Choosing a World for your Skeletons – “Hair-Raising” or “Happy”?

How our Skeletons Began

I love to decorate for the holidays, both inside and outside. There’s a bit of a holiday lull from Labor Day to Halloween, so I take that time to plan my Halloween displays.

I’ve always been much more of a “Friendly Halloween Fan” rather than a fan of the scary decorations, and so I had focused in the past on friendly ghosts and pumpkins, and I hardly ever used skeletons. However, as people have started to use skeletons more in their outdoor decorations, some of those displays have become very friendly, and I finally decided that I could get on board with skeletons in my Halloween decorations.

My first foray into the skeleton realm was a single skeleton on our back door leading into the garage. I believe his first pose was that of a batter, as I had a kid’s plastic bat left over in our pool toy box. Later, my son, who pitched in High School and college, turned “Mr. Bones” into a pitcher, and changed his poses throughout the Halloween season to different parts of a pitcher’s delivery.

After that, I saw one article about a family in Florida who changed their skeleton decorations activities and accessories daily from painting the house, to sunbathing in the yard, etc.- so impressive! Also, I saw another family, who changed their skeletons often to show the progression of a courtship, all the way from internet dating, to engagement, wedding, and a new baby. I don’t have the link for the one I saw originally but KHOU recently featured a “Relationship” Skeleton Story” from Pearland, TX that is amazing.

These two sets of skeleton scenes were so inspiring that I decided to jump on board. (by the way, if anyone happens to have seen those Florida skeleton sequences that were changed each day, and you have a link, please message it to me, as I would love to see them again myself, and would love to share the link). I believe it may have been featured on “Today”.

I started my outdoor skeletons in the fall of 2020 at the lake house. Because of our location, I aim for displays that reflect lake life or the lives of our community members. Many of our neighbors were walking daily during the COVID “work from home” days , and it seemed like a holiday celebration would be a fun thing to do for the community. The above photo shows our first display. We change our displays weekly in the month of October. As it is still growing season here in Texas and our yard still needs to be mowed- we decided to take down our display Tuesday night or Wed. morning, and when the yard has been mowed, we put up the new display.

Our first display brought some neighborhood visitors driving by in their ATV. They stopped to tell us how much they liked the display, and their son, who was only about 3 years old, said to us “I like how they’re a family, and I like that they’re at the beach” Right then we knew that all the work was worth it.

In the display above, I dressed my skeletons in swim suits, the adult’s suits were our old suits, with a lot of pins, as their waistline is rather tiny. For the skeleton kids, I actually took a skeleton to “Carter’s” during their summer sale, and tried the outfits on the skeleton, and purchased swimsuits in largely 0-3, and 3-6 month sizes for the 36″ skeletons.

I put lights up in each scene, so that all skeletons and scenery would show up at night as well as during the day. I chose LED floodlights as they are less of a fire hazard. For my first year I went with white LED lights, they seemed to “call” every bug in the neighborhood, so I switched to yellow lights the next year. I staked each skeleton (using zip ties around the waist to keep them in an upright position or tied them to the chair with zip ties while anchoring the chair itself with tent stakes that were tied or zip tied to the chair. The skeleton dog and cat paws were tied to a tent stake and anchored in the ground or tied to the chairs. A good wind, can wreak havoc on a skeleton display, and because we are in hurricane season, we anchor our items as well as possible. (see links at the bottom of this post for items used or for similar items that are currently available)

This year will be our third year of putting skeleton scenes on display. Each year I try to do a least 2 new scenes, or two additional important features. This year I am attempting a “baseball game” for my skeletons – as my husband and son are both huge baseball fans and my son played into college – baseball has given us many good memories. I hope to share those good memories with others, and trigger the good memories others have regarding baseball.

I had a wonderful friend offer to help me with my skeletons for this year, as all the uniforms will need to be homemade due to the unique size and shape of the skeletons. Unfortunately, my sewing abilities equal those of a 7th grader in her first Home Ec. class. My friend and I have been using this holiday lull to design the the uniforms. Even the sewing pattern companies seem not to have ventured into the skeleton dressing business, so we are on our own. Luckily my friend is an excellent seamstress and she was able to design a pattern for the pants and belt and we made our first prototype of one of our team uniforms. We will be featuring the Astros of course, and we’ll choose an opposing team from the MLB teams who make playoffs.

After making the prototype (see above) , we decided to “switch gears” on uniforms and go with the Astros “retro” uniforms. We decided to try to imitate the original Astros Rainbow Uniform as that is the favorite of my husband and I, and also reminds us of one of the jerseys our son played in at college. Click the link to see the Astros Jersey and pants that we are going to try to represent, and please check in again to see our skeleton baseball game display, which will be on display here and in our yard soon after the MLB wildcard games. The opposing team uniform will more closely resemble the prototype above – except with the opposing team’s logo instead of that of the Astros.

If you are wanting to do skeletons in your yard for Halloween, I highly recommend that you get your skeletons asap each year, as some years I have traveled the entire greater Houston area to find some. This year I was smart and ordered most from Target in about August, and they were delivered to my door, in individual storage boxes! Yeah! Beware before buying that some skeletons are called “posable”, when they really just “dangle”. I have found “Pose ‘N Stay” or something similar in the title is an indicator of the skeletons will hold a pose and look best in yard displays. I have found Amazon’s “Crazy Bones” and Target’s “Hyde and Eek Boutique”, and Randall’s and Kroger’s Holiday Home Pose-N-Stay, along with the Party City’s posable skeletons to be the best, but please let me know if you find something as good or better. Also, even with the above recommended brands you may want to double check the ones you pick, to see that they do hold their poses, as some brand names feature both the “posable” and “dangling” kinds. Regarding size, I generally get the 5′ foot size for adults, and the 36″ size for children, with a few 18″ and 24″ thrown in for toddlers and babies. However, due to the 30+ skeletons needed for a “baseball game” I have decided to use all 36″ skeletons for the players (rather than the 5’ ones) as the smaller skeletons are about half the price.

I hope you come back to my website soon, as my next post will include the whole baseball skeleton scene, and will include information on finding the various items used, as well as tips and tricks to pose and secure your skeletons.

For those of you who prefer the hair-raising skeleton scenes – no worries – the tips and tricks apply to both skeletal “worlds”. Please let me see any skeleton scenes you do, in both the scary and the happy types, because I love seeing them all!!

Details and Origins

Skeletons and items to secure skeletons – for all scenes

5′ skeletons, 36″ posable skeletons, 24″ posable skeletons – Amazon’s “Crazy Bones” and Target’s “Hyde and Eek Boutique”, and Randall’s and Kroger’s “Holiday Home Pose-N-Stay”, along with the Party City’s posable skeletons

60″ Hyde and Eek Posable skeletons ‘ skeletons – Target online – these are the larger skeletons that I usually order between July and September and have delivered they usually are available in the stores at a certain point but I find it much easier to buy online, as they are often sold out in the stores.

36″ Hyde and Eek Posable Skeletons – Target online – these are the smaller skeletons that I usually order between July and September and have delivered, they often are available in the stores at a certain point but I find it much easier to buy online, as they are often sold out well before Halloween in the stores.

zip ties – 14″ and longer recommended.

14″ zip ties

18″ Zip ties

tent stakes

For Beach Scene above-

Swimsuits – our old swimsuits for adults, and for the 36″ skeleton size -new swimsuits of a newborn, 0-3 or 3-6 month size from Carter’s or other store or thrift store that carries swimsuits for babies

folding chair – Walmart

Beach Toys – Target, Walmart, Dollar Tree – in season

For Baseball Division Championship game premiering at our house on October 12

baseball cap/helmet- local Party City for local teams, partycity.com or collectible-supplies.com for other mlb teams,

Baseball pants and belts – homemade

Team logos for the shirts – cut from MLB teams Baseball fabric from Joann’s, Hobby Lobby and Amazon (Joann’s stores usually carry local teams only, while Joann’s online, Amazon, and Hobby Lobby online carry a wider selection of team fabrics. search on team name, and MLB cotton fabric. You may want to avoid the cotton fleece fabric as it is not as suited to appliqués as the cotton (of a non-fleece type) or broadcloth fabrics are.

more baseball scene info coming in the post “Astros MLB Baseball Playoff has a “Thrilling and Chilling” Start”

Posts I Hope You Will Enjoy!!!!!

Astros Skeleton Team has a “Thrilling and Chilling” Start

The Astros Skeleton Baseball Game – Held Over By Popular Demand

Link Parties and Blog Hops 

I often participate in Tablescape Thursday at betweennapsontheporch.net, Please click on the link to see this website of one of my favorite bloggers – I especially love her “Tablescape Thursday posts” which are all about tablescapes and her tablescape post is followed by photos and links for many other wonderful tablescapers.  Her “Metamorphosis Monday” posts, which are all about “Befores and Afters” – is another favorite of mine. 

I also often participate in Marty’s “Inspire me Tuesday” link party at “A Stroll Thru life” I hope you can check out her website and her Tuesday link party which is followed by photos and links for many other ideas from her followers.

Recently I started following Katherinescorner.com. I frequently join her TFT blog party. The TFT – Thursday Favorite Things blog hop contains links on many topics with lots of great ideas. To get there click on the preceding link and go to her website and they check out her most recent Thursday – TFT post. At the bottom of the post, you will find many of her followers’ ideas. 

Recently I discovered the Imparting Grace blog, and I am really enjoying it. To get to this website click the preceding link and look for the “Grace At Home Blog party” which begins some weeks on Thursdays.

I have also started following SouthernSunflowers.com and recently joined their “Home Matters Link Party”. It begins each week on Thursdays. I hope you can check it out.

Very Recently, I started following KarinsKottage.com, and I am loving her blog as well, and can’t wait to see her Italian Castle remodel! I often participate in her Linky Party on Wednesdays . 

I have also started following EclecticRedBarn.com and am loving the “Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop” and I am sharing on it on Wednesdays. 

In addition I really enjoy Lifeasaleowife.com and share on the “Crafty Creators Link Party” on Thursdays. 

This year, for my first time, I have joined the “Home Imagined Link Party” at Masterpiecesofmylife.com. I love this website, and the hostesses and other contributors have some great ideas! To get to the home page, use the above link and then scroll down to “Home Imagined Link Party” and click on it to get to the Link Party page. A new link party is posted every other week. 

I hope you will enjoy visiting these wonderful bloggers on the above websites as much as I do!

I also wanted to share that my “Drawing Disney” tablescape was shared recently on the “Crafty Creators” Link Party. It was such a nice surprise to see that Nikki had shared that tablescape with her many readers. Thanks Nikki! 

Comments

I’m so glad you stopped by. If you have a minute, I’d love for you to leave a comment about our skeleton, or about your Halloween decorations and celebrations!! The comment section is below (it usually appears below the related posts section and at the very, very bottom of my post). Thanks again for visiting!