Halloween Tree

 Last night I climbed up the rickety stairs into the oppressive heat of our attic and brought down the orange and black totes stuffed with our Halloween/Fall decor.  (Note to self:  May want to rethink storing candles in the attic.)    My daughter excitedly helped me unpack everything and spread it out all over the kitchen table and floor.  In looking at the items and trying to decide how I wanted to decorate the house, I came to a realization. 

Halloween decor generally fits within 3 different categories: 
1) Cutesy  (Smiley jack-o-lanterns and black kittens wearing witch hats.  Anything with candy corn.)
2) Spooky  (Skeletons, witches, any black creepy animal not wearing a hat.)
3) Gruesome  (Severed limbs, life sized ghouls, zombies, anything with fake blood on it.)

Pumpkins are a great "neutral" and will go with any category as well as transition from Halloween to Thanksgiving.  Aside from the severed arm residing on top of the television, most of our Halloween items fall within the "spooky" heading.  I wanted to bring another "cutesy" element into our home decor this year and decided to make a Halloween tree.

I found this garden urn at the Goodwill this week for just a few dollars.

I pulled the table top Christmas tree out of the garage.

An almost perfect fit.

I ended up stuffing plastic grocery bags under and around the base of the tree to give it a better fit.  I added a string of white (green cord) Christmas lights and a Halloween garland of orange and black from Target.  I bought a pack of skeletons from Dollar Tree to add to the pair I already had.  The spooky sign and spiders were from our Halloween stash.  All I need now is to make a fabulous tree topper, add a few more ornaments and some spider webbing.

My kids think the Halloween tree is a little unusual (the word "odd" was used...) but I really like it--especially at night.   (Possibly a new Halloween tradition.)  What do you think?