Spirit of Halloween in Harrison

By MEGAN BARRON

Cleaver Guest Writer

HARRISON – As wisps of autumnal colors grace the trees, and the air outside is instilled with the refreshing crispness of fall, the fervor of ghostly décor can also be seen taking its stake throughout the neighborhoods as Halloween nears. For many, this may consist of a few decorations adorning a mantlepiece, or a light scatter of festivity woven into traditional, daily home furnishings. For Douglas Hildner of 3025 Lee St. in Harrison, it is a hobby of spectacular proportion.

What began as a playful contest with a co-worker, has now become one of the most popular, and extravagantly decorated houses for Halloween in Harrison.

“The first year was just let’s put out some Halloween lights and some stuff,” Hildner recalled fondly. “And the one guy I was working with up in Houghton Lake decorated for Halloween and Christmas, so me and him started kinda competing against each other.”

Hildner has been setting up decorations for five years now and continues to grow his collection each year. He locates most of his animatronics at the well-known chain hardware stores nearby, but being that most of the surrounding locations are smaller, he often orders the nicer animatronics to be picked up at the larger store locations downstate.

“Home Depot is the best for Halloween,” Hildner notes. “They have the best Stuff. Lowe’s is best for Christmas.”

As his collection grows, Hildner has luckily been graced with neighbors who support his holiday spirit and growing landscape of seasonally-themed decorations.

“I have new neighbors on both sides this year, but both of them are like ‘Oh yeah, stretch into their yard,’ no problem,” Hildner said.

He has many complementary pieces, such as a wooden coffin and gothic, black fencing along the front of his lawn that he has built himself. Hildner is always working on new ideas and building pieces to accent his existing decorations. He belongs to a few groups on Facebook specialized for those interested in fun and elaborate Halloween decorations, and he derives a lot of good ideas from these forums. He recently discovered some floodlights that can be synced and controlled by an app on his phone, and that has been a game changer as both a time saver and in the fact that he can now utilize the same lights for both Halloween and Christmas. Hildner even planted his own pumpkin patch this year, and you can see over 14 pumpkins from his own garden woven throughout his immaculate display.

As the spooky yard panorama has grown over the years, so has the draw for trick-or-treaters. While the subdivision has always had a significant yield of participants due to the convenience and ease of its layout, Hildner does note that he has seen an increase in his five years at the residence. He said he has seen a sizable increase from his first year of roughly 300 trick-or-treaters.

“Well one year we had snow, so it was kind of bad, but then the next year it was almost 400, last year it was 470,” Hildner recounted.

Hildner spends a couple weeks setting up his spectral display and is constantly tweaking and perfecting his lights and festive statuettes thereafter until Halloween Day.

“Most of them all move,” he said. “Not all of them are turned on right now, even in the evenings, because they talk and everything else, and I don’t want to bother the neighbors, but those last few nights before Halloween I make sure they’re all on.”

As Hildner guided my tour through his yard, sharing the names of the witches and history of some of his favorite pieces, it is clear what a labor of love his annual tradition has become. The display has become lovingly dubbed by neighbors and known throughout the community as “Nightmare on Lee Street.”

 Immediately after Halloween, Hildner tears down and begins yet another incredible display for Christmas that has become known as “Miracle on Lee Street.” He aims to have all the bigger lawn ornaments up by Thanksgiving and will adjust and perfect his merry display through to the New Year. Hildner notes that one year he was unable to take down his Christmas display until March due to his decorations being entrapped until then by snow and ice.

While nighttime viewing is definitely a must with all the lights and animatronics, the details of each piece are just as enriching to view during the day. When out and about town during the upcoming holiday seasons, it is worth a short detour to take a glance at Hildner’s epic display. © Clare County Cleaver