Jill Schramm/MDN Halloween decorations cover the yard of Rick and LeAnn Poppler at 300 24th St. NW.

Unlike the days when a couple of jack-o-lanterns on the porch was considered a Halloween display, Minot residents have been following a national trend in going more and bigger when it comes to outdoor decorating.

“I wanted it to be a focal point,” Rebekah Arredondo said of her Halloween carnival display at 209 6th St. NW. “For people who are able to go by every single day and see it, I wanted to kind of bring some kind of Halloween joy to town.”

As an increasing number of yard displays pop up across Minot, a common thread is a desire to make the occasion fun for others, and especially children.

David Schlecht, 309 24th St. NW, was heavy into Christmas decorating before adding Halloween decorations in about 2018 for the enjoyment of the children. His displays have drawn as many as 550 trick-or-treaters to his door since erecting the annual display.

Schlecht said his Halloween display developed in a friendly competition with his neighbors, Rick and LeAnn Poppler, 300 24th St. NW.

Rick Poppler said the competition adds to the fun.

“But we both do it for the kids,” said Poppler, who has decorated for Halloween for about 20 years.

“It’s just something we look forward to every year,” he said. “My Dad decorated for Halloween, Christmas. He passed down all his ‘cute’ Halloween stuff and I just went a different direction with it.”

Like many avid decorators, Poppler makes most of the decor items himself. His yard at 300 24th St. NW is distinctive for its green lights, lava, tall skeleton, guillotine and various other creepy items amid the fog.

When his Halloween decorations come down, Thanksgiving decorations go up, followed by Christmas decorations.

“Halloween, I guess, is our favorite because you get the interaction with the kids,” Poppler said. “You look out the front door and you just see all the kids and it just makes it fun.

“You would think they’d be scared of it,” he added, “but just the little tykes, they come in and they just love it.”

The past three years, Schlecht’s display has included a sign with a QR code for visitors to make donations to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital as part of the nationwide, annual “Skeletons for Hope” campaign.

Schlecht said circumstances this year have resulted in less time available to devote to the decorations so the scope of the display is reduced, without the usual music and light show. Still, it is extensive.

“It puts you in the mood at least. Halloween night, we’ll have a lot more,” he said. “Halloween night is really the night if you’re going to come to look at lights.”

That’s true of many of the major displays, which grow in size on Halloween night.

Rebekah and Jose Arredondo plan to bring out wooden figures with cutouts for faces to create photo opportunities on Halloween. The fortune tellers’ booth in their carnival setup will have an interactive feature to tell visitors’ fortunes. The Arredondos also have a machine that produces cotton candy-scented fog, and there will be a popcorn machine filled with popcorn.

Dressed-up children may find themselves coming away with prizes such as best costume, funniest costume or scariest costume.

“I love kids, and when I was growing up I didn’t really participate in Halloween all that much. So the kids who like Halloween, I want them to have fun – as much fun as possible,” Rebekah Arredondo said. “We had so many people last year on Halloween night when we were handing out our candy. They were telling us they waited every single day for this moment – to come to the house and see everything. So it makes you feel good when you know that you’re kind of what they’re looking forward to.”

Rebekah is the creative mind behind the project, although Jose also gets involved in helping make and erect the displays.

Moving from California to Minot three years ago, the Arredondos have expanded their Halloween display each year, encouraged by the positive feedback and a prime location for viewer traffic along a busy roadway.

“But this year is definitely way more. We kind of tried to pull out all the stops, especially because last year people were saying they were going to be excited for this year. So I was like, ‘Well, I really can’t disappoint now,'” Rebekah Arredondo said.

Scott and Marci Julson of 2017 3rd St. NW have taken their out-of-the-way location and made it a destination for Halloween sight-seers and trick-or-treaters. They have been putting out Halloween decorations for longer than they can remember.

“We try to do this every year, and I don’t think we’ve skipped a year,” Marci Julson said. “We love Halloween. It’s our favorite holiday.”

From tombstones to skeletons to handmade coffins, with fog and spooky lighting, the decor is designed to be a fright.

A unique sight is a rebuilt 1962 Ford Ecoline that gets driven from spring into fall but becomes a centerpiece of the Halloween scheme in October. The red van is filled with macabre life-size and baby dolls.

“It’s got lights underneath it and strobes inside, and the whole inside lights up red, and it’s got special headlights with skulls in them that light up,” Scott Julson said.

A huge skull projecting on the house can be seen from Broadway.

“The whole side of the house has fire lights on it, so it’s big flames,” Scott Julson said. On Halloween, all the lights inside the house are changed to red bulbs to enhance the atmosphere for trick-or-treaters. Treats are handed out in a dark garage lit by scary scenes displaying on a television. This year, the Julsons are experimenting with projector scenery.

The scarier, the better, is their philosophy when it comes to Halloween. Trick-or-treaters have found themselves running wildly while chased by a blue-lit, remote-controlled vehicle or stranger wielding a buzzing chainsaw (without the chain).

“We’ve had people lose their shoes or their candy bags,” Marci Julson said. “That’s the goal – to hear the shrieks.”