STOP Buying Halloween Decorations! The 1960s Way That Costs Almost Nothing

Before you spend another sixty dollars on plastic skeletons, sit down a minute, honey. On Elm Street in 1962, our porches were the prettiest on the block, and almost everything came from the paper-sack drawer, the linen closet and the field behind the house. Here are five Halloween decorations we made by hand for next to nothing, plus Daddy’s trick for a jack-o’-lantern that’s still smiling on Halloween night. 🎃 WHAT WE MAKE Paper-bag lanterns: brown lunch sacks, fold the top down 2 inches, cut a face, add 2 cups of sand, and use a battery tea light The harvest porch: corn stalks, a straw bale and a homemade scarecrow Cheesecloth ghosts: cheesecloth soaked in liquid starch (or half glue, half water), draped over a balloon and dried overnight Paper chains and window cutouts: orange and black construction paper A jack-o’-lantern that lasts: carve 3–4 days before Halloween, cut the hole in the back, scrape the walls thin, rinse with 1 tbsp bleach per gallon of water, and rub the cut edges with petroleum jelly ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Put the plastic skeleton back 1:06 Emma and Mother’s fading recipe cards 1:41 Paper-bag lanterns 2:55 The harvest porch 3:53 Cheesecloth ghosts 5:08 Paper chains and window cutouts 5:54 A jack-o’-lantern that lasts until Halloween 7:18 The honest part 7:39 Store-bought vs. homemade 8:36 Next time on Grandma Loretta 💬 Tell me in the comments: what did your family put on the porch for Halloween when you were little? And what state are you in? 🎃 New video every day until Halloween. Subscribe and keep me company in the kitchen. Grandma Loretta is a storytelling character. Videos are created with the help of AI tools, and every recipe and project is real and tested. #halloweendecorations #diyhalloween #vintagehalloween #halloweenonabudget #1960s #grandmaloretta #oldfashioned