Tips on How to Decorate Your Office for Halloween

Decorating the office for Halloween brings lightheartedness and creativity to your office atmosphere. You will see skills in your office workers that you never knew they had by involving them in making decorations or encouraging them to create their own Halloween costumes. Decorating the office doesn't have to break the bank account or be a dreaded task. In fact, it can be a lot of fun! Here are tips for decorating the office for Halloween.

Decorate the common rooms. Decorate wherever your office has the most people traffic: receptionist area, waiting room, hallways, break room.

Don't block work. Make sure that your haunted house or flying witches don't obstruct needed workspace.

Pick a theme. Choosing a theme makes decorating easier. If you choose a fantasy theme, you know that dragons, sorcerers, and fairies should be included in the design of props, flyers, and costumes.

Hang flyers from the ceiling. Use construction paper to make ghosts, bats, and witches to dangle from your office ceilings. Draw the pattern on your choice of colored paper and cut it out with scissors. Use a hook and string to hang them up at least a foot apart. Get creative and use other materials. Dynamic Designs Intl has wonderful life-sized flyers if you want ideas to make your own.

Decorate desktops. There are a multitude of Halloween figurines to choose from for placing on your desks (and countertops). Ceramic black cats, pumpkins, witches, and anything else you can imagine is available in most retail stores. Hang colored streamers along the front of your desks for added pomp.

Pumpkins. Carve your own jack-o-lantern by drawing a pattern onto a pumpkin. Use a nail to make perforations that will guide your knife. Use a knife to cut out the pattern and an opening around the stem. Use a large spoon to scoop out the seeds (which you can keep for a nice, toasted snack). Place a tea light into the pumpkin to create the glowing effect. Since Halloween wouldn't be the same without pumpkins (Ballard Designs has great ones), look for them in ceramics, rugs, candleholders, door hangers, and sound props.

Props. Use posterboard and your most creative office workers to create tombstones, mummies, witches, fairies, cartoon characters, and superheroes. Magic markers are perfect for drawing these. You can also make a stuffed office worker by stuffing clothes with fabric or pillow stuffing, placing a pumpkin head on the neck, and sitting it in an office chair. Other delightful props are the noise detectors. Place a black cat noise detector at the office entry and watch your patrons light up.

Lights. Colored lights work best in an office. Don't go overboard. Just hang orange or purple lights in places to accent your Halloween decorating. Candles are the best option when it comes to Halloween. Pumpkin spice candles add a seasonal touch and aroma to your office atmosphere.

Candy. Offer Halloween candy in decorative bowls. Candy is always a crowd-pleaser!

Costumes. Have fun in your office by asking employees to dress up in Halloween costumes. If you don't want full blown costumes then office workers can wear hats, wigs, and masks. Increase the incentive by offering a reward for "best costume" or "most creative costume." It will be fun to see what creative ideas will emerge from your office.