Spook-tacular yard draws crowd

Six years ago, David and Danielle Romero purchased their house on Second Street in Abbeville and brought their Halloween traditions.
Every Halloween, the family goes all-out with their yard decorations and this year, it’s their most extensive presentation to date.
“We all love Halloween,” said Danielle. “We’ve always decorated for Halloween, anywhere we’ve lived, and we are so glad that people love our works of art.”
The Romeros say that people stop to look at their yard all day, sometimes turning around and making another pass in front of their home. As a result, the yard has an eerie look to it, consisting of zombies, motion-detected crows, even a fog machine that brings the level of spooky fairly high.
Even though the family can’t put a number on the money they’ve spent throughout the years, Danielle said that they don’t spend tons of money on everything displayed.
“We’ve gotten Halloween masks and costumes that people want to toss out, and sometimes I use what we have on hand,” she said.
But what does it look like underneath all of the clothing and costumes of the zombies that are displayed?
PVC pipe and pool noodles. The PVC pipe is perfect and durable for their vision and the pool noodles placed over the PVC pipe give the look more of a real texture.
The skeletons that are laid out in the yard are purchased and painted for a more realistic appearance.
As the sun goes down, you can see the zombies’ eyes glowing. The spooky light is placed inside milk jugs with a mask covering it to have the glowing eyes effect.
A lot of time, effort and creativity makes everything come together. But exactly how much time does this take?
“David takes a week off of work and uses his vacation days to help his wife create the perfect look.
“We cut out pieces of wood to make the headstones and paint them, we get all of our Halloween decors out of our shed, and I take all of the branches that I’ve accumulated during the year to make arms for a lot of the decor,” Danielle said.
Spiders and spider webs are placed around the metal fencing and trees on the property. Even a stray cat can’t stay away, which is okay because it gives an extra touch of creepy.
“It makes me happy that people enjoy looking at our yard. I’ve heard stories of how the previous owners would decorate the yard and house for many holidays, so it’s nice knowing that we, as newer owners, bring joy to those passing,” said Danielle.
The Romeros decorate for most of the holidays, but their Halloween presentation is much more significant since the family loves the holiday.
“We are happy that we make everyone’s day when they pass by our house. We plan to do this every year.”