Do it yourself Free
One weekend, a sheet of plywood and some string lights. Costs almost nothing and still stops traffic.
| Spot | What to get | How big | How many | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A |
Plywood Bigfoot
Build it
The island. As far back as the yard allows, half behind a shrub or the corner of the house, turned about 20 degrees off the street. Put the spotlight on the ground behind or beside it and never in front: lit from the front it is painted plywood, lit from behind it is a shape you are not sure about.
|
6' 4" H | 1 | $57 |
| B |
Bigfoot Crossing Sign, etched steel (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
Sidekick, left. One sign, at the front edge of the lawn on the side people approach from, facing the road like real signage. It stands about knee high, so it has to be close enough to the sidewalk to read. Set back on the grass it is just a shape.
|
2' 5" H | 1 | $39.95 |
| C |
Hanging Bats, 24 pack, five sizes (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
24 pieces
Sidekick, right. Elastic loops, so they hang off what is already there: a porch edge, a fence rail, a low branch. Hang the big ones low where somebody walks past them and the small ones high. All twenty-four in one place reads as a trash bag caught in a tree.
|
10" H | 1 | $18.99 |
| D |
Solar Path Light Stakes, 10 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
10 pieces
The loop lights. The outer edge of the front arc only, from one entrance around to the other. Set them back 2 ft from the sidewalk. Anything closer gets clipped by a tire the first time somebody swings wide.
|
1' 3" H | 2 | $49.38 |
| E |
Orange Incandescent Mini Lights, 300 count (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
300 pieces
Roofline and porch. Full gutter line plus the porch columns. The loop pulls people closer to the house than a normal walk does, so the porch detail actually gets seen here.
|
2" H | 2 | $51.98 |
2 things need an outlet, about 2.2 amps all together. That all fits on one 15 amp circuit, you are fine. Outdoor GFCI outlets only, and leave a drip loop in the cord at every plug so rain runs off instead of in.
You will also need
The cord is the part everybody forgets, and stores run out of them at the peak of every season. Outdoor rated only, and plugged into a GFCI outlet.
- 1× 25 ft Outdoor Extension Cord, 16 gauge (opens in a new tab) 2 plug-in pieces across 1 spot $16.98
- 1× Outdoor Timer with Photocell (opens in a new tab) Switches the whole display on and off on its own $14.98
About $31.96 of hardware, on top of the $217.30 of decorations. Buy it once and it comes back out every year.