If you plan to be camping during the Halloween season this year (which, let’s be honest, spans the entire month of October), you certainly don’t want to be the only undecorated site at your campground. That’s lame.
However, most of the items you use to decorate your home probably aren’t practical for a campsite -- they need to be plugged in, hung on walls, or set on mantels and shelves. So how does one properly embrace the Halloween spirit while glamping?
Check out some of my favorite Halloween camping decorations -- some of them are even good for decorating your home:
Lighting
In my personal opinion, lighting is one of the most important aspects of Halloween decorating. Your props aren’t that scary if they aren’t properly lit, so you must be sure to use the correct lighting to create an appropriate atmosphere for your decorations.
For a whimsical lighting experience that is perfect for families, check out these Halloween-themed Luci lanterns. I am a huge fan of Luci lights, simply because they are so convenient and affordable. Their original white lantern got my boyfriend, Ryan, and I through several pitch-black nights in a Costa Rican rainforest when our treehouse’s solar panels were conveniently covered by fallen leaves. Without our lucky Lucis, we would have been SOL. Lucis charge quickly in the sun and hold that charge for a ridiculously long 12 hours of use (when turned off, I have found that they can hold a charge for up to several weeks). On top of that, they are collapsible and inflatable, so they are easy to store and pack and almost impossible to break. Now they are expanding into different colors and fun patterns, like this Halloween line, and I am fangirling hard.
If you’re more into chills and thrills like I am, try illuminating your scary decorations with a few battery-powered strobe lights. When done right, the classic strobe light can be very effective in creating a spooky atmosphere, especially in the shadows of a dark, forested campsite….
If you’re just enjoying a chill Halloween with a group of friends, maybe decorate your site with some cute, chic string lights like these skulls or pumpkins. They set the mood without going overboard. Or DIY some floating, Harry Potter-esque candles to hang from trees... super cool!
You can also line the perimeter of your tent, site, or parking spot with path lights, like these adorable ghosts. For DIY-ers, try this fun path-lighting craft. I used this tutorial a few years back to light the stairs to our apartment door and the effect was enchanting!
Yard Decorations
Even if you lack walls and table-space, the one thing your site has plenty of is ground-space. For this reason, yard ornaments are a great go-to for Halloween decorations. Tombstones, zombie arms, giant spiderwebs, mischievous witches… the possibilities are endless.
Again, if you’re a DIY-er, you can create your own cool yard decor, like this chicken-wire ghost (you could make it of any size), or any of these awesome crafts (the one with the toilet roll and glowing eyes would be perfect to stick in trees and bushes around your site).
Hanging Decorations
If you have trees around your site, you can hang decorations too. Aside from your standard ghouls and ghosts, you could also hang bats, severed body parts and fake weapons, or this incredibly disturbing severed doll head craft that could be easily adapted into a garland using battery-powered string lights and some hot glue.
Please stop. You’re scaring me.
And of course, where would we be without the oldie-but-goodie: fake cobwebs. The tiny $1 webs in Target’s little cheap section are literally the best cotton-based webs I’ve ever used, and one box goes a LONG way. Now that I have discovered them, I will never buy the overpriced webs from Halloween stores ever again. Also, this year we finally invested in something I have wanted for a long time: the Webcaster gun. And it did not disappoint. It’s essentially a hot glue gun that you hook up to an air compressor so that it shoots thin threads of web-like glue. The results are insanely realistic -- as the pizza delivery girl said of our webbed courtyard area: “I thought either you guys were super gross people, or you were just really good at Halloween decorations.”
Thanks, Jessica.
Just be sure to pick up after yourself and collect your webs - along with all of your other decorations - at the end of your trip.
Decor
For adults who aren’t so much interested in Halloween decorations as Halloween decor, I of course recommend the Target Halloween line, complete with adorable throw pillows and chic wreaths.
For more of my favorite Halloween glamping decoration ideas, visit my Pinterest inspiration board here, or visit this page to read about some great Halloween camping activity and food ideas. And of course, HAPPY HAUNTING.
