House alive with haunts

Halloween begins in September for Mike Johnson and Wayne Walls.

That’s when the couple put all the furnishings from their 1920s Victorian home near 14th and Dorcas Streets in storage to make way for their Halloween decorating.

Decorating probably isn’t the right word. These guys essentially let the holiday possess their house — in big ways like the life-size skeleton in their bathtub and in small ways like the framed pumpkin pictures on their walls.

It’s hard to miss the skeleton greeting visitors in the foyer, the mummy ironing his wrapping in the laundry room, and the black and orange streamers streaking across the sitting room ceiling.

And that’s just the tip of the vampire’s fang.

Every room in the two-story house is blanketed in Halloween. Spooky cookie cutters are on display in the kitchen, an orange-and-black curtain hangs on the shower and jack-o’-lantern ornaments cling to an orange Christmas — er, Halloween? — tree.

“I suppose you could call it an obsession,” Johnson said. “But it’s a fun obsession.”

Johnson takes the blame for the Halloween hang-up. It’s always been his favorite holiday, fed with a love for old horror movies.

“The Bride of Frankenstein” is his favorite, but he’s a big fan of almost any classic starring Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi. His basement is a tribute to those actors and their movies — with images, posters and autographed memorabilia on display.

His interest in horror and Halloween carried into adulthood. In college, Johnson decorated the door of his apartment and wore a costume to greet trick-or-treaters.

When he and Walls bought their Omaha home 11 years ago, they haunted the house.

The first year, it began as a celebration of fall with a few Halloween characters sprinkled in. Ever since, things have gotten spookier.

Johnson and Walls visit antique stores, flea markets and even Halloween collecting conventions throughout the year, looking for the perfect addition to their collections. Local craftsmen know them by name and specifically make items with Walls and Johnson in mind.

Whether it’s January or June, the men always have Halloween on the brain when they’re shopping. Maybe a mechanical monster here or a glowing jack-o’-lantern there. And wouldn’t that life-sized vampire look perfect sleeping in the master bedroom?

It would and it does.

Johnson, who works for Ford Motor Credit Co., and Walls, a pharmacist at the 50th and Dodge Street Kohll’s store, can’t begin to calculate how much they’ve spent on their thousands of seasonal items. Safe to say, it’s a frightening sum.

The fact that they decorate for the holiday isn’t unusual. A national retail study estimated that nearly half of Americans buy Halloween items for their house or yard, spending an average of $15 per year.

Those sales have helped Halloween become the second-biggest consumer holiday behind Christmas. Omaha stores, including Mangelsen’s and Nobbies, are swamped this time of year. Halloween is the busiest holiday by far at Nobbies, said Chris Krohn, who works in marketing there.

It’s hard to identify exactly why Americans such as Johnson and Walls have become so obsessed with Halloween, said Edmund M. Kern, a professor specializing in the history of magic and witchcraft at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. His best guess is that the holiday provides the perfect time for adults to add a little fun to their usually stressful lives.

“It’s a time of the year when you can hang skeletons on your door, hand out candy to strange children, party with your friends and pretend that you’re an ax murderer or Marilyn Monroe,” he said.

While Johnson and Wells may be more obsessive than most, they get plenty of boo for their buck.

Each room in their home has a theme — said vampires in the master bedroom, ghosts in the spare bedroom, witches in the office, skeletons in the bathroom and mummies in the laundry room.

The front porch is more of a spooky smorgasbord — witches eating at a table, cutouts of characters, a grumbling ghoul. A talking skeleton named Chesterfield stands among gravestones and pumpkin pails, greeting guests when they walk into the house.

While the themes and exact decorations vary year to year, most usually aren’t scary. Johnson and Walls draw their inspiration from early 1900s Victorian-style postcards that feature scenes as much about whimsy as fright.

“People expect slasher-movie horror,” Walls said, “but we’re less about the spook and more about the fun.”

The fun usually includes a big Halloween party.

Eileen Boevree visits the house every year during Halloween. She works with Walls at Kohll’s and looks forward to seeing how her friends have decorated.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “No matter where you look — up, down or in any corner — there’s some kind of decoration.”

Few trick-or-treaters get the grand tour of the inside of the home. But that doesn’t matter. Johnson and Walls are renowned in the neighborhood for their yard displays.

Twenty-five concrete steps lead visitors up the steep yard from the street. Along the way, large mechanized werewolves, cyclops, witches, devils, skeletons, vampires and grim reapers howl from behind headstones.

For those who endure the terrifying trek, there’s a rich reward. Johnson hands out bags filled with toys and candy to trick-or-treaters. Last year, he counted a record 60 visitors.

When the last trick-or-treater leaves, Johnson and Walls are already preparing to dismantle their in-house tribute to Halloween. Within a week — or maybe two — it will all be gone.

But the decorating certainly isn’t done.

See, Walls is a huge Christmas fan, and since he helps Johnson display the house for Halloween, the favor quickly gets returned. In fact, half their two-car garage holds Christmas decorations and the other half houses Halloween. Their cars sit in the driveway.

But for now, Christmas is still a ways away. Now is Johnson’s favorite week of the year.

“I look forward to this,” he said. “And it’s so much fun.”

Contact the writer:

444-1220, dane.stickney@owh.com

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