Why I Oughta...

It seems like Menards Halloween has come back this year.  After a down year (at least it appeared to me to be 'down' and likely due to COVID + Supply Chain issues), it appeared that - on our visit this month - they had TONS of new stuff.  This post is going up in late August, but our visit was on Saturday, August 13th, so they had all of their stuff up mid-August.  I've covered this in the past - here's last year .  Below is a look at their Halloween village.  Of note, they've TOTALLY phased out all Lemax Village buildings and are now showing their own house brand of Pumpkin Hollow Halloween buildings and structures.  Menards always has a good set of holiday inflatables and this year they're showing a new (to me) Disney licensed Halloween inflatable featuring the three Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus (and soon... Hocus Pocus 2 ).  It is just five feet wide, but costs more than $100.  Dang that Disney license.   Menards is also selling...

The team at the Bolingbrook Menards has begun to transition away from Summer/camping/back-to-school in the seasonal section to the best part of the year:  early Halloween - which gives way to early Christmas.  That means they have inflatables, window clings, a small amount of generic "fall" stuff (you know...it says things like 'give thanks' and what-have-you) and their spooky village.   Here, below, you can see some of the inflatables they have this year.  They're also adding some non-inflatable "creatures".  Dragons and such that are meant for the front yard and have some motorized movements, but not inflatable.    This row of inflatables features just one licensed Halloween inflatable:  a Frankenstein Minion halloween inflatable.  The rest are Menards house-brand, something called "Pumpkin Hallow".  They have this skeleton popping out of a jack-o-lantern, the dragon (you can see part of him on the right) and something they call "...

I've covered Halloween inflatables here on the blog over the years - but they've mostly been about Menards.  Like this Blinking Owl from a few years back .  Or these two big inflatables that Nat allows me to put on the porch for a few weeks the past two years.   This year Menards has gone all-in on Jack Skellington, Sally and Oogie Boogie from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. But, I've been going to Home Depot a little bit more regularly than I was in the past and discovered their Halloween section this season and am delighted (and surprised) by all the Beetlejuice stuff there.  The biggest piece in the whole section is this inflatable, animated Sand Worm that you can see in the photo above. The center-most worm moves - and you can see it in this brief video below: That's not the only Beetlejuice item - they also have another giant Sand Worm, but this time, it has a screen on the face of it to broadcast movies.  They claim to use 'projectio...

Or...at least with some ridiculous inflatables on the front porch.  For record-keeping purposes, here's the annual (or some-what-annual) photo of our house decorated for Halloween.  You can see the Big Pumpkin (or "Big Pump" as the kids call him) along with Frankenstein on our front porch.  You'll also note that the mums at the bottom of the steps are the very same ones I 'tied up' with my pro-tip earlier this fall .  There are also a couple of cinderella pumpkins stashed on the stairs near the right railing that you can - if you look closely - see peeking out.  This is the first holiday in our #newoldfarmhouse, so we're starting from scratch decorations-wise.  We've come a long way from last year when we were living in Equation Boy/Man and Vic's house (thanks to their generosity!).  Here's a photo from last year that shows the decorations .  Frankenstein is the only survivor from this whole setup!   To be fair, the line of pumpki...

It is no secret that I have a soft spot for two holiday-related items that are, umm, not super cool.  The first is Christmas Village structures .  Have you met Mantleburg ?  The other?  Holiday-themed inflatables .  Most recently, I've covered how we picked up this blinking eye owl Halloween inflatable .  And I've posted some photos and videos of other Christmas and Halloween inflatables at Menards over the years.  I even have a playlist on my YouTube Channel showing some of these Menards inflatables. The spark for this whole thing around inflatables can be traced back to this post in December of 2013 .  That's when I finally caved and bought our first inflatable .  You'll note that the Christmas of 2013 lines up with the Babe growing up and having some holiday-related awareness.  She and now her sister and brother have certainly influenced my purchase behavior. And, to be fair, I think Nat isn't sold on them.  Scratch tha...

Just yesterday, I posted another photo of Menards Halloween setup with two of the kids and I've already covered a few of the Spooky Town structures .  But, there's a few things that we've bought already that have me giddy with Halloween excitement.  I'll share the bigger things in another post, but first, check out the newest inflatable to our crew: He blinks!?! Yeah.  And this one is definitely not a budget buster and there was just one box remaining on the shelves, so I *had* to buy it, right?  It remains to be seen where Nat will allow me to put up the inflatables at the #newoldfarmhouse.  In year's past, we've always kept most of our holiday-related freakiness (aka inflatables!) in the backyard.  This one is too cool to be hidden from the public, right? And, say what you want about Halloween Creep , but the fact that this was the last one of these things at Menards tells me that consumers are ok with Halloween stuff despite it being August.

Last year, it was the kaleidoscope effects inside the inflatables.  This year, there's something new:  fuzzy material like on this inflatable Teddy Bear that they're selling at Menards inside of the Enchanted Forest that they've set up for Christmas.  This one is retailing for $99.99, but is the only one that has this fuzz on it.  I really liked it and the Bird was all over this one.  She kept saying "he's so cuuuuute!" Have to wonder how this will stand up to the elements?  We seem to be able to get about four to five years out of our inflatables, depending on their size.  Between the motors running out (we sometimes use times, but a lot of time, we just keep them up all day and night long!) or the sun's UV rays fading the colors right out, we seem to be able to amortize the cost across four seasons at a minimum.  Looking at it that way, this one costs about $25/season.   The first year of inflatables like this never seem to last...

Back in 2013, I finally caved and bought a Christmas inflatable .  Nat didn't then - and doesn't now - allow them in the front yard, so in our old house, we had them in the sideyard (where we could see Santa out of the dining room window) and in our backyard. In our current spot, I've put them up in the backyard.  Counting this one above, we're now up to three.  There's Santa and a Snowman holding a "Merry Christmas" banner, a deer on the trees and now this animated snowman.  He's, by far, the coolest one.  I've put him in a place of honor where we can see him from the dining room.  The girls both love him and so do I!

The Babe *soooo* wanted the Halloween scary train from Menards.  She was like, "Daddy!  Take my picture by the train!" Alas...this is NOT the year for it as we're in transition between homes and stuff.  Hate to disappoint her, but....maybe next year?

On Saturday, I wrote about how we went to Menards to check out the Halloween stuff , but on that trip there was a stand-out piece that is worthy of a separate post.  It is this HUGE inflatable animated light-up Halloween dragon. Check out the video below to see it in action, but here are the details as I gathered:  it has wings that move back and forth, it's belly glows with a fire-y glow, the eyes light up red and it makes some noises of some sort.  (Pay no attention to the 'Monster Mash' you hear in the video, that came from some other inflatable!) It is $199.99 right now on sale.  I didn't buy it (we bought a different inflatable that I'll post about later), but wondering if someone I know out in Naperville will/should buy it.  Granddad loves a good inflatable, right?!?