First you must selectively clean. Pick up anything that is not spooky- like Hungry Hungry Hippo and all of those Melissa & Doug wooden puzzles. Put anything that has potential to be be spooky in a big heaping pile. Be creative with these selections. For example, a cute Raggedy Anne doll can be stuffed into a drawer with her limp hand hanging out. Finally, don't vacuum up the cobwebs that have been collecting along the ceiling in the family room all of these months. Do vacuum up those stupid pink and blue game-of-Life people (they should know better than to venture out of their box anyway). Do vacuum up candy wrappers left from Christmas morning under the couches.
Now that you have cleaned selectively, it's time to create some spooky magic. It may not look spooky at first but part of that is simply covering up. I covered up the play kitchen and even put a curtain in front of our board games and toy shelf. Who needs to see all that cute stuff when you're getting spooked? In fact, get rid of all the family photos too... unless you have photos of ancestors you've never met... chances are those will be black and white and potentially the most scary thing you could put in your haunted house anyway (didn't those people know how to smile)? Cover up mundane things like televisions and coffee tables. Chances are the cobwebs that you have been "saving" won't be sufficient so you will next need to cover walls with as much cobwebs as you can. This is one case where having popcorn ceilings or walls (what were they thinking?) actually comes in handy- no tape needed.
Do not underestimate the need for a tunnel. You must have a tunnel. Last year we used those cute crawl through tunnels that you buy in a store but this year we were afraid of impaling our children since the circular metal pieces started coming loose and sticking out at the entrance and exits. If you are like me and have a hazardous tube or no tubes at all, use blankets liberally to create a tunnel. I've got our blankets crammed between couch cushions and in the coffee table. You don't have to end there with a tunnel. I put yoga mats down for that icky sticky texture (and so I could have an excuse not to do yoga for two weeks while the mats were in use... genius). Under the mats I randomly put pillows to create "hills" in the tunnel. We all have vibrating foot massagers that we've gotten for Christmas. I have a flat one that heats up and glows red. I stuck it under a yoga mat thus creating a spooky red glow in the tunnel, a vibrating yoga mat and a fire hazard all in one! That's what makes a tunnel special; creativity. I'm just hoping we never forget to unplug it after a haunted house showing.
Accessories are next and I suggest spending $100 at your local party store on scary lights, dolls and decorations. Just kidding. In our spooky scary haunted house we have fierce looking toy dinosaurs, Liam's Batman cave (with accessories) and The Ghost Train. Ah yes, The Ghost Train. See, the more we spend on Thomas train sets, the less the boys actually like Thomas train sets and over the years, we have accumulated quite a bit of wooden and plastic train tracks, trains, etc... I am always looking for a good excuse to force the boys to play with these things. The Ghost Train is an excellent opportunity. We used the plastic Trackmaster so the trains could run eerie on their own around the track. With some cut-out ghosts and rubber spiders you can turn your train set into... The Ghost Train! Hmmm... it just occurred to me that parents of girls may have a hard time with this haunted house thing. I've seen some of those girl toys... you may have to be more creative like a spider infested Barbie Dream House or a gross-out play kitchen with bat soup and snake cake. The other advantage to using toys as accessories is that your haunted house is small so it will only take about 5 minutes for kids to get through it. With other toys, they will keep busy longer.
Here's another way to weasel out free or cheap decorations for your haunted house: Christmas garlands and toilet paper from the ceiling! I added a small fan in the corner to make the garlands sway a bit. Also feel free to use any odd decorations you have around the house that don't match with the nicer decorations you own (ex: random needlepoint ghosts, wooden figurines you never had time to paint, etc...).
Set the mood with lighting and horrible sounding music. A strobe light works great for a spooky effect but that won't be enough light for the kids to see all of the detailed work you put into the haunted house. You will also need to give each child a flashlight or one of those headlamps. For spooky music you can use a CD or the spooky Halloween music channel on TV (cover the TV to create an eerie glow). Also add musical instruments to your haunted house for that horrible sounding music I mentioned. A mini-piano, keyboard or xylophone will do the trick along with a drum and maybe even an annoying whistle... okay never mind with the annoying whistle, the piano will suffice.
We made our haunted house this weekend and the boys have spent each evening down there playing. They play with lights on or off, they fine tune their creation, reposing the dinosaurs so that they each have a turn getting eaten by the big one. They play their music and crawl through the tunnel. I was really cranky when we set it up. "Why won't anyone help me?", "Stop stepping on the tunnel", "Where are all the Batman toys?", "Could you just help me with this cobweb?" and then I realized, wow setting up this haunted house is a lot like setting up the Christmas tree... the set-up is part of the tradition and the holiday spirit. So what if it's all that work for only a couple of weeks and so what if not many people see it, it's offered endless entertainment and something a bit out of the ordinary for the kids for a short time during the year. Pretty soon the haunted house will be all packed up and in its place that Christmas tree. The garlands will be re-purposed on the mantle and who knows? Maybe I'll even set up the Thomas train in a little winter wonderland scene
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