In this YouTube video, Katt G. takes viewers on a nostalgic, decade‑by‑decade tour of Halloween decorating trends from the 1960s to the 2020s. She begins by contrasting the cheap, DIY‑centric Halloween of the 1960s—paper streamers, cardboard witches, and Ben Cooper mask‑in‑‑a‑box costumes—with today’s multi‑hundred‑dollar displays like a 12‑foot Home Depot skeleton. Each subsequent decade is highlighted as a distinct evolutionary step: the 1970s introduced durable plastic blow‑mold decorations; the 1980s saw the rise of licensed, character‑based merchandise and consumer‑driven retail; the 1990s split into gothic, mood‑ier aesthetics and Martha‑Stewart‑style home‑decor sophistication; the 2000s were defined by Jimmy Industries’ giant inflatables that made yards “bigger, louder, and animated”; the 2010s brought coordinated, Instagram‑ready looks driven by Pinterest and farmhouse trends; and the 2020s turned Halloween into a spectator sport with animatronics, projection effects, and viral installations like the 12‑foot “Skelly.” Throughout, Katt emphasizes that despite escalating costs and technology, the core of great Halloween décor is creativity, and she offers encouragement to recreate past looks on a modest budget. The video ends with a call for comments about viewers’ favorite Halloween decade, a plug for a detailed blog post with sources, and a teaser for a short on Skelly.
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Welcome back, friends. I'm calling out baby boomers, Gen X, millennials, and even Gen Z. Today we're talking about Halloween then and now, because it wasn't that long ago when Halloween used to cost just pocket change. Let's get right to it. Halloween used to cost pocket change. A paper skeleton taped to the door, One orange bulb glowing on the porch and one of those old-school Halloween costumes that came folded inside a cardboard box. Today, people will spend $300 on a single 12-foot skeleton. So I went decade by decade from the '60s all the way to right now to see what changed, what people were decorating with, what it cost, and most importantly, how we can steal the look without spending our entire Halloween budget on one skeleton. 1960s Halloween was basically a DIY project. Picture Halloween in 1968. Nobody is running to the store looking for a coordinated Halloween collection because it didn't even exist. Absolutely unheard of. You had crepe paper streamers, cardboard witches, and black cats taped to the front door. Paper skeletons, jack-o'-lanterns, and whatever else you could make with what you already had. And then there were those Halloween costumes in the box. You know the ones I'm talking about. The plastic mask with the tiny holes, that little stapled elastic string around the back of your head, and the costume that basically had a picture of the character you were supposed to be printed right across the front. I actually think I had one of these. Well, apparently a lot of those were made by a company called Ben Cooper, named after its founder, and Ben Cooper was huge in Halloween costumes back then. Which is funny because I had never heard the name Ben Cooper before in my life. But show me that plastic mask and that cardboard box, oh, I know exactly which one you're talking about. And somehow kids were walking around outside at night barely able to see through those tiny little holes. Different times for sure. But Halloween decorating itself was simple, inexpensive, and very much handmade, which means recreating this decade today might actually be one of the cheapest looks on this entire list.
Here you go, kids.
1970s. Plastic has entered the chat, where Halloween starts becoming a little more durable. Plastic decorations are everywhere. This is when those glowing blow molds really start becoming part of the Halloween landscape. Pumpkins, ghosts, witches, those hard plastic decorations with the light inside that somebody's grandmother probably still has stored in the basement somewhere. And honestly, those things were built to survive. Rain? Fine. Cold weather? Fine. Kid knocks it over? Stand it back up. Halloween was also changing because parents were becoming more cautious about trick-or-treating. Porch lights started becoming that unspoken signal that said, Yes, we have candy, and checking the kids' candy became part of the routine. But visually? This is when Halloween starts moving away from mostly paper decorations and toward things families could pull out year after year. And considering how collectible some of those vintage blow molds are today, apparently Grandma was making an investment and nobody even knew it. 1980s. Halloween discovers merchandising. By the '80s, Halloween figured out something very important. We will absolutely buy things if you put our favorite characters on them. If it was on television, in a movie, or somewhere in pop culture, chances are somebody wanted to wear it for Halloween. Store-bought costumes become much more popular. Licensed characters are everywhere. Halloween merchandise gets bigger, brighter, and a whole lot easier to find. And this is where Halloween starts feeling less like something you make entirely at home and more like an actual retail season. Stores realize people aren't just buying candy anymore. We're buying costumes, we're buying decorations, Halloween lights, we're even buying fake spider webs. We're buying stuff we absolutely plan to reuse next year and then somehow can't find next year. And honestly, this is probably where the role to the 12-foot skeleton begins. We just didn't know it yet. #Consumerism. 1990s, Halloween gets a personality. Now we're talking about the Halloween era I remember very well. The '90s are interesting because Halloween basically develops 2 completely different personalities. On one side, everything gets darker. Gothic style becomes more mainstream. Black candles, ravens, skulls, dramatic haunted house decor. Halloween starts looking moodier and even a little more sophisticated. And then Martha Stewart enters the room, and suddenly we aren't just carving pumpkins, we're arranging them, we're styling the table. There's gauze draped at an angle, there's candles and mood lighting. Apparently even the ghosts need ambiance now. This is when Halloween decorating really starts crossing over into actual home decor. My favorite. And suddenly there are levels to this Halloween styling. You can be spooky, you can be cute, you can be gothic, you can be elegant, you can have pumpkins that somehow look expensive, or you can be the house with one plastic pumpkin sitting on the porch because you forgot Halloween was Thursday. No judgment. But this is where Halloween really starts becoming less about Simply decorating for the holiday and more about creating the look. 2000s Halloween era, everything gets bigger because apparently somebody looked at the front yard and said, you know what this needs? Something 8 feet tall that plugs in. And this is where Jimmy comes in. Now, when I first saw Jimmy in my research, I was like, who is Jimmy? Is this a person? Did Jimmy personally decide our yards weren't dramatic enough? Nope. Jimmy Industries was founded in 1984, straight out of Texas, and still rolling today. Good job, Jimmy. They are the company that helped popularize the giant air-blown inflatable decorations in the early 2000s. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. The giant pumpkin, the ghost, the Frankenstein, the inflatable that looks perfectly normal at 8 o'clock at night, and then by morning is lying face down across somebody's lawn looking like Halloween took them out. And once those things caught on, there was really no going back. One inflatable became 3. 3 became an entire haunted graveyard. And eventually, somebody on the block had enough Halloween decorations plugged in at once that you started wondering what their electric bill looked like. And here's another random piece of information I learned while researching this. Jimmy also made Big Mouth Billy Bass. Remember that singing fish people used to have hanging on the wall? Yep. The singing fish people apparently also helped bring us the giant inflatable Halloween yard. I did not see that connection coming either, but the 2000s were really the beginning of Halloween becoming bigger, louder, and much more animated. Decorations moved. They talked. They lit up. They inflated. They deflated. Your neighbors either loved you or Quietly started checking the HOA handbook. Hey, we are halfway through and I already know somebody watching this has seen their entire childhood Halloween flash before their eyes. So tell me in the comments, which decade was your Halloween? Were you a cardboard witch on the door kid? A hardcore blow mold family? Did you have one of those plastic masks with the elastic string trying to take your ear off? Or did your parents eventually become the house with a giant inflatable taking over the front lawn? Tell me, because I read and respond to every single comment, and I genuinely want to know. Then we hit 2010s. Pinterest gets involved, and Halloween gets coordinated. Pinterest has entered the chat. Now the pumpkins match the pillows, the pillows match the wreath, the wreath matches the front porch, and somehow even the skeleton is staying within the color palette. Farmhouse Halloween becomes huge. White pumpkins are everywhere. Buffalo check makes an appearance. Neutral Halloween becomes a thing, which is honestly impressive considering Halloween spent decades convincing us the only available colors were orange and black. And the fireplace mantel? That is no longer just a mantel. That is a Halloween content opportunity. You've got candles at 3 different heights, a perfectly draped garland, 3 pumpkins placed casually but somehow very intentionally, and a little sign reminding everybody that it is, in fact, spooky season. Look at the house! This is when people start decorating not only for people coming to their house, but for the photo of the house. Halloween officially becomes Instagrammable, and this is also the era where decorating inspiration becomes available to everybody. You don't even have to wait for a magazine anymore. You can open Pinterest, search Halloween front porch, and 30 seconds later suddenly believe your house needs 12 pumpkins and a fog machine. 2020s Halloween becomes a spectator sport, which brings us to Halloween now. Meet Skelly. If you somehow missed him, Skelly is that 12-foot Home Depot skeleton that started appearing in front yards And basically became a Halloween celebrity. 12 feet tall. We have officially gone from taping a paper skeleton to the front door to requiring storage space for a skeleton taller than most ceilings. And Skelly is really just the beginning. Now we have giant animatronics, moving witches, talking monsters, projection effects, synchronized lights, fog machines. Entire haunted scenes. And Halloween displays so elaborate that people literally drive across town just to see them. Some houses have lines. Some displays go viral. Some people start decorating while it still feels like summer outside because apparently October is no longer enough time. Halloween decorating has officially become a spectator sport. And honestly, I kinda love it. Because people are incredibly creative. But I also don't think you need a $300 skeleton, 17 animatronics, and a fog machine power enough to shut down the neighborhood to make your house look amazing. Because when you look at every decade we just went through, the best Halloween decorating has always had one thing in common: creativity. The '60s had paper decorations. The '70s had glowing blow molds. The '80s gave us characters. The '90s gave us Halloween style. The 2000s blew everything up, literally. The 2010s coordinated it. And now, apparently, anything goes. And I think that might actually be my favorite part. So you'll have to let me know which Halloween decade is your favorite. Be sure to drop it in the comments. Whether you're team Falloween or team Halloween, I hope you learned something new today. This was fun for me and even nostalgic. Until next time, y'all. So there it is, more than 60 years of Halloween decorating right on the front porch. We went from paper witches and plastic masks to 12-foot skeletons and entire front yards that look like somebody hired a Hollywood production crew. And if you want to go deeper, I have the full Full Halloween history, including all of my sources, vintage inspiration, and more of the decorating trends over on the blog. I pinned the link for you below. And Skelly deserves his own conversation, so that section is coming as a YouTube Short later this week. So hit subscribe and you won't miss it.
