On any given October dark and stormy night, or even a bright and sunny October afternoon, you can find a number of skeletons, ghosts, and goblins lining the streets and yards of many local neighborhoods.
No need to panic, you have not entered any type of zombie apocalypse, but rather have stumbled upon one of the many homes with an over-the-top decoration display in celebration of the upcoming Halloween season.
Arguably, the Christmas season still holds the number one spot in holiday decoration sales and displays, but over the last decade or so, Halloween decorations have been slowly but steadily creeping up in popularity and sales.
According to the National Retailer Federation (NRF), U.S. consumers are expected to spend a record $13.1 billion on preparations for the upcoming 2025 Halloween celebration.
This is up significantly from last year’s spending of $11.6 billion; however, this year consumers will be faced with price increases due to the recent Trump Administration tariffs.
Although candy and costume purchases still hold the top two spots for the Halloween retail market, 78 percent of Americans are predicted to spend $4.2 billion on Halloween decorations.
Here in Massachusetts, the Town of Salem is historically linked to witches and ghosts and leans into their spooky heritage by decking out almost the entire town with decorations in celebration of Halloween.
This transformation from small New England town to full on Spookyville U.S.A. is truly a sight to behold, but there are plenty of local, “amateur” Halloween displays that evoke all the scariness of the Halloween season right in our local neighborhoods.
If you haven’t already driven by some of these spooktacular displays, the website Community Kangaroo can provide a map of the best Halloween decorations in many local communities, including Tewksbury, Wilmington, Billerica, Chelmsford, Andover, and many other neighboring towns and cities.
This website also provides information on upcoming holiday events within each specific community.
Maps of Halloween decorated residential spots can also be found on Facebook group pages, such as the Tewksbury Holiday Decoration group page.
Keep in mind that many of these Facebook group pages require you to be a resident of that particular community in order to join the group and have access to the page’s information.
If you really have a desire for a historically haunting time, a trip into the nearby Boston area will certainly provide plenty of opportunity to view some great residential Halloween displays that are scattered among some of New England’s most historic neighborhoods.
The Boston Calendar has compiled a list of neighborhoods that have seasonal displays that are well worth a drive-by and are located in such historically significant Boston areas as the South End, Back Bay, and Beacon Hill.
The nearby City of Cambridge also has many historical ties and rumored hauntings, and residents there also dive head first into providing over-the-top Halloween displays.
This is also true for other surrounding areas of Boston like Charlestown, Somerville, Melrose and Watertown.
Keep in mind that although some of these seasonal displays look professionally scary, they are done at the homeowner’s expense and are on private property, so visitors should be courteous and respectful of their surroundings at all times, and avoid being a nuisance for other residents of the neighborhood when driving by to take a peak at the display.
For a complete list of Boston area neighborhoods that are decorated for the Halloween season, visit www.thebostoncalendar.com.
To look up specific local displays by specific town names, visit www.communitykangaroo.com.