# Yard Haunt or Yard Display?



## blowmoldcrazy (Jul 22, 2013)

The pumpkin buntings look awesome!!!! great idea!! I rather a yard display, my display has evolved from being just a few randomly placed blowmolds outside, to a display that has scenes for each type of blowmold.


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## Palladino (Aug 29, 2013)

I guess it depends on the definition. I define 'yard display' as non-interactive. That's what I do in the front yard. A 'haunt' has people going through and getting up close and personal with the displays and the haunters. I do a yard haunt in the garage and back yard. The workshop is attached to the garage but is a display because I don't allow people to walk through there - only haunters who pop in to scare them through the glass!


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## huchon (Oct 15, 2010)

I would say I have a yard display as the tots do not walk through the display. It would be great to make a haunt one year but I am too afraid of someone tripping or getting hurt then turning around to sue me.


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## Skeletoncrew (Oct 10, 2013)

I love the buntings and vintage blow molds!!

Ummm .. I guess our house could be a little of both display and haunt. I make it a tad spooky, but also approachable for the smaller kids, since we get a lot!

This was last year. We also had singing pumpkins and a fog machine/ chiller running.


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## Madame Leota (Sep 19, 2005)

Mine would be a display, as everything is contained inside the cemetery fence and no one can walk through. Occasionally, we've had someone in costume provide a scare or two but nothing really interactive.


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## GOMG (Aug 7, 2014)

blowmoldcrazy said:


> the pumpkin buntings look awesome!!!! Great idea!! I rather a yard display, my display has evolved from being just a few randomly placed blowmolds outside, to a display that has scenes for each type of blowmold.


thanks bmc!!!!!


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## GOMG (Aug 7, 2014)

Skeleton crew I love those pics!!! That leaping skeleton is epic!!!


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## GOMG (Aug 7, 2014)

I think I gather what most think thus far is a yard haunt would need to be interactive while a display would be simply for viewing. I have seen some yard haunts that are jaw dropping but not interactive. For example a yard that looks "haunted" graves, skeletons, corpses etc vs. a yard that looks more approachable I suppose is the word. I wonder have we come up with a definition for what a yard haunt is exactly? To me I would think it is a form of yard decorating in which was designed to frighten and or entertain its guests with or without human interaction. To make one believe the presence of paranormal or unexplained danger may dwell within the display


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## RedSonja (Sep 18, 2004)

Mine is certainly more of a display. Although, I do try to "haunt" my porch up a bit by adding more animated props. 

My niece asked me if someone was gonna jump out at her when she came by for trick-or-treats...I said... maybe! (Gotta keep her on her toes!)


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## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

Hmm... I don't think I have a very good picture to illustrate it (photos & a good video are more of a priority this year), but I consider our yard to be more of a haunt than a display. To me a "yard display" is just for looking at with a path right to the front door for candy. It could be any kind of scene, but mainly just still/static props & decor. 

I consider a "yard haunt" to still be a display, but with added moving props, startle props, perhaps people dressing up & moving around the haunt, and a slightly more interactive path that might get you closer to different scenes. And that is what we have/we do. 

The center of our front yard has a big tree with a round planting bed underneath it. We stage our graveyard on the right front corner of the house and that is fenced off so people can't get into it due to a LOT of electrical cords, spotlights, etc. But we make a meandering path around the tree that takes the TOT'ers around multiple scenes as well as by the door for candy. 

Just my own opinion on the subject. I don't know if there's really a definition that will work for everyone.


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

More display here too. My son dresses up, but stays a part of the scenery. I go more for the awe than the shock.


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## DarkhavenManor (Sep 27, 2014)

Always considered my yard to be more of a haunt. Given, there are no moving props other than the fogging cauldron we have. My reason for calling it a yard haunt rather than a display is because I've always felt that a display is temporary, but a haunted yard will forever be haunted, and I'm not about to stop doing that anytime soon!


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## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Yea, mines a yard display. Not a haunt.


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## GOMG (Aug 7, 2014)

I love the different takes on decorating we all have. I do like the feeling that with a display I am not as on edge to make a scare work or have one of my "actors" tangle into electrical cords like the good ol days.


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## DavyKnoles (Dec 5, 2009)

Ours is a full-on haunt complete with scareactors. The front of the house is highly decorated, of course, and it's gotten more elaborate year after year. But the only store-bought animated prop we use is that marvelous jumping spider from Spirit. The rest of the stuff sort of looks like the entry way to Party City if you know what I mean. Most everybody's seen it, so not many are going to be scared by it. Most of the props we use I make myself, and they're for the scareactors to interact with as the ToTers (victims! heh,heh,heh) pass by. This year we're adding a corn field to the graveyard that will host a couple of scarecrows - only one is alive, and a walk-though mausoleum that will most likely be totally webbed and house the jumping spider. I found a video on how to make cheap fake cornstalks for the cornfield, so now the living room is filled with them. It's amazing what you can make with some bamboo garden stakes, Hefty trash bags, small Crystal Guizer water bottles, floral wire, raffia, hot glue, tape and spray paint. Rose is making her own scarecrow costume - and a similar one for the real scarecrow that will be standing on the other side of the path from her. Since the theme has shifted from Rose's Haunted Graveyard to Rose's Family plot, we'll also have a scareactor dressed like a 19th century country girl being burned at the stake for witchcraft. For this we'll the witch burning stand prop I built last year. It has a fake fire controlled by a foot switch and it was super effective.


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## Penumbra (Jul 28, 2011)

I really do a combination of both. I put up a "display" in the yard and "haunts" on the porch and in the garage.


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## Boone6666 (Aug 22, 2014)

hhhmmmm well I always considered mine a display although it is on my side lot and you have to walk though it to get to my door with some animated 
pieces strewn about but no actors to scare but, my son said that if he did not go to the concert this year he would like too it just so hard when 
it can be awhile between groups of kids but plenty seem to like to find something to take a pic with,
setting up today and problely the next two will post when I', done though so you can tell me what you think it is.


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## LurkerNDdark (Sep 9, 2010)

Display. Very few moving props, no actors. As my building skills improve (hopefully), animated props will be added, but visitors will still be expected to stay outside the fence. I do this by myself, so I'm limited as to how elaborate the decorations can be, even if I had money to buy props.


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## mariem (Oct 7, 2012)

I think of my yard decorations as a display rather than a haunt. I have a cemetery that I walk through when I am not giving out treats. Anyone can walk through my yard and take pictures with the tombstones (they do that a lot) and I have a ghost that flies from one section of the yard to the house and back again. I have a fog machine, some lighting and sometimes I play scary music from a store bought disc. My display goes up on Halloween day and comes back down that night. I am learning to make tombstones but other than that there is not a lot of effort put into it. I don't really think of it as a haunt though because to me a haunt is when people in costume/character are interacting with the visitors and scaring them. It is usually gory displays and trying to scare the bejeebies out of everyone. I think of the people that put a lot of time & effort into their haunts with animatronics, lighting etc and have help to run a "show" or do some kind of theme for thier visitors. I know some people invest a lot of time and effort into it and those are the ones I think of as haunts.I have never actually seen a haunt in person but some of the ones that I see on this site are "haunts" They don't have to be done on a massive scale or cover every conceivable square inch of real estate but it is what actually takes place on Halloween night that differentiates a display and a haunt to me. That is how I think of a "haunt" but everyone's definition is unique. 

I go back and forth between the deck and the cemetery at the beginning of the night and as the kids are slowing calling it quits. During the busiest time of the night I stay on the deck.


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## 1983ss454 (Sep 18, 2014)

Display for sure, and the other half has mandated young child friendly lol. This is what I've been working on for the last couple weeks
http://youtu.be/v7cjh7fklKo
I wouldn't feel comfortable with all the electric that I run through my yard to let people walk through


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## paulieshome (May 1, 2009)

I consider mine a yard display. My wife and I moved into a new neighboehood 2 years ago and there are alot of small children in the neighborhood. I really don't want to scare the bejesus out of them so the tone down. Although my old neighborhood was mostly teens, it was my duty to scare them on Halloween. And so it begins:
Phase 1 hanging ghouls and placing inflatables.
Phase 2: building cemetaties, 3 of them.
Phase 3: Halloween night, fog machines, thunder and lightning effects, music and animatronics.


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## SpiderWitch (May 6, 2013)

We're mostly display with some haunt this year- although it's all static, we built a crypt which the ToTers will have to pass through in order to reach the porch where "Dracula" waits with the candy. We've got a very tiny yard with a steep grade, so there's only so much you can do...


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## Nixer (Sep 7, 2011)

not a very good picture. before much of it was setup last year but we do have people walk thru the graveyard and have "actors". thinking this is our last year with the front yard walkthru and making it the actual haunt go thru the garage and workshop. Still going to take me a little time to get my wife and the okay for that, but need to add something more. for now i would consider it a yard haunt. next year just a display with a garage haunt.


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## bayoubrigh (Jan 12, 2007)

Both here - yard display for all to see during October, then on Halloween the Garage Haunt opens! Fun but exhausting!


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## Deadna (Oct 19, 2002)

I just do a display because I never thought it was a good idea to scare kids but a few years ago a cop who comes here every year,lured the kids into my crypt and scared the bejeebus out of them. Funniest thing I have ever seen but didn't like my stuff nearly getting trampled.


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## Boone6666 (Aug 22, 2014)

*you decide*

well I said I would try to post a pic although it is not complete, boy it seems to take longer to do things every year. here they are , you let me know 
haunt or display. had a lot of visitors already


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## Madame Leota (Sep 19, 2005)

Boone6666, I don't care what you call it - that is freakin cool! I love it!


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## LurkerNDdark (Sep 9, 2010)

Boone6666, where did you get that great horse skeleton?


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## LurkerNDdark (Sep 9, 2010)

This is from 2012. I wasn't happy with last years set-up.


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## Boone6666 (Aug 22, 2014)

thanks madame leota, and every one else who maked likes don't know how to respond to those


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## Boone6666 (Aug 22, 2014)

built it outa insolation foam and a bit of pvc to put it together


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## Boone6666 (Aug 22, 2014)

*@ dusk*

I'm never happy always something needs fixen or improving on but as I get older and notice the people just likening what's done it is getting easer hears my panels at dusk wish I had a better camera to take pics at night


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## ooojen (Sep 4, 2014)

Looks great, Boone6666! 
I got my scarecrow finished. He appears to do a little more than scare the crows.


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## budeena (Jul 4, 2011)

My hubby and I did a three car garage haunt (and a yard walk through too) for the past 10+ years. Last year around Halloween one of our most avid actors died in his sleep at the age of 42 on October 14. We cancelled the haunt. This year we decided that because I am now over 60 and he is 76, we needed to re-evaluate our haunt. It usually takes us two weeks to recover from the haunt. We did at least 13 pneumatic props in the garage and had several hundred lineal feet of wood walls. I found a young couple who is just starting out with their haunt and gave them all the haunt walls and the stone facades we used in the garage openings. We tossed in some mannequins and some other stuff so hopefully they will carry on. 
I am not quite ready to give up the ghost of Halloween but am going to move more toward the display side of a haunt. I want to use a lot of the projection videos, we also use the Light-O-Ramas and I will still have the pneumatics around the yard. I saw someone had used a Xmas deer to make a lunging dog. He did a very good job and I am dying to find out where he got the stuffed dog he butchered to cover the deer. I would like to have two of these dogs chained to the steps of my front porch and activate it when the ToTs start to leave after getting candy. The floating lantern prop is another one I will do next year. 
Right now is the best time to plan with the hundreds if not thousands of ideas on all the Halloween lists/forums.


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## Boone6666 (Aug 22, 2014)

thanks ooojen, great scarcrow face what is it done with burlap
?


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## Boone6666 (Aug 22, 2014)

how is it to work with light-o-rama budeena Have thought about this a bit but not too tech savey


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## Regions Beyond (Sep 11, 2010)

Ours is a yard haunt and always has been since first year, just gets more elaborate and replace elements, move them around - takes place in the backyard and has permanent western-type buildings and wooden walkways past them, guests trigger electronic scares and elements by walking past or over step pads, ambient music, fog, full figures, props, headstones on lawn, lighting - 360 environment basically if looks any direction will be something themed. One live actor sporadically if that for minor scares.


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## Rural Scarecrow (Oct 22, 2014)

I never really knew the difference, so I am glad you posted the question. I do a yard display as I have 3 kids so I am busy either taking them trick or treating or handing out treats. Hopefully when they get older, they can hand out treats and I can "work" the haunt. I posted what we did this year for our yard dislplay.


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## quoggzilla (Sep 28, 2012)

*My House 2015*

Really liked how are yard and home turned out last year. We are getting really excited for 2015, we hope we can come up with something new.


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## quoggzilla (Sep 28, 2012)

Really like the scarecrow.


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## Trex (Nov 6, 2010)

Originally we started off as a yard display, now we have both display and fully manned walk thru haunt (garage and back yard)t! Our haunt really accelerated in detail and size after joining the HF, I have learned so much and been exposed to so many creative people, it has been fantastic learning experience for me! 

Yard:

































Walk Thru:


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

If there is such a thing as a walkthrough display, that's me. 

We're not a "display" in the traditional sense in that it's only really open Halloween night (and to a lesser extent 10/30), and it goes from front around through the back yard.

It's not a "walkthrough" in the traditional sense in that there are very few actors, all outdoors and relatively well lit. 

Probably closer to walkthrough though. 


As for evolution....

2004. Me, a mask, and some torches. 










2006. The first "big" build. 










2007-2009 the field of skulls. (Minor variations each year)










2010: "Just some corn stalks and pumpkins" We lost everything in August to a storm, went "minimalist".











2012: Kids: "We want to do a graveyard":











2014: "What the hell can I do for free?" (out of work most the year, literally spent $20 on builds) 

Don't really have good pics of the decor because between being unhappy with it, we were dealing with a family death at the same time it was a miracle we put on the party at all. What I do have more of than usual is pics from the party itself. 










2011, 2013, 2015: The Chimeras. These are really "MY" theme, I love making monsters and these with the pumpkins so well which have become tradition since 2010. Homemade monsters that are "scarecrows" but not traditional ones and people often ask "what is that", hence, chimera. 

2011:










2013:










2015 work in progress:


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## PoCoHauntGal (Sep 2, 2010)

I consider my Dead and Breakfast haunt more like a yard display - in fact, I liken it to a personal haunt museum. I like to set up individual scenes with a lot of detail. Planning the details and seeking or making the props for each scene is personally rewarding because I get to enjoy it. 

On Halloween night, as haunters view each scene, the fun is in hearing their reactions - when they gradually notice the details, talk about them and linger. It's like Find Waldo, Halloween style. Of course, there's the occasional downer, like those people who just run by in a quest to grab candy. I have to remind myself that not everyone loves Halloween like the rest of us. Maybe the Reaper waits around the corner, seeking out the unappreciative ones! Oh dear, did that sound catty?


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## LadyMage (Aug 15, 2014)

Mine's more of a display. My decorations started with just dollar store fare when I was living in an apartment. I still have MR bones, the cardboard hinged skelly I bought for my very first apartment at 18, now 18 years later and he still ends up some place in my indoor decorations. Every single year I add stuff, but my displays are completely tame compared to most of the ones here. I ride the line between creepy and fun, but don't get into the big scares at this point, my kiddos are really young. I've started in the last handful of years buying one larger prop each year, and this year I'm trying my hand at some handmade custom props. You guys are a bad influence


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## Jack-o-Lantern King (Aug 3, 2012)

WOW! Those are some IMPRESSIVE displays/haunts! Nice work, people!

This is what I do at my house. It's more of a display/show than anything. The main part is the Jack-o-Lantern arch, which is 9'x9', has 62 hand-carved artificial jack-o-Lanterns, and is all synchronized to music! Although you can't see them all (some are on the porch, in the tree, or out of frame), in total, I have over 130 Jack-o-Lanterns in my display!






















This is what it does.....


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Ravens Grin Inn-Yard display ((Don't wish to scare anyone away) Roof display, backyard walk-through display,my tomb and the "Woods"and a controlled path via 43 steel doors making the walls (2 free dumpsters full of steel doors!)
7 levels of "House",6 still accessible to the public,basement, wine cellar below the basement , then 110 feet of concrete tunnel under the yard featuring two of the best scares for the smallest amount of time and money anywhere!
No Hollywood here,made 99% of everything myself so plenty of Surprises for those who think they might have it all figured out.. before it happens!
Hidden doors,two in-house tunnels, and some very thrilling things to impress most people,most of the time.
Getting extreme reactions from 10cent items is my "calling" and mission. I love this challenge!
Tours are modified for kids,scaredy Kats and small children.. (The "Secret" is to set up everyone so the child gets to actually scare the adults!)
Their eyes actually come alive as they whisper to themselves... "I Like This!"


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

Ours is a display, but very slowly starting to add haunt elements. I like to make my display as highly detailed as possible and spend the entire month of October fiddling with it to get it how I want. Up till now the only scare was a small drop spider that did not even work most of the time and my oldest son dressed as Slenderman, but not interacting with people other than tilting his head at them when they noticed him. This year we are upgrading the little drop spider to a jumping spider that will be under my control via a remote prop controller and my son is switching his costume to a version of one of the "Gravers" from the Phantasm movies and will be stalking the front cemetery fence line and interacting with people as they walk up. He will be following instructions not to "get" little kids and to mainly focus on tweens. I'm like to keep things so that the littler kids don't get hit with any scares. Don't want them to be afraid to come back next year. Other than some spooky sounds thats it as far as haunt elements.


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## osenator (Nov 3, 2009)

We do both, actually, we do also backyards too if the weather lets us. We take over 3 front yards too.

we change our Haunt a lot every year, as we have an amazing huge collection...

2011








2012








2013















2014


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## xxScorpion64xx (Oct 15, 2011)

My yard is a Display, it's a cemetery, it's fenced in all around with the typical pvc/wood furring fence with columns, archway/gate, my garage is a display but I encourage people to go in and take a closer look, I'm the only live person among my lifesize props and I make a mini theme for my character but my jumping spider also gets unsuspecting gawkers


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