JANESVILLE Skeletons and witches fill the yard and the roof of Gordon and Yvonne Whipples east-side Janesville home. Landscaping elements like flowers and trees are creatively tied in, too. Toward the front yard, skeletons hang upside down from flowerpots.
His wife is the mastermind behind it all, Gordon Whipple says. Every year, she comes up with a theme, even as shes battled health issues that recently put her in the hospital. She made sure the Halloween decorations at their home at 3821 Galaxy Dr. were done before she was admitted.
Two skeletons hang down over the front porch of Gordon and Yvonne Whipple at 3821 Galaxy Drive. The Halloween display has skeletons and witches posed throughout their front yard and porch.
She just loves Halloween, and she is just beyond creative, Whipple said of Yvonne, who until recently ran her own company, Creative Gardening, LLC. Its on pause for now while she focuses on her health.
He said it brings her great joy when kids come by on Halloween, and they ask about her decorations.
Around the city, others also take their Halloween d矇cor to the next level, saying they do it for their own joy and to make others smile.
The Pecks
At Laura Pecks home at 214 Mohawk Road, heads stick out of the ground and the yard is eerily cast with spooky lights, music and a fog machine.
The heads are the type once used by hairdressers to practice. Peck said she has not worked as a hairdresser. Theyre a carryover from when she and her family once helped set up Lincoln-Tallman House haunted houses in Janesville. When that annual event was discontinued, she happily took them.
Horror movie and other notable figures in Pecks yard include a possessed girl from The Exorcist, a guy in an electric chair, a mummy and a guy on an operating table. On Halloween night, she and her family get into the act, sitting in their front yard as part of the display.
Laura and Keith Peck work on adding more Halloween decorations to their front yard at 214 Mohawk Road in Janesville on Friday, Oct. 27. Their home features many former beauty school mannequins heads that seemingly rise out of the ground.
Peck said they make their costumes at home and always use makeup, never masks.
I love to be creative with my makeup, she said. Anything I want to dress up as, I always look up fun makeup and try to recreate it.
She said she also decorates for Christmas but with a toned-down more-religious and less commercial Birth of Christ theme.
The familys decorations are not meant to scare but draw kids in for some fun interaction, Peck said.
I love Halloween, she said. Anytime we see a little one we always shout little one coming so we know not to scare them.
She said she doesnt have a favorite decoration but her son does. He likes the guy in the electric chair which he has named Jerry.
The Kuhlows
Dawn and Dave Kuhlow, 1117 Lexington Dr., feature larger than life lighted Halloween characters in their display, including a 12-foot skeleton, a werewolf, a flying witch and a pumpkin guy.
The witch and the werewolf talk and howl.
The home of Dawn and Dave Kuhlow at 1117 Lexington Dr. features colorful, larger-than-life decorations that include a 12-foot skeleton, a werewolf, a flying witch and more.
Dawn Kuhlow said the first large lawn ornament they bought was the 12-foot skeleton. Things snowballed from there and they have been adding on every year, scoping out stores that put them out for sale as early as June.
She said they always decorated before that.
We just got taken in by the big ones, she said.
We are just looking to spread the joy of Halloween, she added.
She said its fun now to sit outside and hand out candy, as people stopping by comment on the decorations.
Its scary but not too scary, Peck said. A little girl who lives in the neighborhood makes her mom drive by our house so she can see the witch, and I just love that. It brought them joy and it brought us joy.
She said Dave is eyeing a big spider for next year; then their collection may be complete.
The Johnsons
The yard Meghan Johnson and her family have put together at 1910 Liberty Lane also has a 12-foot skeleton, skeletons carrying a coffin, a graveyard and feet hanging from trees and from the roof.
She said this is the first year they have gone so big. They always had a graveyard and some hanging things, but this year got the skeleton and had to decorate around it. She said she had seen it a couple of years ago and decided in August to buy it.
She said they went with their sons desire to have a scary theme this year.
He didnt want anything too friendly, is what he kept saying, she said. He really enjoys Halloween, sometimes even more than Christmas so we just decided to go a little overboard this year.
We have fun and we do it for the kids, she added.
She said it all began with some hanging decoration she picked up on a clearance rack years back and its been building since.
The Halloween Queen
Cyndie Hoiberg, 3515 Randolph Road, has been decorating her yard for Halloween for 65 years longer than many grandparents of current trick-or-treaters have been alive.
Trick-or-treaters walk past the decorated yard of Cyndie Hoiberg at 3515 Randolph Road in 2021.
That has earned her the local non-official title of Queen of Halloween.
She recalls her father starting to decorate their yard when was about 7 years old. Her children and grandchildren have grown up in that tradition.
A band called Aurelio Voltaire even wrote a song about her called Cyndie, the Halloween Queen.
She said her grandson now designs her displays every year and she brings them alive.
He is always coming up with crazy ideas, she said. He is telling us about different things we should do.
This year, for the second year, Hoiberg is hosting a costume drive so kids in need are able to dress up for trick or treating. She has started a Go Fund Me and has been collecting Halloween costumes.
To contribute or to donate costumes, call Hoiberg at 608-888-3553 or email her at hoiberghaunt@yahoo.com. Financial contributions can be made directly to the costume giveaway project or by dropping off costumes at Hoiberg’s home or at the office of State Farm Insurance agent Katie Myers at 4465 Milton Ave in Janesville.
Last year a little girl came over with tears in her eyes and said that she was told that she couldnt have candy because she didnt have a costume, Hoiberg said. That just broke my heart.
She said she enjoys making people smile and said Halloween is a huge part of her life. She has met like-minded people on Halloween Facebook groups. She makes some of her decorations and some have been donated to her.
I would spend my money on decorations and Halloween stuff, then food, she said. There is no greater feeling than how people feel when they see my decorations.
Laura and Keith Peck work on adding more Halloween decorations to their front yard at 214 Mohawk Road in Janesville on Friday, Oct. 27. Their home features many former beauty school mannequins heads that seemingly rise out of the ground.