Simple Holiday Tabletop

With small kids underfoot and into everything, decorating for holidays can be challenging. I think for Halloween, it can be doubly so. You have to keep things reasonably safe and out of reach, while also being fun and NOT scary. Age 6, 3, or 0, no one needs images of the grim reaper creeping into their subconscious. Plus, this is a home, not the Haunted Mansion.

Thankfully it's easy to go the 'happy/silly' path with Halloween, so here we stick to the more cheerful ideas. For a few practical reasons, I choose to contain the decorating mainly to the 'landing strip/launch pad' area by the front door and the front steps.



Decorating festively does not have to be an outrageous expense. I have been slowly collecting items I love for the past 5 or 6 years, one or two things per year.


Here we have two votive holders, which I collected in pairs. The 'mummy head' pillars were $2 or so each from Big Lots and the only pieces I brought into our home last year. Our kids and their friends love 'em! Ditto for the spiders, which probably were $2-3 each from World Market.


Add in a few vintage cards given by friends over time, and a happy painted tin pumpkin that was part of a party favor, and we have a happy little nook that celebrates the holiday in a rather understated way.