Halloween decorations.

Just a week away now from Halloween. I assume you've made your preparations -- buying candy, eating the candy, buying more, repeat. What about the decorations? Got your pumpkin lights up? Your skeletal stockings hung? Were-wreath? Death tinsel?

Here's what I've been seeing about.

This was a picture in the Home Depot that I actually took in August, when they were assembling the Halloween lawn displays. Skeletons and skeletal dinosaurs were apparently expected to be the big thing this year. The T. rex was still missing his head, but it has been applied since. I must say, though, that I have yet to see one of these dinos on anyone's lawn, with or without the head. The fact that they run seventy bucks and higher might explain it. If you're wondering, the 16-foot inflatable dragon on the wall goes for $149. I haven't seen him on anyone's lawn yet, either.

Still, we have reports that this year will hit a record high for Halloween spending, and it's not all on David S. Pumpkins costumes. So perhaps before the day arrives I'll see some skeletal triceratops around. (Triceratopses? Triceratopii? For a dino with a small distribution he sure is popular.)

Now this is a little more traditional, and suitably scary enough to make little kids want to forego the candy at this place. It's the way the two creepy figures are aimed straight at the door, as if they're just waiting for you to ring that bell. Go ahead, my pretty. Maketh my day. Conversely, they could be waiting to snap up the people in the house the moment they walk outside. Good grief! Perhaps they already have!

Can you tell me what this is? I mean the main inflatable monster, of course, not the subsidiary monsters closer to the door. I saw it and immediately thought Balrog, but it seems to be just a random, everyday gargoyle. Maybe it's something from Minecraft. The wings are too tiny to be from the Gargoyles cartoon. In fact, although the eyes and face are scary, the wings are vestigial, almost hilarious. Good luck with those, Icarus. 

I found it on Amazon, and as far as I can tell it doesn't bear any pop culture significance beyond "gargoyle." With scary eyes. And silly wings.

On the friendlier side of the holiday, there's this, seen in a local hibachi spot:

The light-up inflatable Snoopy and Woodstock in a cheerful Schulz pumpkin is the perfect choice for the waiting area of the restaurant. It says Halloween without scaring anybody, and gives the kiddies something to look at. I regret that it did not have an inflatable Linus, who could have puzzled over the sincerity of this pumpkin and whether it was good enough to attract the Great Pumpkin. On that note, though, Woodstock should not be present, as he did not join the Peanuts strip (under the name Woodstock) until 1970, four years after It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown first aired.

So that's what I've seen so far. No one in my area has done anything really horrifying or disgusting in their holiday displays, at least not yet. No chainsaw massacres, no Pennywise butchery, no pile of severed heads. All pretty much PG at worst. How're things where you are?