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McGregor home is a frighteningly fun destination each Halloween

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Halloween is Anne Kruse’s favorite Halloween. She decorates her and husband Jerry’s McGregor house inside and out each year, and also plans an elaborate themed party. (Photo by Audrey Posten)

This hand made witch had a crash landing on Anne Kruse’s porch. Kruse finds many decorating ideas on Pinterest.

These skeletons crawl on a structure next to the Kruse home on Walton Street.

This year’s theme is Egyptian, and Kruse has been busy creating a sarcophagus and hieroglyphics. There will also be a mummy and Egyptian queen.

Kruse typically starts decorating in mid-September. “Although, if I’m making things that are more involved, I’m planning them well in advance of that,” she remarked.

“We don’t do a lot of gore," Kruse said of the decorations. "Halloween is supposed to be fun."

By Audrey Posten, Times-Register

 

“Halloween was always my favorite holiday,” said Anne Kruse. “When I was a kid, I went to a few Halloween parties that my friends’ families put on, and they were really cool.”

 

Now, it’s Kruse’s McGregor home that’s become a frighteningly fun destination.

 

Anne and her husband Jerry have lived at their historic Walton Street house for five years. The ghosts floating in front of the porch railing are one of the trademarks. 

 

Creating them was fairly simple: a styrofoam ball head, fabric, string and a metal post. 

 

“I’ve had ghosts on my lawn since the late-90s. They’ve been with me for a long time,” said Kruse.

 

Spiders cling to a fence in front of the ghosts and witch hats hang from the porch, blowing in the breeze. 

 

On another section of the porch, a witch made a crash landing. Kruse stuffed green and black striped legs into a foam filled bin that, when lighted, looks like the witch is in a frothy cauldron.

 

Half a dozen skeletons climb a structure next to the house. But that’s not all.

 

“In one of the windows upstairs, I’ve got bat shades and put a green light behind them. I’ve also got a ghost that goes in the third floor window with a strobe light on it so people can see it from the street,” Kruse shared. “I just keep adding to it.”

 

Inside, skeletons are plentiful.

 

“Since we started doing parties here, I put skulls on the lights. There was a great year for really cheap skeletons at the Dollar Store, so I cut the backs off and split them so I can put skeletons on all the lights,” Kruse explained. “On the stairway going up, I have silhouettes of rats. There are flickering lights next to all of them.”

 

Kruse said some of the items actually came from Martha Stewart.

 

“She had print out things you could cut out,” she quipped.

 

Most decorations are hand made. Crepe paper is a favorite material.

 

“I take the architecture of the house inside and use that to create a feel. A lot of times, I use black crepe paper to create heavy curtains on either side of the doorways and use poster tape to stick all the stuff up,” Kruse said. “I hang cheese cloth ghosts and, one year, I took light up, remote operated candles and hung them through a corridor by fish line to make floating candles.”

 

“All that stuff I found on Pinterest,” she added. “It has a lot of very good ideas for things you can make.”

 

The Kruses host a large Halloween party at their home each year, and Anne is inspired by a new decorating theme each time. Past themes have included witches, spiders and skeletons. 

 

“Last year, we did The Masque of the Red Death because of Covid and really scaled the party back because we were trying to be sensitive and make sure people were safe party-goers,” Kruse said.

 

One of last year’s creations was a coffin, crafted from a large cardboard box for a shelving unit.

 

“Just about everything is hand made out of recycled materials,” she said. “I’d be on the treadmill staring at that box, thinking it’s a coffin.”

 

This year, it transitioned nicely into an elaborate sarcophagus for an Egyptian theme.

 

“I don’t know what I’ll do with the gold sarcophagus next year. I’ll save it and repaint it. A coffin will always come in handy at a Halloween party,” Kruse joked.

 

In addition to the sarcophagus, the Kruse home will sport a mummy, Egyptian queen and lots of hieroglyphics. Kruse has already been painstakingly stenciling the images onto pillars and cardboard blocks.

 

She typically starts decorating in mid-September. 

 

“Although, if I’m making things that are more involved, I’m planning them well in advance of that,” she remarked.

 

Party attendees don’t have to dress in the year’s theme, but Kruse said some people choose to do so. She just wants everyone to have fun.

 

“We don’t do a lot of gore. Halloween is supposed to be fun,” she shared.

 

While Christmas often gets a lot of decorating love, Kruse is happy to see other holidays claim some attention.

 

“Christmas can be a lot about the decor, but it is a very traditional holiday. Jerry actually does the Christmas decorating around the house. He likes to do the tree and all that,” she said. “But I like to see Halloween coming back—I like dressing up in costume, the macabre, Stephen King books and spooky stuff at night. For awhile, people were concerned about safety for kids and it kind of fell out of favor. But I think people have recaptured the fun of Halloween.”

 

In case you’re wondering, Kruse has a theme in mind for next year.

 

“Maybe I’ll do Day of the Dead,” she quipped. “I’m thinking about that already.”

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