Halloween Decorations Everybody Had

If you grew up in the 80's and 90's you will remember that when houses that decorated for Halloween, it typically wasn't an extravagant ordeal like you see today with intricate lawn ornaments and electronic monsters.  During the month of October, I remember walking home from school and noticing more and more houses get in the spirit and decorate their windows as the month progressed.  That's right, people used to dress up their windows so that spooky decorations would face the outside world and put a smile on  anyone who appreciated the holiday.  Most of the time, these decorations were flat cardboard cutouts with the same image on both sides.  Sometimes you would see a shiny raised plastic decoration that stood out.  However, the most common and (in my opinion) the coolest decorations were not extravagant pieces of art at the time but they evoked the essence of Halloween, usually in the form of monsters and jack-o'-lanterns. Eventually some of these made their way into the classroom, back when everyone understood that Halloween at school was just a day for kids of every denomination  to dress up and have fun, those were simpler times.  Below are the most common Halloween cardboard decorations in the USA (at the time).

Cat Sitting on a Moon

      This was probably the most widespread and commonly used decoration.  It depicts a black cat outlined in green for some reason, sitting on the large nose of a crescent moon.  Both the kitty and the moon have a very friendly demeanor and couldn't scare anyone if their paper lives depended on it. If it wasn't for the color scheme, this decoration could be used in a baby's sweet nursery.  

Witch

This decoration was also pretty common during the 80's and 90's. There were several variations on the witch but this specific green faced witch seemed to be the favorite at the time.  The witch has long been a classic symbolic representative of Halloween.  Other than The Wizard of Oz, I've only seen green faced witches in cartoons.  In fact, when I was younger I was slightly annoyed that the Sea Hag in Popeye never wore the pointed hat.  She looks like the PERFECT witch, if she would only take her doo rag off and wear this hat!

(Flaming?) Skull

Before you start thinking of offensive jokes, finish reading this section.  This skull is a little more on the creepy side compared to the previous examples.  It somehow is alive and has eyeballs staring right at your face.  Maybe there's a scared raven in there nervously hiding from the witch above.  The skull is surrounded by a yellow fire-looking border outline. If I recall correctly, the yellow part glows in the dark so I'm assuming the border is supposed to be fire. Maybe by adding the eyeballs, the company that made this was able to dodge any Ghost Rider copyright infringement.  Ok, now you may think and smile at any dumb flaming skull jokes that come to mind.  

Skeleton

This pose able skeleton was also on a lot of windows and classrooms.  There were two variations, the standard pictured above and a glow in the dark version which was yellowish and rough to the touch. No matter how this skeleton was posed, as soon as someone saw it, they would play with it and re arrange it in a different pose.  Every time.  If I had a time machine, I would first remember to tape that behind the scenes special of Barney and Friends and then I would travel back to the 80's and figure out a way to monetize this obsession with rearranging decorative cardboard skeletons.  Some teachers tried to use this skeleton for anatomy lessons during October.  Fools! All we could think of was the class Halloween party, trick or treating or Daniel Laruso getting beat up after the dance in The Karate Kid. 

Jack-O'-lantern Ghosts

This is another kid friendly yet festive Halloween decoration meant to inspire humor.  Upon closer inspection however, this brings nothing but confusion.  This piece has two laughing ghosts taking the top off a jack-o'-lantern while an awesome looking haunted house is centered on a full moon in the background.  The ghost doing the lifting of the top has a bow on, which by 80's logic mean he is a boy ghost.  80's logic also dictates that since the other ghost does not have eyelashes, he is also a boy ghost.  So we have two dead spirits one lifting the top and the other poking the jack-o'-lantern with its translucent finger.  Logic from any decade can not tell us why they are doing this to the jack-o'-lantern and why he or she is smiling while they do it.  Were they checking it for freshness? Were they just being bullies?  I may possibly write a short story on what is transpiring here  and the events that led to it.   I feel that the haunted house in the background does not get enough attention from passersby because they are looking at the silly ghosts possibly defiling the jack-o'-lantern.  I remember we had this specific decoration and remember looking at it and not knowing what exactly was going on but finding it silly since everyone is happy.  I really like that haunted house and I never want to type out "jack-o'-lantern" ever again.

It's nice to be reminded of  the humble beginnings of Halloween home decoration.  If it wasn't for the popularity of these and other Halloween ornamentation, we would not have the quality (and quantity) of decorations that proliferate along the homes and yards of America.  This is another solid example of why the 80's and '90's were the best decades for kids to grow up in.  Also, Elvira.