Stingy Jack, Turnips and 12-Foot Skeletons: A Short History of Halloween Decorating

Halloween is now one of America's biggest decorating holidays. It wasn't always about orange pumpkins and giant skeletons, though. The jack-o'-lantern started as a turnip and a story about a very stingy man.

Stingy Jack

The jack-o'-lantern comes from an Irish folk tale about "Stingy Jack," a trickster who fooled the Devil more than once. When Jack died, the story goes, he was allowed into neither heaven nor hell, and was left to wander the dark with only a burning coal inside a hollowed-out turnip to light his way. The tale was first written down in the 1800s, but it was told long before that.

In Ireland and Scotland, people carved faces into turnips, potatoes and large beets, then set them in windows or by doors to frighten off Jack and other wandering spirits. When Irish and Scottish immigrants came to America, they found a native vegetable that was much easier to carve: the pumpkin.

Pumpkins in American stories

In 1820, Washington Irving published "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," where a shattered pumpkin is found after the Headless Horseman's chase. Irving never quite says what happened, which is part of the fun. Within a few decades, "jack-o'-lantern" had become the American name for a carved pumpkin.

Paper decorations and party books

Store-bought Halloween decor took off in the early 1900s. The Dennison paper company published its first "Bogie Book" in 1909, and from 1912 it came out every year. These booklets taught families how to decorate with crepe paper and throw Halloween parties, and they helped shape the look of Halloween through the 1920s and 1930s. Around the same time, the Beistle Company of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, began making die-cut paper and honeycomb-tissue decorations (black cats, moons, witches and pumpkins) that are now treasured by collectors.

The big-yard era

Halloween spending has grown enormously. The National Retail Federation estimated that Americans spent about $8.8 billion on Halloween in 2019, including roughly $2.7 billion on decorations alone. Then, in 2020, Home Depot released a 12-foot skeleton for $299. It sold out almost immediately, launched a resale market and became a symbol of how big yard displays had become. Giant skeletons now tower over lawns from coast to coast every October.

Spooky ideas for this year's porch

Carve a turnip too. Put a small carved turnip next to your pumpkins. It's a great conversation piece and a real history lesson.
Make pumpkins last. Spray the inside with a diluted bleach solution, rub petroleum jelly on the cut edges, keep them cool (around 50–60°F) and bring them in before a frost.
Skip the candle. LED lights or glow sticks inside a jack-o'-lantern are safer and help it rot more slowly.
Tell a Sleepy Hollow story. A headless-rider silhouette and a smashed pumpkin on the path is instantly recognizable.
Vintage paper look. Hang Beistle- and Dennison-style black cats, moons and witches in your windows.
Shrub monsters. Wrap a bush in gauze and add a pair of oversized googly eyes.
Ghosts on stakes. Drape old sheets over garden stakes around a few corn stalks.
Pose your skeletons. Skeletons climbing the steps, stirring a cauldron or rising out of a tombstone yard tell a story. A single skeleton standing still doesn't.
Go big on the web. Stretch rope webbing between two bushes and add one giant spider.
Set the mood with light. A little fog and some color-changing floodlights make everything spookier after dark.

Our Halloween contest is live now. Spooky or family-friendly, upload your porch and see where you rank on the Halloween leaderboard.

Sources

History.com, "The Irish origins of the jack-o'-lantern"
Carnegie Museum of Natural History, "The Jack-o'-Lantern's Origins"
Scenic Hudson, "Happy Birthday, Headless Horseman"
New England Historical Society, "Halloween Ephemera: The Factory Empire Built on Orange Crepe Paper"
ABC News, NRF Halloween spending forecast (2019)
Vice, oral history of Home Depot's 12-foot skeleton
Utah State University Extension and South Dakota State University Extension, pumpkin preservation tips
Homes & Gardens and Gardeningetc, outdoor Halloween decorating ideas