We went a little crazy with the Halloween decorations this year in preparation for our neighborhood (kid-friendly) haunted house that we are hosting. I especially went a little crazy with different ways to decorate with skeletons, so I just thought I’d share a few of those with you today. Although, as you can imagine, there are endless ways to use life-size skeletons around your house for Halloween. I think of them as the spooky cousin to “Elf on the Shelf.” Ha!

I bought the vast majority of the skeletons and bones decorations at JOANN. I highly recommend shopping early (or late, like later this week I bet there will be great deals too) and downloading their app as it has really good discounts. We do work with JOANN from time to time, but this post isn’t sponsored—just wanted to share where I got my skeleton decorations in case you were curious.

One – Bathroom Skeletons!

I have a feeling this is going to be the most memorable part for a lot of kids who come through the haunted house. Who doesn’t love a little potty humor? Obviously this idea works best if you have a guest bathroom (or spare bathroom) you can let go unused for a week or two. I totally realize this isn’t realistic for everyone, but we happen to have three full bathrooms in our holiday house, so I didn’t mind losing one for a little while to do this. Too fun!

I used Command strip hooks on the ceiling and fishing line to hold the skeletons in place. If you have a flat (not textured) ceiling, this works great and won’t damage it or leave holes. As you can see, I also taped our local newspaper to the hands of the toilet skeleton, so he has some reading material, and added a shower cap and loofah to the shower skeleton. 🙂

Two – Front Porch

Here’s a second, and probably most relatable, way to decorate with skeletons. Even if you don’t have a front porch, just a door or stoop area, there are lots of ways to pose a skeleton so it looks like they are relaxing on the front porch, or about to enter the house. I love to think up a “story” of what the skeleton is doing and dress them/pose them accordingly. This gal is sitting out watching the neighborhood, like a friendly old grandma. She’s wearing my hat and scarf, so maybe that’s why I imagine her this way. Ha!

Three – Food Fight Skeletons!

This is the most elaborate and probably my favorite way I decorated with skeletons this year. I was trying to create a scene where a family of skeletons are having a food fight around their dining room table. I just loved the idea of having food thrown through the air, and it just felt like a whimsical and lighthearted way to decorate with skeletons. (As I am aiming for the house not to be too scary.) Since the ceiling in this room is textured, I used white thumbtacks and fishing line to hold the faux food and some of the skeleton arms in place. This will leave small holes in the ceiling once I take the thumbtacks down, but it’s still very minor and probably won’t be visible due to the texture anyway.

I will say, it’s important to buy skeletons that hold their shape mostly on their own if you want to do more elaborate scenes like this. I also decided to use faux food, as I wanted to have this up for a while, but you could use real food if it was just for one day.

Four – Fireplace

This one is more an idea for bones rather than a full skeleton. If you have a fireplace and want to make it spooky, adding some bone decorations is a fun way to decorate it for Halloween. Otherwise, I’d fill it with faux pumpkins. I love Kelly’s version here.

Five – Piano Player Skeleton

The last way I used skeleton decorations in our holiday house this year is this skeleton that’s posed as if he’s playing the piano. The room he’s in is decorated like a spider’s den (I’ll share a full tour on Halloween!), so the faux spider webs are what hold him in place. But again, you could use Command strips or thumbtacks with fishing line. Give him a tip jar if it would be visible in your home. Ha! I love all the unique ways people dress up skeleton decorations this time of year.

We’ll be sharing a full tour of our neighborhood haunted house on Thursday (Halloween) along with the address and time it will be open in case you live in Springfield, Missouri, and plan to be around and would like to come through with your family. But if you don’t live in my city, you can enjoy the full tour photos and I’m planning to walk through the house on our Instagram stories that day to try and give you the experience from afar. 🙂 Happy Halloween, everyone! xo. Emma

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Photography: Janae Hardy. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop. Project Assistance: Ethan Randolph.