10. The Haunted Shipwreck Cove
Set sail for a ghostly adventure by converting your front yard into a cursed, sandy cove where a pirate ship met its tragic end. Begin by creating a beach-like setting on a portion of your lawn. Lay down tan canvas drop cloths or scatter actual sand, and decorate the area with wooden shipping crates, old barrels, thick nautical ropes, and rusted anchors. Build a partial ship hull using cardboard or thin plywood painted to look like rotting, seaweed-draped wood, making it appear to rise out of the grass.
Populate your shipwreck with skeletal pirates dressed in tattered tricorn hats, striped shirts, and eye patches. Position one skeleton at a wooden ship’s wheel, another guarding a treasure chest overflowing with shiny gold plastic coins, beaded necklaces, and faux jewels, and a few more climbing up a rope ladder hung from a tree. Drape fishnets covered in plastic crabs, starfish, and seaweed over the entire display. Use deep blue and sea-green LED floodlights to wash the entire yard in an underwater glow, and play the soothing yet eerie sound of crashing ocean waves and creaking wood.