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People have many different ways of celebrating during the month of October, aka “spooky season.” [Stop it. —Ed.] For some people, this time of year is all about watching their favorite scary movies, while others like to pour all their energy into their costumes. And some people don’t really care about Halloween, and October is just like any other month. Nick and Anna Smithler of Eureka are not those people. 

For the Smithlers, the month of October means getting up at about 6 a.m. each day to do important work – placing skeletons into different comedic scenes on their lawn.  For the last three years the couple, sometimes with help from their two kids, have created a new skeleton scene every day between Oct. 1 and Nov. 1.  

“It’s a fun little outlet for us,” Nick Smithler told the Outpost on Thursday afternoon, outside of this skeleton-adorned home. “We love to entertain the neighborhood.”

Nick and Anna and their two kids have lived in their current home for about five and a half years and started their skeleton tradition in 2020, when they had to be home all the time due to COVID. Nick said that the couple had seen some other skeleton scenes in people’s yards and online and thought that it would be a fun way to keep themselves busy during the pandemic, while also spreading some cheer to their neighbors. 

To give their skeleton installations a special twist, the Smithlers decided to do a new, unique scene every day of October. Smithler said this was both to keep things fresh and fun, but also because the family takes the skeletons into the house every night to prevent theft or vandalism. Since they have to set them back up each morning, they decided they might as well set them up differently each day. 

The yard displays vary in theme each day, depicting skeleton construction workers, skeletons playing a yard game, or sometimes a recognizable scene from a television show or movie. This year the family has been doing a lot more movie references, Smithler said, and have recreated famous scenes from E.T., Pulp Fiction and Flashdance, among others. They also did a recreation of the popular Spider-Man meme. 

For the last couple of years, the Smithlers used four different plastic skeletons to create their yard scenes and this year they welcomed a new member to the skeleton family – a massive, 12-foot-tall skeleton, which Smithler said he has been dreaming of adding to the decor since the family first took up the hobby. After socking away money for a while, Smithler finally felt like it was time to fork out the $300 for the 12-foot skelly, which he purchased from Home Depot.

This skeleton decor obsession is not unique to the Smithlers. They have have found many others like themselves and belong to several Facebook groups, including the Home Depot Halloween Haunters Club, where people post pics and information about extravagant decorations they got at Home Depot, and the 12 Foot Skelly Club, which is for people who have super tall skeletons like the Smithlers’. The 12 foot skelly craze has grown enough that people even custom make and sell clothing and accessories for the massive bone creations. 

It can get a little pricey collecting large-scale Halloween decor, Smithler said, but he and his wife  spread out the costs by purchasing the big items gradually and purchasing the smaller accessories from the dollar store. The biggest expense was the security system that Smithler installed this year to deter theft or vandalism of his beloved skeletons. The yard is equipped with three different security cameras and the 12-foot skeleton, which is too big to bring in the house each night, is tightly secured to the ground. Smithler, understandably, wanted to make sure things were extra secure before putting his house on blast on LoCO. 

Now that he’s got everything ready, Smithler is happy to invite the public to come visit their Halloween home, which is located at 3412 G Street in Eureka. The skeleton scenes are usually ready at about 7 a.m. each day and are brought back inside around 7 p.m. Closer to Halloween and on actual Halloween night, the Smithler house transforms into an intricate, spooky light show set to music. It probably goes without saying, but if you go to check out the displays, don’t steal or break anything! And if you’re thinking about it, just remember that you will be caught on camera!

Smithler said that he just wants to let people know about their fun creations and to help bring some Halloween fun to the area. 

“We want to be that house that people are like ‘have you seen that house?’,” Smithler said. I don’t really care about the recognition for myself, but knowing that it’s here for people to enjoy is really what we wanted to do.” 

And if you don’t make it out or just want to scroll through some of the Smithlers’ past creations, you can check out videos of all the skeleton fun on Nick’s TikTok channel and scroll down for more pics of Thursday’s scene.