I know that a lot of people love to go bonkers over Christmas decorations. We have all seen movies such as Christmas Vacation and Deck the Halls with over the top Christmas decorations. Now I love Christmas lights and decorations as much as the next person, but what I really love is Halloween lights and decorations.

I typically get started on the first weekend October, although this year I got a bit of a late start. Not all of the neighbors are onboard, so it seems to go over better if I ease them into the decorations. You would think that everybody would love Halloween lights and decorations, but as it turns out, most people only like to see them one day out of the year. I don't see the problem with going all out and letting them shine for a few weeks.

I light to start by putting the big orange bulbs on the gutters. You can buy the little gutter hangers to easily hang the lights onto your gutters. If you put up Christmas lights on your gutters than you probably already know what I am talking about.

Once I get my gutter lights up I move on to the skulls. I am not quite sure where we found these Halloween skull lights, but I love them and so do the kids that come visit the house on Halloween. The skulls stick in the ground on little stakes and connect to each other just like Christmas lights. I only have five skull lights, but you can add as many as you like.

I also have a string of Jack-O-Lanterns lights. These lights are also on stakes and similar to the skull lights. In fact, I like to connect the Jack-O-Lanterns in one string with the skull lights to conserve my limited outlets. I use the Jack-O-Lanterns to line the patio to my house. This ties everything in nicely and keeps the kids out of my landscaping while they are trick or treating.

In the first phase I also get the interior lights up. I have a bunch of spider web lights that stick to the windows with suction cups. The spider web lights really create a cool effect from the street. Without these lights there would be too many dark or "bare" spots on the house. The spider lights can be a little tricky to hang on the windows the first time you do it. I have found that using some blue painters tape will help keep the spider web lights in place.

In the second phase of my outdoor Halloween decorations I create the cave. My house has a cover front porch that I like to turn into a cave. First, I use 3mil black plastic to create a side wall for the porch. I use a stapler to keep the black plastic in place. I also put black plastic on the entry and cut the plastic to create an arched cave entry.

Inside the cave, I line the ceiling with cotton spider web material. The cotton spider web can be tacked into place with staples and spread around to create a massive spider web that lines the entire cave ceiling. It is also important to add lots of light in the cave. I know that caves are supposed to be dark, but you don't want kids falling down the steps of you cave onto the pavement. To light the cave, I use orange rope lights and line the steps. From here you can add any sort of scary Halloween things that you can think of inside the cave. I always top my Halloween cave off with my fog machine. In my opinion, nothing says Halloween more than a dark cave with fog rolling out of it.