Holiday Yards - Halloween Ghosts and Christmas Lollipops

Here is how to make easy outdoor decorations for both Halloween and Christmas using plastic pumpkin pails and pvc pipes. The pails were bought at Walmart for $1 each, and the PVC pipes were from Home Depot for $1.60 each. One 10ft pipe makes 2-3 stems, depending on how tall you want them. We bought 3 pipes (3/4” or 1” should be thick enough) and made 8 stems (1 pipe cut in half, and two pipes cut in thirds). I cut one end of each piece into a 45° bevel to give it a sharp side to stick into the ground.

To remove the ink from the pipes and pails, we used acetone nail polish remover. Next, we gently pushed/hammered the angled end of the pipe into the ground. What you use will depend on how hard your ground is. We then pulled the strings on the pails taught and put a short screw into the pipe to hold the pail in place.

Now for the best part, decorating for the season!

To make them into ghosts, layer several white trash bags on top of the pails and secure with a zip or twist tie. You could also draw faces on them with permanent marker or paint. Also, depending on your bags, it would be fun to cut some vertical slits in the trash bags to allow them to move around more in the wind.

We put our ghosts around a shrub wrapped in orange lights to make it look like they were dancing around a fire.

For Christmas lollipops, I put string lights inside the pails and then tied cellophane bags around each one. Dollar Tree sells the bags in packs of two (with twist ties), or you can also use a clear plastic roll.

Each lollipop/ghost comes out to around $2 each with decorations, not counting the string lights.