The essence of a spooky Halloween, one might assume, is a dark and spooky night.

If we are to have our fun among the ghouls, goblins and other scary trick-or-treaters, we need lots of darkness, right?

Except for this fact: How can we see what we want to scare us unless we have some light?
Scary, creepy, spooky light, but light just the same.

And let’s not forget that even though we want to be scared, we want all our little trick-or-treaters to be safe, so that’s another reason for lights.

Halloween, in pop-culture terms, is the new Christmas, what with all the hype, decorations and anticipation each year. And maybe in no other area is that more apparent than in the area of lighting.
Just like Christmas, Halloween is now a holiday of lights. Go to any store, any Halloween decor website, and you’ll see lots of lights. A generation or so ago, decorating for Halloween meant pasting up the ghost pictures your kids drew at school. Or, if you were the crazy Halloween nut on your street, you went whole hog and got noise machines, smoke machines and a moving mummy or two.

But the variety of Halloween lights makes setting up for the holiday easy for everyone. You can buy strings of mini LED lights – just like the ones on your Christmas trees – that are covered with the shapes of skeletons, pumpkins or bats.

You can get light-up Frankenstein or Dracula figures that stand up on little metal spokes on your lawn.
And if you want safety and spooky combined, you can buy light-up skulls on plastic stakes, designed to be staked along your walkway or sideway to guide the way for trick-or-treaters.

Safety is one of the biggest reasons to use lights, and a big issue when putting lights out in your yard. Consider these Halloween safety tips from The Yard Haunter, a Halloween decor website:

• Fasten outdoor lights securely to your house or other permanent structure to prevent wind damage.

• Look for cracked or frayed sockets before plugging lights in.

• Do not overload extension cords, and make sure they don’t run through any areas prone to standing water.

• Use no more than three standard-size sets of lights per one extension cord.

• In a home with small children, take care to avoid lights or light-based decorations that can break into sharp pieces.

A LITTLE LIGHT SHOPPING

OK, with safety out of the way, here are some examples of the fun Halloween lights now available out there in stores:

• Halloween Tree – Black and gnarled looking, this is a black plastic tree that looks something like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. It can be decorated with all manner of Halloween lights and bobbles. Stands 32 inches high and is available at HalloweenLights.com.

• Spider lights – Like Christmas icicle lights, these are shimmering, sparkling little spiders on light string for $24.99, also at HalloweenLights.com.

• Lamppost of Doom – The Nightscapes Halloween Light Up Lamp Post is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, with blinking lights, cobwebs and signs that warn “Beware” and “Go Back.” Can be staked into your lawn. Available at Walmart for $29.

• String of Halloween Skeletons – This light string has little full-body models of skeletons that practically dance on their wire while they light up. Costs $11 at Walmart.

• Franky says Light Up – An 18-inch whimsical light-up Frankenstein you can put on your lawn or in your window. Price: $10 at Target.

And besides buying your lights, HalloweenLighting.com recommends you put some thought into how you use them. You don’t want to overlight a graveyard scene in your yard, but you don’t want to under-light it either. And certain colors go well with certain spooky scenes, the website suggests, including: Blue light works well for ghosts and graveyards, while green light is good for swamp, marsh, mad scientist or sci-fi type arrangements. It’s what the website calls “The X Files” look. Red is eerie and demonic, good for vampires, devils and witches.

But no matter what colors you choose, this Halloween you have plenty of options if you want to light up the night.

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at: rrouthier@pressherald.com

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