From homemade animatronics to carved pumpkins, here’s how Canadians are decorating this Halloween

Halloween is here, and Canadians everywhere are flexing their landscaping skills to create the spookiest displays for trick-or-treaters this weekend.

After the incredible displays we received last year, we asked Globe readers to share how they decorated their lawns this Halloween. From homemade animatronics to a return to low-tech pumpkin carving, here’s what you shared with us.

Halloween 2025: From haunted cornfields to monster houses, Canadians share their spookiest decorations

The restless graveyard

My wife and I have always loved Halloween and decided to start our haunt when we bought our home 20 years ago. The majority of our props and animatronics are handmade by myself, my wife, and son – we prefer to build our own rather than buying from retailers. This year we are also including an AI-powered animated skeleton that will have interactive discussions with our visitors. As I am in Quebec, I have bilingual audio for spoken words, and the controller plays each randomly. We receive over 400 children on Halloween night and hand out over 2,000 pieces of candy.

For us, Halloween is a passion, and we work year-round to make and repair props and then spend several weeks prepping the small space we have. It’s one of the best feelings to watch the kids try and figure out how something works and hear the older kids and adults comment on how much they enjoy the experience each year.

Kevin Thomson, St-Hubert, Que.

The joy of pumpkin carving

My Halloween decorations are deliberately old-fashioned and low tech – I love seeing real pumpkins carved and lit on Halloween. We usually have two or three pumpkins and we carve them with faces in a style the shape of the pumpkin suggests. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years. In our little mountain town, more and more people are decorating their lawns for Halloween.

Gayle Smith, Kimberley, B.C.

The corn patch takeover

We have been busy adding to our yard to get it perfect for Halloween night. The house and yard have been taken over by skeletons. This year, we added a spider maze to the yard and the clowns have taken over my little baking shed. We grew a bigger corn patch and pumpkin field and decorated it with a scary burlap family – there are scarecrows that jump when you’re not expecting it.

My husband and I continue to do this every year when we see how happy the kids are when they show up on Halloween night. I’m keeping a childhood love going as long as I can – thank God I have a husband who will indulge all my crazy ideas.

Trish Dagley, Voglers Cove, N.S.

A labour of love

My parents graciously let me decorate their lawn year after year in a cemetery-style yard display. Unfortunately, living in a condo doesn’t afford me the space to sprawl out.

I’ve always been inspired by creating something that appears realistic, like theatrical stagecraft (which I was in school for before I became a registered nurse), and the magical imagineering behind many Disneyland attractions.

For me, it’s all about the dramatic lighting! It’s a labour of love and it brings me so much joy.

Thomas Urquhart, Surrey, B.C.

A slam dunk display

My family (wife and two girls) were inspired by the WNBA expansion team Toronto Tempo, so we put together a basketball display this season. The Scream selling popcorn was a new addition, since we had popcorn when we attended a Tempo game.

Since we only have two skeletons, we had to take a scene from the sport into more of a 1:1 format. We imagined dribbling or shooting at a net, which we repurposed from another family that had it on the curbside. We enjoy when others can smile, point and take pics.

Trent Melton, Toronto