When Home Depot’s 12 ft. Giant-Sized Skelly lawn ornament debuted in 2020, it quickly became an online sensation because of its enormous height and the fact that Halloween was essentially canceled that year due to the pandemic. Disappointed fans needed something to keep their favorite holiday alive, and in the world of oversize Halloween decor, Skelly towered above the rest.
I admired Skelly, but even as a dedicated Halloween enthusiast—my Lemax Spooky Town collection is embarrassingly vast—I felt the giant was simply too much and quickly became overexposed to the point of losing any novelty.
But for the past few years, I’ve had a Halloween problem, one that I’m now hoping this boney feat of engineering will solve.
Staff pick
A new version of Home Depot’s absurdly massive 12-foot viral sensation comes with eight LCD animated eye effects. Construction is surprisingly easy, but if space in your home is limited, you’ll need to get creative with storage solutions—or simply leave it up year-round.
I lived in New York City for most of my adult life in neighborhoods and buildings that didn’t get trick-or-treaters. When I moved to a smaller city several years ago, I couldn’t wait to experience Halloween from the grown-up side of the porch—delighting in the costumes and doling out handfuls of candy.
Cue the crickets.
My house is located on a block between an industrial area with active train tracks and a busier street that gets a fairly steady stream of kids every October 31. But no one bothers turning onto my block to visit the lone lit-up and decorated porch with a guy waving a candy bowl over his head.
I know that’s not a good look, and could be considered the real reason people stay away, but I swear I did it only a few times.
After three years of sitting lonely on my front steps each Halloween night, like Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin, I’m determined to get some trick-or-treaters this year. I’m not that far out of the way! And I always buy the good stuff. No Bit-O-Honeys here. (Don’t come for me, fans. I like them, but I’m sure most kids don’t.)
Home Depot debuted a new version of Skelly this year, one that comes with a host of options for its light-up LCD eyes—from hearts to rainbow spirals to cat eyes. Call it Skelly 2.0. I’ve decided to find out whether the hype over this extreme Halloween decor will convince costumed kids to take a slight detour.
