Residents from all around Jefferson County are hoping to give their neighbors a little friendly fright this Halloween by decking out their homes with lights and an array of spooky decorations.
Those who take a drive around the county in search of some Halloween fun will encounter homes taken over by ghouls, ghosts, witches, tombstones, giant spiders spinning webs and even hundreds of creepy, painted dolls.
The following is a list of just a few of the county homes you may want to visit for some frightful fun. Those looking for even more decked-out houses may visit the website, holidaylighthopping.com, which was created to guide people to St. Louis-area homes decorated for Christmas but has been expanded to include Halloween displays.
De Soto
Dorothy and John Tessmer have been decorating their home at 114 S. Second St. for about 30 years.
“We know the people of De Soto appreciate it, and that keeps us going,” Dorothy said. “We do it for the kids, and the adults enjoy it as much as the kids.”
The couple fills nearly every inch of their front, side and back yards with ghoulish figures, including skeletons and witches surrounding a cauldron. Pumpkins and tombstones dot the yards, multiple spotlights and strobe lights are used, as is a fog machine.
The Tessmers also have decorated the main floor of their home and invite people to walk through it, said Dorothy, 63.
“All through the day and night people come to look around the house and the outside of the house,” she said. “Along with people who live in the city and county, we have had people from Florida, Alabama and Tennessee come see our house.”
John, 68, said when all the lights are turned on, they use about 60 amps of electricity.
The couple said they spend about $360 on candy for trick-or-treaters.
Festus
Heather and Vaughn Visser have set up a spooky display outside their home at 1821 Sunset Ridge for the first time this year.
Heather, 35, Vaughn, 39, and their three children, who are between the ages of 5 and 14, moved into their house about a month before Halloween last year, and Heather said they didn’t have time to set out decorations like they did for several years when they lived in Herculaneum.
The family’s decorations feature a large spider web with a spider climbing on it. Ghosts and a skeleton hang from the front porch, and tombstones are set up in the yard. In addition, a projector displays Halloween-themed images onto the house.
“(Vaughn) is a Halloween fanatic,” Heather said. “Our three kids also love Halloween.”
Heather said she is expecting plenty of visitors on Halloween night as the subdivision has grown from 20 to 80 homes since the Visser family moved into the neighborhood.
“It seems like we should have a pretty good turnout,” she said. “There are a ton of kids in the subdivision, I believe it will be pretty big.”
Imperial
Mike Chapman has spread out hundreds of eerily painted dolls at their home at 5234 Driftwood Drive, making up for the years he didn’t have a yard to decorate for Halloween.
Chapman, 37, said he served in the Army from 2002 to 2012 and after leaving the service, he and his family lived in a townhome with a small yard in northern Virginia while he worked at the Pentagon.
He was transferred to Missouri three years ago, and he and his wife, Krystle, 37, and three children – Aiden, 15, Andrew, 12 and Wyatt, 6 – moved into their Imperial home, giving them the space they needed to properly celebrate the spooky season.
Chapman said he learned about the Goodwill outlet store in south St. Louis County, which charges by the pound for items. He filled a cart with dolls and paid $11 for his first haul, and he quickly went back for more.
After purchasing acrylic paints and sealers at Walmart, Chapman and his children, friends from Encounter Church in Arnold and families from the neighborhood have teamed up to paint the dolls.
“People get excited about it because they make a doll and then come by to see it in the yard,” he said. “At least 60 kids have done dolls. Their parents come too, and some of them have done the dolls.”
Chapman said about 240 dolls will be part of the family’s scary display.
“I was just so excited the first year to have a yard for Halloween and we got such a positive reaction, I thought we will just keep going bigger and better,” he said. “It brings the community together when I do it. They get excited when I start setting them out.”
High Ridge
■ Tammy Chesonis and Roger Stadler started covering their yard with decorations in 2015.
The yard is filled with tombstones and animatronics, including a life-sized grim reaper and an 8-foot dark angel. Ghosts hang from nearly every tree branch, and on Halloween night, the couple will set up a fog machine to add to the scary setting, which includes plenty of orange and purple lighting.
“This is my favorite holiday,” said Chesonis, 62. “I like to make kids laugh and love seeing their faces in awe of everything in the front yard. And of course, there is the candy.”
Chesonis said a cauldron filled with candy is placed at the front of the home’s driveway for children to get a treat as they walk by the home.
Chesonis credits Stadler, 58, for collecting animatronic decorations throughout the year, making their display more elaborate.
■ Shaun Grace is decorating his home at 5243 Harter Farms Manor for the first time.
Shaun, 39, his wife, Larissa, 40, and the couple’s children – Britney, 14, Sara, 12, Bella, 5, and Matthew, 3 – moved into the home in January 2020. He said it was the first time the family lived in a home that has a yard to decorate.
“We had lived in apartments and condos before, and we always wanted to decorate an entire yard,” he said.
The decorations include a 12-foot skeleton with a pumpkin near the home’s front door, and a life-size Pennywise from the novel and movie “It.” The garage has red and purple blinking lights.
“It is fun for the kids,” Shaun said of decorating. “My two younger kids are really excited. For my 3-year-old this is really his first year of being aware of Halloween and going trick-or-treating. He is super excited.”
■ For the past decade, Christy Williams has turned her front yard at 2179 Appaloosa Trail in High Ridge into a frightful sight for Halloween.
The 36-year-old mother said she started decorating because of her children, Aiden and Avery.
“I have always liked Halloween, but I never felt the need to decorate, until I had kids,” Williams said. “I am the kind of mom who loves to do these things with my kids to create the magic for the holidays.”
Tombstones, skeleton arms and a zombie appear to be popping up from their yard. A spiderweb with a giant spider cascades down from the corner of a porch overhang, and a ghost and a witch hang from the house.
“We like to decorate to make little kids excited on Halloween night when they are walking around trick-or-treating,” Williams said. “The neighbors walk past the house, and it brings joy and excitement to the neighborhood. We see well over 100 children trick-or-treating on Halloween. It is a big party in the subdivision.”