• Spooky outdoor decorations are a great way to celebrate Halloween.halloween image by Nicolas D from Fotolia.com
  
  When Halloween rolls around, you can turn your yard into a spooky, haunted place that will delight neighbors and children. Using simple special effects and tricks of the eye, your decorations can be scary and interactive. To ensure that your Halloween decorations last through the holiday, put them up one to two weeks in advance.
  
  

Live Scarecrow

• During trick-or-treating or a neighborhood party, set up a spooky, live scarecrow. Have a member of your family dress up in oversized clothing and gloves and stuff the extra space with straw. Cut eye and mouth holes out of a fabric sack and place it over the head with a large, floppy hat. Have the live scarecrow sit in a chair on the porch or near the sidewalk with pumpkins and other decorations to make it look as though it's part of a larger scheme. When trick-or-treaters come by, have the scarecrow jump or move suddenly for a spooky thrill.
  
  

Glowing Ghosts

• For a dramatic outdoor Halloween decoration, create a set of glowing ghosts to spook the neighbors. Start with a cross made of wood and attach a flashlight or portable utility light to the top of the cross. Place an orange plastic pumpkin over the light and drape white, gauzy sheets and sheer material over the setup to make the shape of a ghost with a head and arms. Cut holes in the sheet for mouth and eyes. When the light is turned on, a spooky orange light will come through the holes and the entire ghost will appear to glow. Sharpen the bottom of the stake to plant the ghosts in your yard, or attach them to fishing line for floating spooks.
  
  

Mock Graveyard

• If you have space in your front yard, use thick Styrofoam covered with a mix of black and white paint to create mottled headstones. Mark the headstones with names of famous monsters like Frankenstein and Dracula, and add drips of black paint to give the impression of age. Organize the headstones in a mock graveyard in your yard, and scatter various spooky elements among the stones: pumpkins painted a ghostly white, for example, or a fake skeleton hand coming out of the ground. At night, shed a glowing light on the graveyard by placing lanterns against two or three of the headstones.
  
  

Spooky Tree

• If your front yard has a tree, decorate it with spooky Halloween items. Make floating ghosts by draping sheer white material over a round foam ball. For eerily glowing ghosts, drape the material over a hanging lantern and hang from the tree. Use fake spider web material to twist among the branches to give the impression of a deserted, haunted place, and suspend small spiders from the branches.