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 Tombstones
Build it
The star. Dead center on the front walk, 8 to 10 ft back from the porch steps. Pick something with actual sides to it, not a flat cutout. One of your two streets is going to be looking at the back of this.
|
2' H | 1 | $28 |
| B |
Lighted Graveyard Fence, 8 panels (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
8 pieces
Sidekick, left. This is 11 in. tall, so it is an edging rather than a barrier. Run it along the front of a bed to draw the boundary of the graveyard, and let the line of it curve. Lean a panel or two and leave a gap where something came through. It charges by cable rather than taking batteries, which is the good news and also the thing to remember: top it up in the afternoon on the 31st, because there is no swapping in fresh cells at eight o'clock.
|
11" H | 1 | $53.99 |
| C |
13 in. Ground Breaker Hands, pair (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
2 pieces
Sidekick, right. Put them in front of a tombstone rather than out in open lawn. Hands coming up beside a headstone tells a story; hands coming up in the middle of the grass just looks like somebody lost a glove. Push them in at different angles and scuff the grass around each one so the ground looks disturbed.
|
1' 1" H | 1 | $29.99 |
| D |
Green Solar Path Stakes, 10 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
10 pieces
Path and perimeter lights. Both edges of the front walk, then keep the line going along the side yard. Do not stop at the corner of the house. This run is the thing that ties your two street faces together.
|
1' 3" H | 2 | $51.98 |
| E |
17 in. Weathered Tombstones, 5 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
5 pieces
The corner moment. Use two stakes per stone, not one, and lean them at slightly different angles. They are foam, so a single stake turns the first windy night into a scavenger hunt. Vary the depths as well: a graveyard where every stone stands in a line looks like a car park.
|
1' 5" H | 1 | $23.99 |
| F |
Orange Incandescent Mini Lights, 300 count (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
300 pieces
Roofline and porch. One continuous run along both street-facing rooflines. Skipping the side roofline is the number one corner-lot regret.
|
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 $239.93 of decorations. Buy it once and it comes back out every year.