see a black shadow chase a tot'er out into the street as she threw her entire bag of candy at him out of fright! I am proud to say he did help her pick it up!


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## ondeko (Oct 14, 2008)

We had a couple cool moments.

The toddler from down the street who took the color changing LED tealight [and some candy] my wife put in the candy bowl so ToTs could see the candy better. Apparently he liked it so much that he had it in his hand at the next house and was more interested in showing it to everyone than in getting more candy. When the neighbor told us about it my wife exclaimes, "THAT'S where it went!" I guess she had been trying to find it for 1/2 hour.

A group with a pair of very scared 4-5 yr olds and a handful of boisterous 8-10yr olds came up the drive. I froze when I heard the little kids telling their dad that they didn't care if we had candy, they weren't going to the door. I wear all black with a facelss hood and I have found that I am less scary to little kids if I don't move. My wife coaxed the little kids up gave them candy and they headed back down the drive while the older kids waited their turn for candy. As they start heading out, one of them moves to cut across the lawn to get to the next place so i turn my head to see if he tries it. when i move he yells, "That thing moved. It's a real person." He moved to the rest of the group and tried to convince them i wasn't a static prop while they came to the conclusion that I was like the witch--a motorized figure. so they all decided to get a closer look and i waited until they were just out of arm's reached before jumping forward. they screamed and ran. Awesome.

The kids from next door looking the display over and then running home shouting to their parents that they now need: a full size skeleton, a fog machine, etc. 

Meeting the new neighbors who moved in recently [2 houses] and getting compliments on the graveyard from them.


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## Screaming Demons (Sep 15, 2008)

We do a small walk-through every year and usually have a bunch of kids run out screaming. This year we had one dad come out and say "That's how you do Halloween!"

We had more TOTers than usual, but only about half the groups would go through. The other half were too afraid. Some wouldn't even think about going in - they just kept right on walking.


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## Aaaprn (Aug 18, 2011)

We were burned out on Halloween two weeks before the big day, to the point we left things unfinished in our display. Good enough for most to not notice, but certainly ignoring the 'details' we try to pride ourselves on. A card shows up in our mailbox a few days prior to the 31st with a long, handwritten note telling how She and her kids look forward every year to seeing what we will do for Halloween (and Christmas), watching it transform daily, and that they appreciate all the effort and time we put into our display. Signed "the Brine family". It helped rejuvenate us and motivated us to tie up a few loose ends.

Warm Halloween day which made the chilled fog work so much better than last year. 

We're getting better with our lighting, which makes such a difference in a display.

Our neighbors. Some visiting twice. Bringing grandkids to take pictures. Glad to have us in the neighborhood (we've been here 3 years). Even one neighbor couple who generally keep to themselves and don't visit within the "hood" coming to our front door with no other purpose than to say they enjoyed the display and wanted to see it close-up. (That was a big wow as I did not recognize them - that's how seldom they come out).

But, my very favorite...
My husband (Mr. GhostTown) who "claims" not to like kids much, but he created so much merriment each time a group would come to the door. ALWAYS engaging to determine exactly what/who each TOT was dressed to be, exclaiming with great joy and appreciation those that went above and beyond in their costuming, especially appreciating the home-made costumes, and making a grand production to those kids that we awarded "special prizes" for best costumes. 

And an honorable mention: Getting the entire display torn down and "gone" before heading to bed. Such a big part of the magic of Halloween for us. (Don't look in our garage, though)


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## Pumpkinhead625 (Oct 12, 2009)

This year, I had numerous 'moments'.

My house is on a corner lot. I set up my rock speakers behind two yucca plants near the corner (maybe eight feet from the curb), adjacent to my giant spider. I plugged my mp3 player into the stereo amplifier. The sound effects I had on my mp3 player were:

>two different wolf howls
>two different bear growls
>two different deep, echoey, demonic laughs
>the "screaming mimi' doll sound effect 
>3 other different screams
>a cat yowling
>an owl hooting

(And I'd like to give a shout out and a BIG thank you to Darklord for most of these sound effects...I got a lot of good scares from them this year.)


I had my usual seat outside the door to hand out candy, and had my mp3 player at the ready. Some of my 'moments include:

>Numerous compliments on the haunt, the giant spider, and the cauldron creep.

>I had 5 different ToT's (at different times) who, while coming up to get candy, wouldn't take their eyes off of the cauldron creep, and 4 of those decided to run for it before they even got any candy. Not to mention a few dozen who wouldn't even come into the yard.

>A ToT, maybe 8 or 9 years old, decides he's gonna show his bravado by confronting my spider. As soon as he got 3 steps into the yard, I hit the sound effects of the screaming doll, and he ran screaming down the street.

>My brother (dressed in a ghillie suit) layed in a pile of leaves in the curb, in front of the cauldron creep. A woman was taking pictures of my cauldron creep, and was so close to him that she almost stepped on him. He grabbed her ankle, and she let out the LOUDEST shreik I've ever heard.

>Three teenaged girls got their candy, and as they were leaving, I heard one say "I'm glad we saw that guy in the moss suit before he could scare us". They just happened to be going towards the corner, so when they got to the speakers, I played a bear growl. The middle girl did a duck and cover as if there were a real bear. 

But _THE_ moment of the night was this one:

One of the first groups of ToT's that came around the corner was 3 mid to late teen girls. I hit them with the screaming doll shriek, but I didn't see that there was a 3-year old with them, The 3-year old was crying, and I felt bad. When she came up to get candy, I tried consoling her, saying "It's just loud noise". She was still upset, so I showed her the mp3 player, and pointed to another group coming around the corner, and told her "Push this button". The Demonic laughter played, and the group jumped, and the little girl laughed and said, with a smile "That was funny". For me, THAT was THE moment of the night .


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## ondeko (Oct 14, 2008)

Aaaprn said:


> And an honorable mention: Getting the entire display torn down and "gone" before heading to bed. Such a big part of the magic of Halloween for us. (Don't look in our garage, though)


Very cool that you can do that. One of the scariest thing I read as a 9 yr old kid was Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and the idea that the dark carnival just appears overnight and disappears the same way really creeped me out. I love that my yard has a lone scarecrow when the kids go to school but it a full blown graveyard when they get home. I used to be able to get it all down and intl the garage but I've reached the limit where I either have to accept that leaving parts of it up or get some help.


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## DesertSasquatch2011 (Sep 28, 2011)

My best moments had to be a wise cracking 10-11 year old kid coming down our Spooky hallway; he was laughing at our decorations and at our haunters trying to scare him, he was saying to his buddy, "Oh this isn't scary, that's not scary, I went to the Slaughterhouse that was cooler this is not, this place is kind of dumb!". I kept hearing him complain and complain; I was hiding towards the very end behind a fake frame area, next to our wailing woman prop. I had a piece of styrofoam in between the frame and me. When he was within my scare zone I punched through the foam and tried to grab him, he shut up quickly and the look of terror on his face was priceless, and I said "Well I just made you slaughter your pants!" as he ran away. The other one is when I moved over to our toxic animal pen area and I was getting tired of using the wolf mask so I grabbed a steel chair and slammed the corners of the metal areas to which one lady in tears grabbing on to her fellow group members terrified yelled "You people are sick, you get pleasure scaring people don't you?" which I laughed and thought to myself "My yes, yes we do." and the last memorable one was my brother was our military ghoul and not saying a word he would freak people out. One rather heavy-set lady was close to falling over and pushing over a wall portion, her kids managed to get her upright and as she got up laughing and scared turned the corner where I was, I slammed the chair and yelled "Why you destroying my props!" to which she and her kids laughed even more hysterically as they continued on their way. Great memories.


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## Diabolik (Apr 10, 2006)

Overall, we had a dismal tunrout. Half the tots we usually get. The last 45 minutes was like a ghost town. We still managed to memorable quotes from the night...

#1 a little girl walking up the driveway holding her Dad's hand turns and says to her Dad "Where do they get all the money for those robots?" very funny and cute...

#2 was a mom holding hands with a small boy dressed as a fireman. We were standing at the end of our walkway and as she approached she said to my father and I "If you scare me, I am going to kick you in the junk" We had a good laugh about it the rest of the night. 

all in all had a good night.


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## Scatterbrains (Nov 16, 2008)

I'll go with the "where did you buy your horse?" comments. I got several of those for my head movin fog spewin monster mud horse that I built for my funeral carriage.


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## Zombastic (Oct 26, 2011)

I was a wicked clown and I scared a man when my drop panel slammed down, revealing me. 
After he jumped back scared, he laughed, shook my hand and said:
"Nice job. My son is outside and he's pertified of clowns. I'm gonna send him in. Don't take it easy on him".
I didn't 


There is big annual haunted trail down the road. One kid said that my garage haunt was better than the haunted trail.
Don't know if that's true but it made me feel good.


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## scotty10_31 (Jul 29, 2004)

I would say 2 events. One, a little girl probably around 10 or so would not go into my yard while her older sister and mother did. And watching her break out in tears while yelling at her mom "cmon lets go! I wanna go! I wanna go home!" not even 10 feet from the entrance to my cemetery. A very oscar worthy performance. And the other being my neighbors teenage boys, refusing to go in, even though they watched me set up and know who I am. Two good signs that you are doing Halloween right! lol


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## Deadview (Aug 9, 2011)

On Halloween night I can remember one TOT'er that stood out. He was in a group of 5 coming down the street and you could hear his loud mouth running, about how he wasn't scared of "that" place. Set-up. I made sure I stood just behind the entry-way colmuns, static like some of my props. His group walked right by me a couple looked as they walked in. I didn't move. I made sure they got up to where my wife was handing out candy and I quickly got up behind loud mouth as he got his candy and then I growled. He turned, saw me, screamed like a girl and mowed over two of his friends in his attempt to flee. I chased him down the street, to the next house, his candy flying everywhere. I stopped running but he didn't. He rounded the corner and kept going, his friends laughing hysterically. I helped pick up the lost candy as his friends called to him to come get it back. Nope he wouldn't come back. God I love doing that to a big mouth.


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## ravenworks69 (Sep 27, 2009)

Watching my wife's "inner *******" come out. Finally, after 20 plus years of our sister in-law showing up plastered to family or kid oriented functions, my wife had the balls to call her drunk a$$ out in front of a room full of H-ween party guests. It started a chain reaction where she stormed out screaming up and down the road we live on, her hubby (wife's brother) got pi$$ed and left before the piniata that he built was even broken signifying the end of the party.

I know it seems like a odd choice for a "Best Moment", but belive me its been a long time comming, and now my wife is not only my parter in life and my partner in love, she's also my hero.

Marc V.


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## strangeredafternoon (Sep 27, 2010)

The centerpiece of the front yard display is a smoking cauldron surrounded by 3 witches. A little boy (I'm guessing 3 years old) dressed as Batman was too scared to walk past it. His parents kept telling him that it was all make-believe but he wasn't convinced. Finally, he walked slowly past the display and, when he was directly in front of the cauldron, he reached into his Trick or Treat bag and tossed a piece of his own candy inside before running to his folks. I guess he figured the witches needed some kind of appeasement or tribute in order to pass! Everybody (but him) laughed and I gave him extra candy.

Also, over the course of the night I think no fewer than 10 groups of people took their picture in front of it. It's cool to think about being part of so many people's Halloween memories.


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## BlueFrog (Oct 20, 2009)

Mine was when a girl with Down's Syndrome, maybe 12 years old, worked up the courage to approach me, say Trick or Treat, and take the candy from my hand. Her mom and ?aunt were with her, and praised her for being brave enough to go to a stranger. It's one of the few moments in my life that I'm glad I'm non-threatening (something people tell me all the time, though I have no idea what I do or don't do to project that image. Most of the time I'm told that it's a bad thing).



strangeredafternoon said:


> The centerpiece of the front yard display is a smoking cauldron surrounded by 3 witches. A little boy (I'm guessing 3 years old) dressed as Batman was too scared to walk past it. His parents kept telling him that it was all make-believe but he wasn't convinced. Finally, he walked slowly past the display and, when he was directly in front of the cauldron, he reached into his Trick or Treat bag and tossed a piece of his own candy inside before running to his folks. I guess he figured the witches needed some kind of appeasement or tribute in order to pass! Everybody (but him) laughed and I gave him extra candy.


That is a terrific story!


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## the_great_gazoo (Nov 6, 2005)

Had lots of great moments the 2 that stand out 1]A lady came up to me in the afternoon during the pouring rain thanking me for putting the display up that her children said if the weather was bad all they wanted to do was go the the Haunted halloween house! The second big one was a lady came up all excited with her small baby Taking pictures of the baby at the display that she came to as a TOTer . 10 years of doing a display at my wifes parents house.


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## Mad Mad Mark (Oct 24, 2009)

Had lots of "BEST" moments, but most memorable was the kids throughout the night (ages 9-15) who told us "WE look forward all year to come here on Halloween...you have the coolest yard in town!" Then there was the little tiny Fairy Princess who stood at the end of our walk looking at the legion of UN-dead in our yard. Father:" Well go on..." Princess: "Are you sure those are not real?" Father: "Yes I'm sure now go on" She tip toed by the zombies, Lizzy Borden, Jack the Ripper etc. I was dressed as a phantom all in black with black hood and veil and glowing red eyes standing on the porch waiting with candy.

The Princess.at last is before me . I am looming before her, her father just behind her. She stands there silent for awhile looking up. Father : " Well go on...you know what to say....Trick or....." Princess : "Please don't kill me ok?" Me ; "Kill you?....why no I want to give you candy on this magic night" Princess : "Um...Thank You" Then she ran after she got her candy but waved goodbye from the far end of the walk!!!


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2012)

I actually had two of them this year.I had made a Facebook friend that is as crazy as me about Halloween ! She decorated her yard and first had her Michael Myers mask stolen.Then someone took her zombie babies.She got so angry she wanted to take everything down and not even do a yard haunt.One of her friends gave her an idea and she went with it. She put a sign on an evil looking clown that read"I am so lonley.I miss my friends"One night later she heard her doorbell ring and when she went to the door,there were her Zombie babies !!!!

The second one was when the mail lady came to deliver a package she remarked that she loved the decorations and how the graveyard looked so realistic !!!! Well my heart soared !


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## bert1913 (Dec 7, 2010)

we have lot's of kids that are too scared to knock on he door, so they send their parents. this one time i opened the door (in my 8 foot tall warlock costume) and there stands this 4 year old boy. I give him his candy and he says "thank you monsta" then turns around and leaves.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Hands down my best moment was seeing my husband volunteer to hand out treats and get more into the halloween spirit than I've ever seen him embrace before. I long to be a haunting couple.


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## Monty T. Freek (Oct 20, 2012)

There was quite a few..
18 years since I've done anything for Halloween and starting from scratch. Mostly handmade stuff. Keeping an eagle eye on the weather. Thinking "Please let this work"...
I got a lot of compliments that night ..Picture taking and I counted about 15 people with video cameras..I was deff proud of myself that night.
But the topper was....
I was dressed up as a grounds keeper/grave digger. I just walked around and made sure everything was working..Re lighting pumpkins...making sure the fog machines were filled and sometimes just standing there watching the kids go by not saying a word and freaking them out.
I over heard this from one of our good friends handing out candy.
Boy number # 1 "Is this a real cemetery?"
Yes hon it is. It only appears once a year.
Boy 2 " Are those real?" pointing at the zombies and witch.
Yes they are.
Boy 1 "Who's that man?"
Oh he's the grounds keeper. He's making sure that the ghosts and zombies stay in their graves.As you can tell he's not doing a good job.
Boy 3 "Oh can we help him?"
Oh no hon...If he sees you he'll catch you....he still has open graves.....
As the kids made a b line down the the driveway. The parents just looked at us and said " Nice..."
IMAO !!!!
The funny thing was she just made it up on the spot for the kids...I'm going to use that every year.


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## darthrott (Oct 20, 2010)

My best moment this year was when my 18 yr old daughter and wife helped to pass out candy while I tried to adjust my lighting as it got dark, try to get my brand new fog machine to work (POS). P.S. I have given up hope that I will ever have the low lying thick fog I envisioned.


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## GhostTown (Jul 6, 2011)

Fog is friggin tough.

Best thing about this year IMO was the freakishly warm 72+ degree breeze/wind free day we had which made my fog PERFECT. I had fog _boiling_ out the end of my perforated pipe that was ice cold and sticking like glue to the grass and corn on a warm night. The next morning my temporary cardboard fog chiller went to the landfill with the rest of the haunt. No storage.


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## scarybella (Aug 4, 2010)

I thoroughly enjoyed readintg this thread. We have had a year off from doing a display this year. I sorely missed crafting this year and setting up our yard for the TOTs. I've been stuck in a rut so to speak, but reading this has made me smile from ear to ear  I even had a lump in my throat at some of the comments. I know how it feels to get the TOTs so scared they wont come up the drive for candy. 

It's even better when the tots and their parents thank you for your display. It makes all the hard work that we put in throughout the year worthwhile!!! Some even got so caught up in looking around that they forgot to ask for candy. Dont worry I made sure they took some with them, I'm not that greedy lol.I had the smaller ones last year too scared to take the candy out of the basket which was on the lap of our old rocking dead granny. lol we had parents taking photos of their children next to our props. 

Now our display was big by UK standards but tiny compared to some of the yards on here, but It still makes you feel proud and happy that you are making Halloween special for the TOts in your area. I have missed this Halloween this year, but next year we will be back along with our little girl who will be 18 months old by then. So I will have to find her a good job for the night


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

It has been So enjoyable reading what you all had so much fun doing this year!
Not many little kids darken our door except during the daylight hours, which was very strange this year. One night a group of little boys came through at 11 O'Clock with two Mom's.
When I hear on the phone:"My child won't be bothered by your house because he watches all of those bloody horror movies all the time."
I open my front door, that is the kid that screams, then is too afraid to enter, even after we pre-sell the experience, make promises to not do this and that, ex cetra!
(But when the door opens, there is no remote channel changer, now is there?) (No mute button either!)


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## Larry Talbot (Nov 3, 2012)

I didn't get any kids at my house because nobody could see it (we live in an alley) but I'd have to say the best moment was talking my daughter out for her first Halloween in her costume I made her.


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## jackolantern45 (Oct 5, 2016)

BlueFrog said:


> Mine was when a girl with Down's Syndrome, maybe 12 years old, worked up the courage to approach me, say Trick or Treat, and take the candy from my hand. Her mom and ?aunt were with her, and praised her for being brave enough to go to a stranger. It's one of the few moments in my life that I'm glad I'm non-threatening (something people tell me all the time, though I have no idea what I do or don't do to project that image. Most of the time I'm told that it's a bad thing).
> 
> 
> 
> That is a terrific story!


I know your post is several years old, but I think that's really cool. I have two special needs boys, now in their twenties and both have Autism. My oldest has Down's as well, plus epilepsy. But he is one of the happiest people I know. Back when my kids were 5 and 9 years old, we had just moved to a small town and it was their first Halloween there. My oldest started to trick or treat but he was afraid of the dogs in the neighborhood so he stayed in the car with my husband while I took my youngest trick or treating. We stopped at this one house and an older lady lived there and wanted us to come in. She was sitting on her porch. She had cats and one had a medical cone around its neck. The lady was very sweet. She was nice to my son and she said to me "Don't worry about your kids they'll be ok" which was so odd because I hadn't talked with her about my kids, she was talking about her cats most of the time. But the weird thing is she must've known my other son was special needs although she hadn't met him or seen him. It was kind of strange and wonderful at the same time.


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