The Borgelt family moved into their Placentia neighborhood in 2019, and when Halloween came around they took advantage of their new, larger yard and added to the modest collection of decorations they had brought with them.
“Luckily we picked the right street,” said Stephen Borgelt. “Everyone on the street loves Halloween.”
Modest went out the window, and soon the Borgelts were trying to keep up with the enthusiasm their neighbors on the 1200 block of Cherry Hills Street started showing for decorating their yards.
There is a giant Grim Reaper standing guard in one yard and an elaborate cemetery scene in another. Out by the street, two full-sized skeletons take a bubble bath while another in a blonde wig walks her pack of skeleton dogs.
“The guy across the street built a pirate ship,” Borgelt said of Brian Hudson. “He built a set.”
“That’s the cool thing, everyone kind of has their own theme.”
The Borgelts have a yard display of their own version of the “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” made famous by Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion — true to the attraction, it hitched a ride with the family from their old home. Each year a theme is developed around that.
Borgelt said his wife thought up a Hollywood theme this year. The Haunted Mansion did just debut this summer on the silver screen.
“Next thing you know, I’m down at Home Depot,” he said. And with a projector for cutting out the letters, foam board and lights, he was soon on the roof installing the family’s own Hollywood sign with his wife and daughters watching below just as night was falling.
“I felt like Clark Griswold,” he said of the Chevy Chase character’s moment of glory connecting the plug for his dazzling light display in “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.”
“It lit up perfectly.”
Visitors have already been strolling and driving the street looking at the neighborhood’s Halloween creativity. And on Halloween night, the neighbors get a permit from the…
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