There is just something about Halloween that brings out the creative spirit, so to speak.
Take a short drive around town and one will come across many homes where the residents do it up right just in time for little ghouls to come knocking on Trick-or-Treat night.
Chris Forshey, of Colegate Drive, said the fall weather is what inspires him to decorate year after year - that and the reaction his front yard cemetery, complete with eerie gravedigger, draws from people old and young.
Article Photos
"We've scared people a time or two. My granddaughter is really afraid of it," he said.
It took Forshey two days to complete his display and it is something his family looks forward to doing each October, whether trick-or-treaters stop by or not.
"We're kind of the stopping point (on the street)," he said. "We don't get a lot."
Whether or not they get trick-or-treaters remains to be seen at the home of Serena Wriston and Cory Gilliam on Alderman Street at the corner of Ohio 26. But they hope the first year of decorating at their new home will attract some children from the neighborhood.
"We don't have children of our own so we do this for them,"?Gilliam said.
The couple, who are seasoned decorators, have collected more than $1000 worth of spooky props over the years and spent roughly 100 hours putting their "rundown cemetery" in place.
"We really just like to see the kids' faces," Gilliam said.
Among the decorations are tomstones, spiders, purple strand lights, battery-operated and solar skulls, pumpkins and more. Spooky music will also be played out of windows in the home.
The couple begins the process about a month ahead of time and as soon as Halloween is over, it's on to the next project.
"This is nothing compared to Christmas," Wriston laughed.
