There was a time, not so very long ago, when I felt like I had enough time to concoct elaborate Halloween decorating themes every year and spend hours creating elaborate crafts and whatnot. I have not felt like that for the past couple of years. Kids in high school with a gazillion different activities, Abe getting old enough to want to do his own stuff, too (one more week of baseball season! Then things slow down a teeny, tiny bit), more travel….really, it’s all good stuff, so I can’t complain….but I do miss our big Halloween spreads.

Like Miss Havisham’s wedding feast, the year we did a Great Expectations themed Halloween:

And, of course, the thing about Halloween decorating is that it all has to be cleared away so quickly for Christmas (and Thanksgiving, if Thanksgiving is lucky enough to get any attention at all) decorating.

But I’ve always managed to do at least something for Halloween. And this year Abe is the right age to be super excited about Halloween decorating, so I did my best to rise to the occasion for him. And for me!

In the interest of multi-tasking (because that is what us overwhelmed people need to do), in this post I will both show you my low-key Halloween decorations AND present you with my tips for still managing low key seasonal decorating when you feel too busy for seasonal decorating.

1. Have a couple of go-to spots in your house that you change out seasonally

Thinking about decorating the whole house is overwhelming. Thinking about decorating one shelf is totally doable. My number one spot like this is the dresser in my foyer:

It’s the first thing you see when you walk in the house! Or even before you walk in the house, since we have a French door. So people who don’t make it farther than that might assume our entire house is decorated for Halloween.

Go-to spot #2 (where I go if I finish the foyer dresser and still have some energy) is the copper shelves in our kitchen:

And the third spot (when I’m feeling super ambitious. Like this year, apparently) is the corner shelf in our den. I didn’t do a whole lot with this this year….honestly, it still needed to be pulled together from the last time I seasonally decorated it and then took the seasonal stuff away….which might have been Christmas 2018. I mean, it wasn’t like stripped bare or anything, it just had some conspicuous gaps where Christmas stuff had been whisked away and not replaced with anything. So I just used this is a chance to put out a few Halloween touches and otherwise just generally straighten things up.

See the box with the skulls? My mom found that box at a thrift store or somewhere, and I asked if I could have it with intentions to use it for my little Christmas village houses. But for now: skulls!

I think of the mantel as more or less an extension of the shelf….mostly because it’s already so ornate and has so many different pictures hanging right above it that I always keep things simple when I put stuff on it:

2. The Dollar Tree and Bulleye’s Playground at Target are your friends

I just don’t love spending a bunch of money on stuff that’s only going to come out for a month every year. But I also like having something or other new for every holiday. This year Abe and I checked out Target but didn’t find anything we absolutely had to have. But we also made a trip to the Dollar Tree (there’s one down the street from us now. We can WALK to the Dollar Tree!) and came home with a few cool additions.

The little skull candle holder is from the Dollar Tree, as are the skeleton glasses on the shelf above. And the rats are also from the Dollar Tree, although I didn’t buy them this year. The wooden 31 is from Target a few years ago, and I think the pumpkin salt and pepper shakers are, too. The green bottles from the foyer shelf are from the Dollar Tree (this year!) as well–not in the Halloween section; I already had some green glassware I wanted to use, and I bought those to add to the collection. Because they were only a dollar. And don’t forget to shop clearance post-holiday. The white pumpkin on the copper shelves and the gold pumpkin not the mantel both came to me that way.

3. Don’t be afraid to bring back old favorites year after year

Maybe this is a problem only bloggers have. Maybe everyone else is just like, “of course I don’t need to totally rethink my Halloween decorating every year. That would be dumb.” Yes. It would be. We’ve done pretty much exactly the same thing outside every Halloween for years.

We’ve got this garage sale Frankenstein and a thrifted skeleton:

And then we put out these skulls on a stake:

Inside the house, I mix it up more, but some things are always out. Like my black raven:

And my little brass pumpkin:

Fun game! See if you can spot them in this year’s pictures up above! You don’t really have to. But they’re definitely there.

4. Don’t forget that you have to take it all back down

Because that part’s no fun. In anticipation, I kept things pretty minimal. I also focused on stuff that can transition to late fall/Thanksgiving decorating. Pumpkins are for Thanksgiving, too! And owls! I’ll probably need to put the rats away, though.

5. When all else fails….tablescape!

I find that even year when I can’t find the time to put together much in the way of seasonal decor, I can pretty much always find a few minutes to toss together a table for family dinner. Then everyone gets all excited because we hardly ever eat in the dining room at all, much less in the dining room with a fancy table, so dinner feels all special.

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