Two great weekend projects for an excellent Halloween

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/10/2011 (5339 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Do you have $20 and two or three hours? Then you could add a huge bump to your Halloween house’s decor with a couple of simple projects. I’m going to try and tackle each of these this Saturday.

Last Saturday I dug a shallow grave in my front yard, and I spent some time with leftover plywood to make a false gravestone, so my house is shaping up to be frighteningly great this year.

Good thing, too, because I may have overbought on candy.

Here’s how to make your own fog machine:

And here’s how to turn some basic yard lights into something a wee bit spookier:

Thanks to YouTube user HouseholdHacker for the instructions! My girlfriend kiboshed my plans to buy a $30 fog machine just the other day (it was on sale!) but it’ll be even sweeter to make my own.

Also, if you’re feeling down on Halloween lately, check out this post from the Globe and Mail. Sure, the demographics are bad — because of our aging population, there are now half as many trick-or-treaters per capita as there used to be — but the holiday is still good.

"Halloween is a time to invest in social capital," writes Frances Woolley.

I agree. Trick-or-treating is one of the few times, these overly-frightened days, that kids can actually go and knock on a neighbour’s door. That’s an important step in building a community.

And if you’re too old to trick-or-treat, then your job is to decorate your house, put out a pumpkin and hand out candy.

Nothing bugs me more than adults who shut off the lights and hide in their living rooms — especially when I know that a lot of them are getting dressed up to go drinking at a costume party later on.

You can pick up a big box of candy for less than $10, and you only have to stay home for a couple of hours around suppertime. The bar will still be open long after the ghouls and goblins are home nursing a stomachache.

So participate. It bothers me when the streets are dim with curtain-pulled houses, and the Halloween houses are few and far between.

Oddly, you know what doesn’t bother me that much? Getting egged.

It sucks, sure. I had my car egged a few times — including once where the egg sailed through an open window and smashed against the inside of the windshield, dripping down into the defrost vents — but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that bad.

In fact, it might just be the least harmful thing a few keyed-up teens looking to rebel against authority can do. It’s better than spray paint or rocks, for example, or firing guns into the air.

Plus, I’m pretty sure they don’t egg the houses that give out loads of good candy. Protect yourself by being a good Halloween neighbour. Get started on that fog machine.