Americans love Halloween. Or should we say, Americans love to spend money for Halloween. The National Retail Federation estimates that in 2024 collectively we’ll spend $3.8 billion on decorations, $3.8 billion on costumes, $3.5 billion on candy and sweets, and a paltry $500 million on greeting cards.

With all that cash flowing, where do those decorations end up? Likely in your neighbors’ yards (and if you are honest, maybe in yours, too).

So who is going all out this year? We sent our reporters into Oakland County’s neighborhoods to find out, and here’s what they found.

ROYAL OAK

“I get a little carried away,” said Dennis Murphy of Royal Oak, describing his Halloween display on Maplegrove Avenue, in the area of Woodward and Catalpa.

Skeletons are crawling up the front of the house. The yard is filled with zombie babies and other figures. Six projectors create spooky videos on the windows and walls of the home.

Murphy makes some of the items in the display himself, using windshield wiper motors and PVC pipe.

He started doing the displays about 25 years ago when his children were young. His daughter, Mackay, now helps him put it all together.

“Every year we add something new,” he said. “I’m running out of room.”

He’s motivated to keep doing the displays by people who come back every year and tell him how much they love it.

Every year, he and his wife, Lori, give out full-size candy bars to trick-or-treaters.

They’ve given away as many as 250 bars in one Halloween. Last year, even with inclement weather, they had about 150 trick-or-treaters.

— Anne Runkle

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WATERFORD TOWNSHIP

For 31 years Victoria and Steve Fage have used lights, beads, gargoyles, a host of skeletons and other props to decorate the two yards they own on Lochaven Road for Halloween.

The Lochaven Haunted Halloween House in Waterford Township has its own black-and-orange sign. Visitors walking through the displays will find spots, like an old hearse in one spot and airplane seats in another where they “can sit and have their own Kodak moment with a selfie,” Steve said.

There’s enough space for multiple themes and what he calls “moving art-in-progress.”

Victoria Fage, 52, said they started with Halloween backyard parties and used a display so guests could find their house. In those days, the street was a dirt road. Now it’s paved and more people stop by. Some friends dress up to gently scare visitors.

“We don’t like to scare the little kids because then they don’t want to come back,” Steve said. “But we see everyone from infants to 90-year-olds.”

They also see people who visited as children and are bringing their own children to experience the fun.

Steve, 57, said it’s best to come just before dusk so little ones can see displays light up as the sun sets.

They plan the display’s footprint each September and spend three weeks in October setting it up. This year’s show includes 1,000 feet of fence and $500 worth of corn stalks and straw.

It’s free to visit; a donation box is used to support a different charity each year, Victoria said.

Steve sums up the reasons they decorate every year: “Passion, smiles, happy people.”

— Peg McNichol

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CLARKSTON

For Brandon Guelde and his wife, Brenda, it started with one Halloween skeleton and grew from there.

The couple had purchased Brandon’s grandmother’s house on Church Street near Buffalo Street in Clarkston in May 2023 and he spotted a “giant pumpkin guy” online and wanted to put it up in the yard.

“My wife said, ‘If you get the orange pumpkin guy, you have to go all out,’ ” said Guelde. “So it was a done deal and I went from there.”

Eighteen months later for his second Halloween, Guelde has a yard filled with gargoyles, cornstalks, spiderwebs and headstones, with giant pumpkin guy at the center of it all.

This year he added remote sensor lighting, spotlights and a witch on the roof for the full Halloween effect.

Guelde has filled out his entire front yard, porch and roof with the decorations over two weekends and has received rave reviews from both young and old alike.

“The word got out in my daughter’s kindergarten class about what we put up and (the kids) asked their parents to drive by and check it out and they loved it,” said Guelde. “Neighbors and people just walking by said they love what we have done.”

Although his grandmother, Geraldine Sawyer, has not seen in person what Brandon has transformed her former home into, she has seen pictures.

“He has sent me several pictures of it and it looks fantastic and he absolutely loves doing it,” said Sawyer. “Brenda does the front porch and it is a joint project and they love doing it.”

Guelde, a mechanical engineer, estimated he has spent over $2,000 on decorations so far and he is not done yet.

“I want to put a zip line in and have a ghost flying back and forth from the house to the tree out front and I have a few other ideas I am working on,” he said. “It is just a fun thing to do every year.”

For Guelde, the work that goes into transforming his property every year is worth it.

“I get a ton of enjoyment out of how much enjoyment other people get,” said Brandon.

— Matt Fahr

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COMMERCE TOWNSHIP

Check out Chateau Road off Benstein Road in Commerce Township for an extraordinary Halloween display.

The massive creation of homeowner Jeff Leininger — covering his front and side yards — is an eclectic showing of all things ghoulish to celebrate the spooky season.

“I like making things,” Leininger said. “I do it for my own pleasure” noting that the display has been growing year-by-year since he and his family moved into the home in 1998.

If people get a kick out of it, that makes it even better, he said.

Many of the elements are animated by windshield wiper motors, including a creepy girl on a swing, a vomiting ghoul, a corpse-like creature that seemingly springs to life on a stretcher, and another who meets his fate in an “electric” chair.”

There are also skeletons galore, skulls, a massive, hairy spider with a spiderling-filled web, a giant werewolf, a tomb-filled cemetery, and a “toxic waste” site among many others. One of the ghouls is adorned with real human hair, donated to Leininger by his brother who shaved his head in support of a loved one’s fight with cancer.

Beth, his wife, helps find ideas for display and always gifts him with something Halloween-themed for their wedding anniversary which is in early October, he said.

Leininger, a lieutenant and firefighter/paramedic with the Commerce Township Fire Department, estimates he’s spent around $3,000 on materials and countless hours so far to build his extravaganza.

Each year it takes about a week to set it all up — which he typically starts on Oct. 1. Nov. 1 is tear down day. After a drying out period in the garage, Leinenger stores it all in various spots — an attic garage, his basement, a treehouse fort from his kids’ childhood days many years ago, and a shed.

“(Storage) was full last year, and since I added three more things this year, it could be a problem… I’ll probably have to build another shed,” he said.

— Aileen Wingblad

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OTHERS

FARMINGTON HILLS

Simone Elatab was outside her home on Rutgers Drive, in the area of Nine Mile and Haggerty roads in Farmington Hills, when she heard someone laughing. It turns out that neighborhood children were taking photos of her elaborate Halloween display, highlighted by a family of skeletons sitting around a bonfire in a cemetery. “It just makes me happy,” she said. “I love Halloween. I’ve been doing this for years. Nobody on the street decorates. It’s sad. So I just figured, go big or go home.”

— Anne Runkle

FARMINGTON HILLS

Tracy Collins of Farmington Hills spends about a week on the Halloween decorations outside her home on Middlebelt Road between 10 Mile and 11 Mile roads in Farmington Hills. It draws a lot of attention from students at the nearby East Middle School. “I like when kids come to trick-or-treat and it makes them happy,” she said. Collins has acquired Halloween decorations over the past 10 years, The city of St. Clair Shores awarded her display at a previous home. This will be her third Halloween in Farmington Hills. Hundreds of lights outline the house. Whimsical inflatable characters – taller than the house – occupy the lawn. It won’t be long before her husband, Rob, will spend two to three weeks putting up their Christmas display.

— Anne Runkle

FARMINGTON HILLS

A large, black Grim Reaper forms an arch over the path that leads to the front door of the Menzel home on Brandywine Road, in the area of Farmington Road and 12 Mile Road in Farmington Hills. The reaper is joined by large, inflatable monsters and other creatures on the front lawn. “Neighborhood kids come by; they’re always so excited,” Jessica Menzel said. The Menzels’ own children, ages 8 and 11, also find joy in the display, she said.

— Anne Runkle

ROCHESTER

For the house on University Drive just east of the Henry Ford Health Rochester Hospital, one homeowner has adjusted his set of giant skeletons with Detroit Lions jerseys to celebrate the team’s recent successes. Over the years, this home has been a highlight of the Halloween season, with 2023 featuring an assortment of giant clown skeletons.

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OTHER READER FAVORITES

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP
The Crypt, 4060 Quillen Ave., east of Seebaldt Avenue.
Baybrook Haunted Cemetery, 3650 Baybrook Drive, between Watkins Lake Road and Terness Avenue.