Lincoln woman takes Halloween decorating to a scary extreme
Being stuck in traffic behind JoAnne Hranac might spook you. The license plate on her Subaru Forester gives a hint about her holiday preference: “HLOWEEN.” That personalized plate is just the tip of the black cat’s tail when it comes to Hranac’s focus on Oct. 31.
Opening the door to her home is like stepping into Hauntsville, U.S.A. Life-size witches, goblins and skeletons stand next to portraits on the family room wall.
Inside the entrance is a Halloween tree of sorts. Modeled out of black iron that sprouts out of a black cauldron, the tree hosts an assortment of Christopher Radko glass ornaments hanging from hooks. The topper is an oversized copper witch weather vane.
Hranac’s husband, Joe, found the weather vane at a garden show and had the stand with the cauldron made for her.
This year, the Hranac house is in the middle of a remodeling project, so many of the ghouls are stored in the basement, waiting to scare guests next year. But normally, Hranac explains, this place is wall-to-ceiling Halloween.
Her Halloween extravaganza started innocently enough — like an Edgar Allen Poe story. Because Hranac’s birthday is Oct. 28, her childhood parties usually had an orange and black color scheme. “I remember my mom usually carved a pumpkin,” she said.
Over the years, it’s gone way beyond that. “I’m a Halloween freak,” she said with a smile.
Let’s start with the Halloween room. Like the rest of her house, it’s a bit boxed up at the moment, due to construction, but the wall of cupboards is still intact.
Hranac opens one door to reveal an assortment of costume pieces and accessories. Another is filled with hats. “I let friends pick from these,” she said.
Center shelves hold an assortment of “Nightmare Before Christmas” collectibles and Halloween Beanie Babies.
Normally, three glass cabinets are in the room and each shelf is outfitted with her Halloween Village — think Dickens’ Christmas Village with a scarier theme. During the year they are displayed here, but for the October holiday, Hranac sets them up on counters and shelves in the lower-level family room.
A photo of children and pumpkins with an inscription sums up Hranac’s feelings about the season: “Halloween brings out the child in all of us. Therein lies its magic.”
For this Lincoln woman, the time is fun, not dark. She hates scary movies, and there is never any blood or gore in her homemade haunts.
Her own costume selection is on the silly side, she said. Last year, she greeted guests as a Cheeseburger in Paradise.
Although costumes are just for October, other parts of the house are Halloween all year round. Orange and black dominate the corner shelf with vintage pieces and gifts from friends. “It’s a natural with my birthday,” she said.
The paper lantern black cat and orange and black noisemakers were purchased at antique stores, but Hranac remembers having many of those items as a child. “We just didn’t keep all of that stuff.”
An assortment of Halloween nutcrackers sits on another table. Frankenstein, Darth Vader, witches and a jack-o’-lantern are all ready to crunch walnuts, if they are called upon.
According to the National Retail Federation, consumers will spend a record $4.96 billion on costumes, cards, candy and decorations this Halloween. That is an increase of 51 percent from last year.
The survey found 64 percent of adults expect to observe the holiday in some way. About two-thirds pass out candy, almost 30 percent attend or throw a party and 49 percent decorate the yard.
Hranac usually does all three.
After 27 years of marriage, her husband is less enthusiastic about setting up a “haunt” in the storage rooms of the basement, but he always helps with the construction and setup, she said.
Usually (when there is not remodeling going on) they line the room with black plastic, setting up hallways lined with life-size ghouls.
Hranac wanted to take her props to the next spook level, so she signed up for a class on the subject at Southeast Community College a few years ago.
Her handcrafted tombstones were one result; another was friendship with other Halloween lovers.
This year she and her crafty friends spent the summer sawing, hammering and gluing together scary props for a city-wide haunt.
Hranac and her friends gave the former haunted house space at 126 N. 16th St. a new name, The Experiment, and found new ways to scare ticket holders, too.
“It’s been a lot of work, but I love it,” she said.
Because of her downtown spooktacular, Hranac will not be handing out candy at home this year. Her husband will take over those duties.
But she is continuing her Halloween-day tradition of decorating her front yard in the cul-de-sac off of 59th Street and Pioneers Boulevard.
She goes all out — no orange pumpkin-faced leaf bags allowed. There’ll be a giant spider web, of course. Some of the large ghouls will come out of the storage room — and don’t forget the fog machine, an essential prop for outdoors.
Hranac will line the upstairs windows with life-size cutouts and put strobe lights on them.
Motion sensors light up the house and a talking skeleton is on the front porch.
And her tombstones, complete with rickety fence, will fill the front yard that night.
But on Nov. 1, it all comes down.
Hranac will move on to the next decorating holiday — but she admits she doesn’t do Christmas the same way. “I love it, but it’s not nearly as crazy.”
Reach Kathryn Cates Moore at 473-7214 or kmoore@journalstar.com.
Opening the door to her home is like stepping into Hauntsville, U.S.A. Life-size witches, goblins and skeletons stand next to portraits on the family room wall.
Inside the entrance is a Halloween tree of sorts. Modeled out of black iron that sprouts out of a black cauldron, the tree hosts an assortment of Christopher Radko glass ornaments hanging from hooks. The topper is an oversized copper witch weather vane.
Hranac’s husband, Joe, found the weather vane at a garden show and had the stand with the cauldron made for her.
This year, the Hranac house is in the middle of a remodeling project, so many of the ghouls are stored in the basement, waiting to scare guests next year. But normally, Hranac explains, this place is wall-to-ceiling Halloween.
Her Halloween extravaganza started innocently enough — like an Edgar Allen Poe story. Because Hranac’s birthday is Oct. 28, her childhood parties usually had an orange and black color scheme. “I remember my mom usually carved a pumpkin,” she said.
Over the years, it’s gone way beyond that. “I’m a Halloween freak,” she said with a smile.
Let’s start with the Halloween room. Like the rest of her house, it’s a bit boxed up at the moment, due to construction, but the wall of cupboards is still intact.
Hranac opens one door to reveal an assortment of costume pieces and accessories. Another is filled with hats. “I let friends pick from these,” she said.
Center shelves hold an assortment of “Nightmare Before Christmas” collectibles and Halloween Beanie Babies.
Normally, three glass cabinets are in the room and each shelf is outfitted with her Halloween Village — think Dickens’ Christmas Village with a scarier theme. During the year they are displayed here, but for the October holiday, Hranac sets them up on counters and shelves in the lower-level family room.
A photo of children and pumpkins with an inscription sums up Hranac’s feelings about the season: “Halloween brings out the child in all of us. Therein lies its magic.”
For this Lincoln woman, the time is fun, not dark. She hates scary movies, and there is never any blood or gore in her homemade haunts.
Her own costume selection is on the silly side, she said. Last year, she greeted guests as a Cheeseburger in Paradise.
Although costumes are just for October, other parts of the house are Halloween all year round. Orange and black dominate the corner shelf with vintage pieces and gifts from friends. “It’s a natural with my birthday,” she said.
The paper lantern black cat and orange and black noisemakers were purchased at antique stores, but Hranac remembers having many of those items as a child. “We just didn’t keep all of that stuff.”
An assortment of Halloween nutcrackers sits on another table. Frankenstein, Darth Vader, witches and a jack-o’-lantern are all ready to crunch walnuts, if they are called upon.
According to the National Retail Federation, consumers will spend a record $4.96 billion on costumes, cards, candy and decorations this Halloween. That is an increase of 51 percent from last year.
The survey found 64 percent of adults expect to observe the holiday in some way. About two-thirds pass out candy, almost 30 percent attend or throw a party and 49 percent decorate the yard.
Hranac usually does all three.
After 27 years of marriage, her husband is less enthusiastic about setting up a “haunt” in the storage rooms of the basement, but he always helps with the construction and setup, she said.
Usually (when there is not remodeling going on) they line the room with black plastic, setting up hallways lined with life-size ghouls.
Hranac wanted to take her props to the next spook level, so she signed up for a class on the subject at Southeast Community College a few years ago.
Her handcrafted tombstones were one result; another was friendship with other Halloween lovers.
This year she and her crafty friends spent the summer sawing, hammering and gluing together scary props for a city-wide haunt.
Hranac and her friends gave the former haunted house space at 126 N. 16th St. a new name, The Experiment, and found new ways to scare ticket holders, too.
“It’s been a lot of work, but I love it,” she said.
Because of her downtown spooktacular, Hranac will not be handing out candy at home this year. Her husband will take over those duties.
But she is continuing her Halloween-day tradition of decorating her front yard in the cul-de-sac off of 59th Street and Pioneers Boulevard.
She goes all out — no orange pumpkin-faced leaf bags allowed. There’ll be a giant spider web, of course. Some of the large ghouls will come out of the storage room — and don’t forget the fog machine, an essential prop for outdoors.
Hranac will line the upstairs windows with life-size cutouts and put strobe lights on them.
Motion sensors light up the house and a talking skeleton is on the front porch.
And her tombstones, complete with rickety fence, will fill the front yard that night.
But on Nov. 1, it all comes down.
Hranac will move on to the next decorating holiday — but she admits she doesn’t do Christmas the same way. “I love it, but it’s not nearly as crazy.”
Reach Kathryn Cates Moore at 473-7214 or kmoore@journalstar.com.
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