5. The Spooky Floating Specters
Bring a hauntingly elegant, ethereal presence to your front yard with floating specters that drift silently in the wind. These ghostly figures are incredibly simple to construct yet offer one of the most striking visual impacts. Using chicken wire, shape life-sized human torsos and heads, or use foam mannequin heads as a base. Drape layers of fine, white cheesecloth or tattered gauze over the forms. To make them truly ghostly, coat the fabric in a mixture of fabric stiffener and glow-in-the-dark paint, or spray them with outdoor weatherproofing spray so they retain their shape throughout October.
Suspend these weightless phantoms from the branches of large trees in your front yard using strong, invisible fishing line. When the autumn wind blows, the lightweight gauze will billow and sway, creating the chilling illusion of spirits floating through the air. For an extra magical touch, tuck small, battery-operated, cool-white LED puck lights inside the heads of the ghosts, or illuminate them from below with blacklights. The UV light will react with the white fabric and glow-in-the-dark paint, making the specters radiate a brilliant, otherworldly neon glow against the dark night sky.