The Halloween Tree

Ever since my earliest memories, Halloween was my favorite holiday. No doubt about it. Not even the family and presents of Christmas or the general Irish-ness of St. Patrick's Day with my family could hold a candle to October 31st.

Now, I started planning the decorations for my front yard on November 1st, nearly a whole year before Halloween. With all the anticipation and planning, I usually became anxious to start physically decorating in September, but my mother usually persuaded me to wait until the first weekend of October so our neighbors wouldn't think we were freaks. Whatever...

My yard has a teen-aged Bradford Pear Tree in it, and by October, the leaves are beginning to turn into a fiery red color sprinkled with a few harvest yellow leaves. Keep in mind that something has been interfering with the growth of my tree, causing the branches to be sparser and more spread out than normal, but that makes it an excellent tree to hang decorations from.

Halloween Tree Tutorial

Start by finding a tree that has low branches that aren't too large or too weak. Once the tree is selected, you can find assorted Halloween decoration that you can hang from the lower branches of the trees.

I usually start by disassembling these skeletons from the main garland so that they are all separate, and then I hot glue the tops of individual skeletons to all-natural hemp twine, and after allowing the glue to dry, I hang the skeletons from the branches.

Skeletons on garland.

Next, I like to find skulls to put on the tree. I had a garland much like the one shown below, and I disassembled the individual skulls from the rest of the garland and glued twine to the bottom of each skull, and after setting the skulls on the branch, I tie the twine underneath, securing it in place on the branch.

Skull garland

I also have some very nice flying witch decorations that hang, and they look very nice on the tree as well. Just find a sturdy branch and hang her.

I love this decoration!

Another great decoration to add is a braid of garlic. This website has a phenomenal tutorial on how to make a garlic braid, even though I don't usually make mine that large. You can attach the garlic braid to the tree by using twine.

Mine are usually about half this size

You can also hang bunches of dried flowers and plants for an earthy feel.

Another decoration that you can add that gives the tree a new level of creepiness is that fibrous spiderweb stuff. You know what I'm talking about. 

You can add in small spiders to the spiderwebs.

You can also find these realistic crows that you can easily attach to thicker branches. They come with wire attached to their feet, so all you have to do is wrap the wire around the tree.

From just a few feet away, these birds look creepily real

Those are my staples for my Halloween Tree, but you can find even more creepy decorations to put in yours, such as shrunken heads, bags of bones, ghosts, and carved turnips. Happy decorating!