Halloween yard decorations in 2022 struck me as different. I didn’t remember ever seeing as many skeletons and macabre creatures “inhabiting” our neighborhood. Whimsical, scary artifacts that poke fun at death were everywhere to be found, and the old-time favorites – jack-o’-lanterns, ghosts, and witches – were lost among a multitude of surreal and spooky yard displays, in which death was the main attraction. And many of those, as well as new ones, reappeared in the following year.
This proliferation was no doubt an indication of commercial success; the product of enterprising and creative manufacturers, who captured the market with “new and different” Halloween merchandise. Indeed, when I checked Amazon Prime most recently, I found seven pages of companies listing “Horrible Skeleton Props and Outdoor Decorations.” I wondered when this change started, and it seemed a strange coincidence when it first caught my attention in the fall of 2022, as the pandemic began to retreat, and the quarantine to ease off… An amusing Halloween treat to capture on my iPhone.