Today is Halloween 2024. I have not posted too many Halloween decoration photos this year. Thus far we only have some fun stoop chalk art a Halloween inflatable cat dressed as a bat (or a cat-bat creature). There two reasons for the relative shortcoming. The first reason is that most of the decorations are groups of cheap human skeleton figures strewn about (not to mention the ones that are about 15-feet tall). These are more likely to make one wonder what the Chinese factory workers who make the skeletons think of all of this than to inspire me to take a photo and write an article. The second reason is that while I have taken a decent number of Halloween decoration photos, I have been busy in the last couple of weeks and have not had time to sift through the photos and write articles about them (note the fact I am posting this article after 6 in the evening).
But that changes today – on Halloween of all days.
I have long been a fan of photographing inflatable decorations and sharing them, going back to the earliest days of The New Leaf Journal. I have four for you from Halloween 2024.
First, seen on Garden Place in Brooklyn Heights, a simple inflatable Jack-o-lantern.
This is a fine inflatable Jack-o-lantern, and I was pleased with how well my nighttime phone photo came out (all things considered, of course). One nice thing about inflatable Jack-o-lanterns is that they do not decompose. At worse they deflate. Deflating is not desirable behavior from an inflatable decoration, but it is significantly less moldy than decomposition. Moreover, inflatable deflating is less graphic than organic deflating. These are pluses in my book.
Speaking of decomposition, while I have not featured any rotting pumpkins in 2024, they are out there. They are decomposing. There is black mold. There are also many gourds of concern. That it is in the mid-70s today on Halloween does little to ameliorate by rotting squash fears.
But I digress. Back to the point of the instant article.
Second, seen in either Cobble Hill or Carroll Gardens (I think it is Cobble Hill but I cannot remember off the top of my head), an inflatable ghost emerging through a window.
This guy is clever. The base of the ghost is designed to look like a broken window (aside: would a ghost need to break through a window?). Unfortunately, my head-on image does not give you a good perspective, but if you look at the bottom left of the ghost you can see a piece of the broken window portion of the inflatable decoration. He lights up red at night, but given the limitations of my phone photography, I think my day-time photo gives a better perspective.
(Let us hope New York City does not have a literal broken windows problem this Halloween. I will submit for the record that my late afternoon Halloween walk was less than encouraging.)
Having just noted that I opted for a less flashy daytime photo of one Halloween decoration, I now present a nighttime inflatable (I think it is inflatable) spider seen in what is definitely Carroll Gardens.
The second most overdone Halloween decoration of 2024 (behind random skeletons) has been fake spider webs. There are some expensive fake spider webs made of rope. Those are alright. The more common ones look like the result of a mass pillow massacre, with the pillow innards thrown about over fences only to slowly collect falling autumnal leaves. Those are bad. However, I approve of this inflatable spider. Look into its eyes. I dare say it easily surpasses the green Halloween spiders I showed you back in 2020 (which in turn included a presentable version of the pillow-massacre-style spider webs).
Now let us see a broader view of our inflatable spider friend.
This picture came out much better than I expected when I took it. There is so much going on here. We have an inflatable grim reaper front and center, looking directly into my phone camera. The spider faces left in the background, almost as if it is going somewhere. But my favorite part is the beam of light coming from the lantern. From the left, you see a little white ghost guy hanging from a tree (note: that is not the last little white ghost guy we will cover this year). I unintentionally took a photo that makes it look as if the little ghost guy is responsible for the beam of light coming from the lantern.
While certain Halloween decorations such as skeletons, pillow innards, and decomposing pumpkins are overdone, the inflatable Jack-o’-lantern, window ghost, and spider show that a little ingenuity can result in some creative, fun, and tasteful Halloween decorations. The trend line is not the best, but a few homes give passers by something to smile about.
