Home Depot was about to launch something big — really big — when the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020: a 12-foot skeleton.
“There were a lot of internal discussions. It was like, is there going to be Halloween this year?” said Lance Allen, senior merchant of decorative holiday at Home Depot. “Are customers going to think this is in poor taste? Should we go forward with it?’”
Home Depot did. And the towering skeleton arrived at the perfect time.
“Nobody could possibly need a 12-foot skeleton, but everybody wanted a 12-foot skeleton,” Allen said.
The retailer's gamble upped the game for decorations. A population stuck at home and wanting some semblance of community entertainment created a Halloween phenomenon that’s now bigger than any one store. (Others carry various versions of the larger-than-life skeleton.)
And as stores race to get the latest and greatest Halloween score out as soon as possible, superfans say it’s about time.
Halloween is celebrated earlier
Home Depot’s 12-foot skeleton is affectionately known by fans across the internet and globe as “Skelly.” When Skelly was launched, the thinking was that he’d be out for a week or two leading up to Halloween night, Allen said, the usual consumer behavior observed at the time.
But the pandemic changed that timeline.
“Everybody started decorating in early October for something to do,” Allen said. “And we’ve really seen a shift in the market where now people are decorating for Halloween how we’ve seen with Christmas historically, planning out decorations five to six weeks, two months ahead of time.”
Mak Ralston, a Halloween fanatic known as Haunt Former on YouTube, who posts Halloween videos year-round, has noticed the shift.
“There used to be a kind of a calendar as to when I would expect things to come out in stores,” Ralston said, noting that orange and black and witches and skeletons used to roll in at the start of September, maybe mid-August.
“This year, I saw some stuff in stores for Halloween in June, early July,” he said. “It’s never been earlier.”
For some, it's always Halloween
“Some average people who aren’t as invested don’t realize that for people who are really committed to both Halloween and the horror culture, they’re in it to win it like all year,” Ralston said.
“I can post a video about a horror movie or about a Halloween mask that’s coming out in October in February, and people eat it up,” he said.
Nate Rambaud, known as That Guy Nate on Youtube, started his channel by posting videos of abandoned stores such as Toys R Us, a niche interest on the video-sharing platform. Now with more than 440,000 subscribers, his bread and butter is a more spooky niche. He posts videos touring Spirit Halloween locations, which often occupy abandoned stores.
Rambaud has been to well over 300 Spirit Halloween locations in all 50 states.
“Halloween is so easy to attach to. It doesn’t require anybody else whatsoever,” said Rambaud.
Christmas “kind of requires other people, your family. You’re out buying stuff for people. And then kids sit around and wait for Christmas — that’s really all they can do for Christmas,” he said. "But Halloween — anyone can associate with Halloween and you can do it any time all the time.”
As a result of the year-round party, Skelly’s had some work done for his fifth birthday. Allen said the new Skellys for sale this season will have more UV additive to hold up against the sun longer, along with a more durable resin mixture to withstand colder temperatures. And he now has a dog.
“People are taking the skeletons on dates. They’re going out to the beach, he’s playing in the sand,” Allen said. “We’ve seen him at weddings.”
Jacob Humphrey, an artist in Texas, helps moderate a Facebook group of Home Depot Halloween superfans. There is a little bit of healthy competition over decorations, he said.
“A lot of times people will say, ‘I know this is not as good as everyone else’s, but I wanted to share this,’” Humphrey said. Group members join to find like-minded fans, he said, "but let's be honest, people want to show off.”
Why are so many people so wild about Halloween?
Perhaps it all has to do with a fundamental part of the holiday: children.
Humphrey was out painting his fence recently when a girl walked by. She told him his house always has the best decorations.
“I didn’t realize kids memorize that. And that’s really kind of a badge of honor,” Humphrey said. ”Also, like, great, now I have no choice, I’m going to make sure I do a great job.”
Ralston recalled that growing up, he was the kid who carried around a skeleton instead of a teddy bear.
And Rambaud, whose videos showcase Halloween animatronics worth hundreds of dollars, remembers a simpler time from his childhood that helped spark his love for Halloween.
“My dad used to make what he would call a spook tunnel. He would take cardboard boxes, like refrigerator boxes, and he put them all together and made a maze that we had to crawl through," he said. ”That was our little haunted house."
To Humphrey, the holiday's appeal can be summarized this way:
“Halloween is an extrovert day for introverts,” he said. “Why wouldn't you want to celebrate that?”
