My favorite Halloween decoration is simple (and easy to make)

My Halloween decorating may seem a bit over-the-top to some muggles.

Around the autumn equinox each year, I start transforming our fireplace into a witch’s hearth, complete with potion bottles, a spooky skull, and witch legs coming down the chimney. My 7-year-old daughter was excited to add a broom this year — to make it look like the witch pushed it down first.

Next comes the outdoor decor (see some videos), which includes:

• Swirling, fire-and-ice lighting in purple, red and green
• A lifesize witch silhouette, built by my dad
• A projected witch video by AtmosFX in our bay window
• And, I’m sorry to say, a zombie-pirate inflatable. Which completely spoils my witch theme, but the 7-year-old loves it.

All of those help get me in the spirit, but my favorite decoration is a bit more sentimental: A simple display of photos.

I first read about this idea in “Happier at Home” by Gretchen Rubin — which is all about making your home a happier, more comfortable place. The book came out in 2012, but it seems especially relevant during our home-bound age of COVID.

In the chapter about possessions, Rubin said she created a Halloween photo gallery of her daughters in costume over the years. This was a seasonal gallery, so her family paid more attention to the photos while they were on display for a short time.

I started our family’s Halloween gallery right around the time my daughter was born. I bought a bunch of black frames at Big Lots and filled them with pictures of Halloween past, which were hidden away in photo albums.

My daughter is most fascinated by the photo where I’m dressed up with a warty witch nose, prosthetic chin, and green face paint. Someday I will explain I was dressed as Sarah Palin.

Year by year, we have added photos to the gallery, starting with her ladybug costume as a 3-month-old, followed by cupcake, strawberry, Minion, knight, police officer, cowgirl, and construction worker. She’s still undecided about 2020.

The gallery sits prominently in our family room, right under the giant TV screen — a modern fireplace mantle for our digital world.

Unpacking these photos each September brings so much joy. Perhaps creating your own Halloween gallery will do the same for you, too.