AlamogordoTownNews.com Halloween "Alamogordo Style" Using Vintage Items for Halloween Decorating

Halloween window displays, and home decorating accents are an act of love and celebration of creativity. Those made with vintage items incorporated into the display elements provide a feeling of authenticity and a nod toward recycling.

Antique, thrift and home decor stores such as Good News Thrift Store, Mia's Collectibles, Roadrunner Emporium or the Local Bodega on New York Avenue, Alamogordo, New Mexico are an excellent option for Halloween accents and decor by giving items a second life.

Halloween places pressure to decorate the home but do we really want paper spiders and cobwebs around the home? Probably not so the color black is our friend. Go to a local thrift store or a vintage décor store on New York Avenue and pick up a flower arrangement and paint it black.

At Roadrunner Emporium local artists have created some unique accent pieces that compliment any décor without being gaudy. Accent with themed lamps such as those made by Toni Gentlewing made to look spooky and the perfect accent for the holiday. The shade is interchangeable and for Christmas can be themed as well with Mrs. Gentlewing’s accents.

Pumpkin figurines by Rusty Easton and fall accent wine glasses are perfect accent pieces.

Using vintage items during the holiday, you create a unique display that will stand out from traditional seasonal décor from used or recycled items. It will provide an eerie refresh to a period piece and most definitely draw attention.

Old Glass Bottles or Apothecary Bottles

Beginning in the 16th century, apothecary bottles were used to dispense medications, tonics, and ointments. Made of handblown glass and identified with decorative labels, pharmacists and others used them for display purposes. Early bottles often contained Latin inscriptions of their contents. Some had a recessed section where the label was applied; then it was covered with a thin piece of glass to protect the label from being damaged by the bottle’s contents. Most vintage apothecary bottles’ paper labels were not covered with glass and wore off over time.

Some vintage apothecary bottles contain labels describing their original contents. Bottles with labels identifying scary contents or Halloween-related terms—like this early witch hazel bottle—work perfectly as Halloween décor.

Fortunately, aged glass bottles and early apothecary bottles either with worn labels have a creepy look to them. If they contain original labels identifying scary contents like poison, tonic, or blood and liver pills, that’s a bonus. You can line them on a shelf or corral them together under a cloche or on a pedestal for a fun Halloween display.

Silhouettes or Old Photos

From the 18th century, silhouettes are two-dimensional, featureless representations of a person, animal, object, or scene, filled in as a solid shape. They are typically framed and presented by one of these methods: cut out of black paper and pasted on a light background; hollow cut from light-colored paper and pasted on a dark background; or painted on ivory, plaster, paper, or in reverse on glass or old photos or images of men or women in haunting poses evoke tingling of one’s senses. 

These shadowy figures evoke a sense of ghostly eeriness that makes them perfect for displaying during Halloween.

Since silhouettes have a shadowy appearance, they could readily be displayed for Halloween. You might create a gallery wall of them for a monochromatic effect. Collect a few cat silhouettes for a “black-cat” theme. If you want to Halloween-ify it even more, you could cut a witches’ hat out of black paper and tape it to the head of a female bust portrait to represent a witch. Be sure to tape the hat directly on the glass and not on the actual silhouette so it doesn’t damage it when you remove the hat.

Spooky Signs or Advertising Signs

Signs used to advertise a person, place, product, or service date back to ancient times. Advertising signs were and are still used today to sway people to take a particular action. Some early advertising signs contain words that evoke spooky vibes and are perfect for using as Halloween décor.

Vintage advertising signs that represent death work well as Halloween décor.

Some examples include signs initially used to promote services like palm and tarot card reading, fortune telling, ghost hunting, and similar services. Additionally, signs related to death used at a funeral parlor, morgue, or cemetery work well as Halloween décor. Finally, vintage signs containing images such as black cats, bats, ghosts, witches, spiders, skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, scarecrows, and the like also put you in the Halloween mood. Simply hang the sign on a wall, set it on a shelf, or display it on your covered front porch to celebrate the holiday.

Candelabra’s and Chandeliers 

A candelabra is a candlestick or holder with multiple arms for holding candles. Before the invention of electric light, candelabra provided light for nightly activities like reading and writing. Often made of silver, gold, brass, copper, iron, or crystal, candelabra usually contained ornate designs and were displayed prominently in homes.

So, what makes them appropriate for Halloween? If you’re like me and watch any classic haunted mansion movies, you would likely see a ghostly figure lurking in the halls at night holding a lighted candelabra. Thus, they set an ominous tone for Halloween.

Lighted candelabra provide an eerie ambiance and lend well to a Halloween theme.

Place a candelabra on your dining table or buffet as a centerpiece. Add flickering flameless taper candles for a creepy effect. Spice up the spooky factor by stretching spider webbing or cotton batting across the branched arms of the candelabra.

Although these vintage items can be displayed all year long, featuring them during Halloween breathes new life into them to bring them back from the dead or into a new life. It’s a great way of reviving everyday vintage décor into seasonal décor and creating a distinctive look for the Halloween holiday.

Antique and home decor stores such as Good News Thrift Store, Roadrunner Emporium or the Local Bodega on New York Avenue are an excellent option for Holliday Accents and Decor.

After Halloween or the fall festivities, let’s remember, our wildlife loves REAL pumpkins that were used as décor.

Don’t throw away pumpkins after Halloween. Find woods or a field near you, smash them open and leave for the wildlife to eat. Pumpkin is safe for them and the seeds act as a natural dewormer. (Be sure to break them up so the deer don’t get their head stuck inside!) 2.5 billion pumpkins produced, only one fifth gets reused. The rest end up decaying in landfills creating methane gases that harm the environment. So, recycle those pumpkins to the wildlife (or even to a wildlife rehab if there’s one near you or ask a local farm if they want them for their cows or pigs) recycling plus a food source for hungry animals.

Let’s all be safe, decorate and have fun this Halloween and think of our wild 4 legged friends when the holiday ends. 

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