How to haunt your home for Halloween

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Rotting corpses and larger than life mummies are waiting to greet you.

That’s what trick or treaters are likely to find when they approach residential doorsteps a bit later this month, according to The Home Depot.

As we enter the scariest time of the year — Halloween — Postmedia spoke with Home Depot Canada to see what’s hot, what’s in and what the Halloween scene is going to look like for 2026.

“The season started early with accessories, lighting and the animal-greeter statues, which went viral with customers customizing them with paint to look like their pets at home,” said Aimee Hartmann, divisional product merchant, Home Depot Canada. “The Poseable Spider is also quite popular with Canadian customers because it’s quite life-like looking, has poseable legs, and has LED lighting.”

But freaky frights aren’t just limited to spiders. Home Depot’s new 11-foot Grave and Bones giant-sized LED Mummy is one of its most popular pieces for Halloween 2026 along with its family members: the 4.5-foot Grave and Bones Colour Changing LED Groundbreaker and the Poseable Rotting Corpse.

“Mummified monsters were one of this year’s fan favourites,” said Hartmann.

When it comes to a scary or non-scary Halloween, it seems it depends on where you live.

“Alberta Halloween decorators tend to embrace both sides of Halloween: 78 per cent say traditional scary themes such as ghosts, skeletons and jack-o’-lanterns appeal to them while 42 per cent are drawn to more family-friendly, non-scary décor such as inflatables and pumpkins,” said Hartmann. “Albertans are among the most enthusiastic fans of traditional scary décor in Canada, second only to British Columbia (82 per cent) and Eastern Canada (Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic) at 72 per cent.

And if Albertans are mostly big on going scary, they’re apparently going to go all out.

“When it comes to going big, Albertans are leading the country, said Hartmann. “More than one-third (34 per cent) of Alberta Halloween decorators say they’re focused on decorating a large outdoor space, compared to 22 per cent nationally.

Meanwhile, 44 per cent of Canadian decorators prefer family friendly themes for their Halloween decorations, according to Home Depot.

“To balance out the scary side of Halloween, we’ve offered friendlier and less scary Halloween picks including an LED Wicker Witch Hat, a Minions inflatable and vertical porch signs,” added Haartmann.

So what are Canadians buying aside from corpses and mummies, and what can you expect to pay?

Well, there are the Burlap Twins, the Soul Slasher (parent of the twins) and Baby Troll, child of Tumble the Troll.

Then there are the finishing touches like webbing, pumpkin lights and pathway markers — these, price wise, are under $40, with some being as low as under $10.

But if you’re looking at animatronics, most large animatronics will likely range from $348 to $698 at Home Depot. Small animatronics are a bit more affordable and can go as low as $178 or as high as $268.

On the other hand, you might just want to haul out your haunted Halloween decorations from years past and, if that’s the case, you wouldn’t be alone. According to Home Depot, almost half (48 per cent) of decorators say that reusability of decorations is the most important thing when arranging their Halloween setups.

Older Gen X and Baby Boomer decorators are most likely to prioritize reusable Halloween décor, with just over half (51 per cent) saying it matters most when choosing decorations, Home Depot said.

If you haven’t heard, Halloween fun can get a real early start.

“Summerween started in 2024 on social media and it has continued into this year,” said Hartmann. “A selection of Halloween items dropped on homedepot.ca in April during our “Halfway to Halloween” sale, followed by our Early Access Halloween Sale in July. We saw a great response from customers with some items selling out in a few days, proving that Summerween is still going strong.”

Summerween customers are certainly enthusiastic about Halloween, added Hartman, because they shop so early for decorations. “They plan out their Halloween setup months before the leaves start changing colours and sometimes set them up in the summer, right when the product arrives at their doorstep,” she said. “That being said, we see a similar level of excitement from customers who purchase their Halloween decor in October, so it’s just a matter of personal preference.”