Halloween yard decorations have become as popular as Christmas decorating.
Ghosts swing from trees to greet early morning walkers in neighborhoods. Jack-o-lanterns light the way in the late afternoon. Witches crashed into trees and giant spiders in spidery webs crawl on the shrubbery.
In the 1900s, Halloween wasn’t so much about zombies and gruesome headless monsters, tombstones and skeletons, or other scary, scary things like spook houses and ghost tours. Back then, crepe paper pumpkins, plastic candy containers, painted tin noisemakers, and paper lanterns were the items of choice for a happy Halloween.
Not many of these items are around today because people used them and then threw them away. Last week, I dug out what’s left of my vintage decorations.
Only a few things are still around:
Pumpkins constructed from honeycomb tissue.
A gauze mask
A paper-mache jack-o-lantern
A tin noisemaker
A couple of black cats I used for old bulletin board posters and chalk tray decorations in classrooms
Check out Kovels’ Pinterest page here to see other vintage Halloween collectibles
Do you have a future Halloween collectible among your Halloween decorations?
Antique experts predict these items might be a future collectible:
- Special holiday bottles and cans with special holiday flavors like Gruesome Grape, Spooky Strawberry, and Orange Ogre. Look for other limited-edition plastic bottles with scary faces.
- Plastic candy containers either reproductions of the 1950s and ’60s figures and jack-o-lanterns or contemporary plastic decorations with clever designs.
- Zombies and vampires of plastic, rubber, or resin-like zombie-hand candleholders.
- Charm bracelets with pumpkins, bats, and black cats; jointed skeleton earrings decorated with rhinestones and spider rings.
- Motion, or voice, activated figures that light up or emit scary sounds and music. Look for pumpkin men, witches, vampires, black cats, and body parts like crawly hands.
- Paper or plastic masks, costumes, treat bags, and dolls.
If you’re thinking about increasing your collection, there’ll be some good buys at reduced prices after Halloween, and don’t throw away the items you have. You might have some vintage treasures like mine one day.
We had a pumpkin that said “Boo” when opened. Of course no child could resist opening it over and over ad nauseum. But one little boy jumped, screamed and ran for his life. As I understand it, he might be scarred for life. I got rid of the pumpkin.