Our neighborhood has been taken over…by gigantic spiders.
And I DO mean GIGANTIC.
It started with this one, which quickly became Ali’s best friend:
And then it had babies – ones who built magnificent webs,
Ones whose heads eerily jerk around and stare at you when you drive past, 
And even apparently some die hard Alabama Arachnids:
There are even a couple so large that they would make Hagrid get all ooey gooey on the inside:
There seem to be more Halloween decorators than Christmas decorators in our neighborhood, and they’re not just limited to spiders. Our neighbors shell out big bucks for taller-than-Ford-Econoline-Frankensteins
And full-yard cemeteries. 
At first I thought that maybe Halloween deco in general was just becoming more popular than the classic few pumpkins sitting here and there, but from what I have observed and heard, it appears that we just live in a extraordinarily Halloween Enthused neighborhood.
(Which scares me to think of all of the “tricks” that we might get on Halloween night for not being home to give out “treats”.)
(Maybe we should leave a huge conciliatory bowl of candy on the front porch.)
However, there’s one thing for sure: Ali LOVES it. She looks for each one of these landmarks every time we leave the house, and we have a constant discussion about whether or not Freddy and Christie’s house will be sparkling with orange blinking lights or not.
So, in an act of kindness to a toddler (and to her mother who has to answer all of these questions), would you please be so kind and when you take down your Halloween decorations, immediately replace them with Christmas bling so that I don’t have a depressed toddler for a whole month?
Or maybe some neon blinking turkeys and spinning cornucopias for Thanksgiving, perhaps?
If y’all won’t do it, I’m sure that Chris would love to have an excuse to go Griswold on our house even earlier than last year.
At any rate: the expectations have been set, and your spiders are welcome to stay. At least if Ali has any say-so in it.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I almost didn't even read this after your last spider post for fear we were talking about real spiders. Ick.
I'm not really into the Halloween decor. We do pumpkins, mums, and scarecrows, but that's really it. Do you have any decorations? The giant spider ones and the webs freak me out.
I cannot believe all the decorations, it is great. I wish we lived in a neighborhood like that. All we have is real LIVE alligators in the creek across the street.
How fun!
I'm with Lianne…I thought you were talking about real spiders.
No one in our "neighborhood" (I use that term loosely) really gets into decorating for Halloween. But they make up for it at Christmas.
Lianne – Nope – we have NO deco. We're pretty much the bah humbugs of the neighborhood. I've never been on top of things enough to seasonally decorate – luckily I have a husband who makes SURE that we decorate for Christmas!!
We're sadly lacking in outside Halloween decor. We'll try to step it up a bit for Christmas.
Wow, you have a very festive neighborhood! I never used to like Halloween (probably b/c my mom doesn't) but it's my mother-in-law's birthday and she loves it, so I've gotten into it the last couple of years. Not enough to put a giagantic moving spider in my front yard though.
Wow! Those are some serious Halloween decorations.
Some of our neighbors are like that as well. Last year our neighbor had a flying witch slide down a rope to their front door.
I've never heard my daughter scream so loud.
That last one with the cemetary rocks!
Your neighborhood is fun if that many people participate. My neighborhood is a bunch of fuddy-duddys and I include myself in that grouping.
Wow. Talk about some Halloween deco. All Noah and I have are two mini pumpkins on our front porch. BUT, I painted mine with the Alabama logo and he did his with Greenbay, so that makes up for our lack of decorative-ness.
Plus, our front "porch" is only like 4 feet by 4 feet big.
It's so funny to see these decorations on the blog, since I see them on my drive to and from work everyday! We are definately an "Halloween Happy" neighborhood!
WOW! You really do have some really enthusiastic halloween decorators in your neighborhood…I've never seen so many gigantic spiders!
That's hysterical! I was out of town for a week and when I got back my neighbor had spider webs in her shrubs. I started wondering if we were going to be on the outs for not decorating. I think your neighborhood has definitely set the bar though. I'm not sure if Ella would be as enthused.
April