2. COBWEBS: Put lots of fake cobwebs around - the more you stretch these out the more realistic they look. Hang the fake cobweb on doorways, railings and corners. You can adorn the cobwebs with fake plastic spiders. This is the best and least expensive decorating idea. The spider webs are available at most party shops during Halloween season and are very inexpensive. Use safety precautions around flame or electricity.

3. Old gray Sheets: Take old white sheets and wash them in black clothes dye. Rinse and wash them immediately so the sheets will look gray. "Tatter" the sheet edges and drape them over chairs and sofas for that "haunted house" look. This is also a great idea for keeping your furniture covered during a party. Make sure the sheets don't run colors if you are putting them on furniture.

4. Lighting: Soft flickering lights are available at your local hardware store. They come with a flame like fixture in the light bulbs. Replace regular light bulbs in your lamps with blue or red lights. Use a low wattage bulb. You could also but strings of decorative lights with plastic figures of pumpkins or ghosts around the house. Black lights are available at many store's with the Halloween stuff or in hardware stores. They add a really scary effect. You can buy glow in the dark paint and pens to decorate & draw signs. Be careful, these bulbs get very hot!

5. Ghosts: Helium balloons covered with old tattered sheets (see number 3) and painted with scary faces make great ghosts to bob in the corner of the room. When people walk by the wind moves them and seems to give them life. Draw ghostly faces on them with black a marker. Leave some with only eyes, and no mouth. You can also make use of plain white balloons with faces painted on them. Hang these together in a corner of your ceiling in groups of 3 or more.

6. Paper Chains: Cut orange and black construction paper into 1" by 5" strips. Tape or paste one orange strip into a ring. Thread a black strip through the orange ring and paste or tape it closed. Continue adding rings to the chain, alternating the colors. When your chain is long enough, drape it across a doorway or window. Paste a Halloween picture at each end of the chain where it is attached to the doorway or window. You can also buy orange & black streamers at party stores.

7. Ghostly Fog: Purchase dry ice. It is inexpensive and lots of fun. This emits a cloud of fog in the room and moves whenever someone walks by. Place chunks of the ice in a bucket of warm water to create fog in your house. CAUTION: Be sure to read all warnings that come with your dry ice. Dry ice can burn you if not handled with thick gloves. KEEP dry ice away from children!

8. Trick or Treat bowls: Giving Out Treats? Find something cool to put your treat's in. Cardboard coffins, spider webbed baskets or fake plastic skulls are great and inexpensive. Some fast food restaurants give out free plastic pumpkins at Halloween time. Put your treats inside a witch's cauldron with a green emergency light stick inside or any battery powered light. You'll have to reach your hand into a glowing, green skull in order to pull out the candy inside! Watch the kid's faces.

9. Windows: Add a little Halloween spirit to your windows! Remember there are lots of pages that you can color on this very web site and use to decorate your house. Go to the "Coloring Pages" section on this web site. Print out the pictures you like. Color them and hang them up. You can also cut figures of ghosts or black cats from black construction paper to hang in your windows to look like silhouettes.

10. Music: Don't forget to top off the mood with some scary music. Creepy Music. Some kids can be scared by the commercial creepy music tapes. It's more fun to record your own sound effects to be played at the party, plus it neutralizes the fear when kids are involved with the making of the tape. Record a series of slightly overlapping sounds, and at one point on the tape follow a few seconds of complete silence with a high pitched, hair raising, piercing scream. Some sounds to record: a creaking door; rattling chains; shaking aluminum sounds like a storm; heartbeat played on a drum; various moans, groans and ghost noises; heavy frightened breathing with a few "noooo. nooo"s thrown in; and indecipherable whispers. You'll be surprised at the creative ideas that come up once you get started.

11. Table setting: Take an old white sheet (see number 3). Rip or tear or cut the bottom edge into tatters. Then get a package of spider webbing and pull out the web until it covers the whole table. Pull down the edges and hang some plastic spiders. Buy a couple of rubber rats and put them between slices of bread on a plate. Now, take a piece of poster board cut to the shape of a gravestone and write out your menu with creepy letters. Use mini tombstones made from black cardboard to create individual place settings with guests' names. Be sure to visit the "Recipe's section" on this website for great Halloween recipes.

12. Table Centerpiece: You can make any type of centerpiece for the table that looks spooky. The centerpiece on the right was made with an inexpensive cardboard coffin from a party store. The coffin was assembled according to instructions. This takes less than 2 minutes. Than black & gray dried flowers were placed inside. Some black ribbon tied around the flowers completes the project. You can make a simpler centerpiece by just placing small pumpkins and guards in a bowl. You could also buy some small plastic Halloween pumpkins or ghosts or even cats and place them in the bowl also. Another idea is to buy an inexpensive witch's pot from a Halloween store and use that to place your small pumpkins in. Another idea is to use your candy bowl for the trick or treaters as a centerpiece.

13. Flowers: Don't flowers always brighten a room? For a real Halloween look you can gather some dried flowers from a garden and spray them with black paint and than let them dry. You can also purchase dried black & gray flowers from decoration shops at this time of the year. You will need a vase to put the flowers in. If you have a black vase use that, if not make your own. You could use a rusty old can if you can find one. Or you can buy an inexpensive witch's pot from a Halloween store and use that to place your flowers in. If you have a plastic skull that would look good also. Be creative, the idea is to have it look tacky & spooky.