Merced man displays love of Halloween at his house — with giant witches, skeletons and more
Halloween has always been Miguel Avila’s favorite holiday. As a kid, the Merced resident always loved dressing up in costumes and going trick-or-treating.
Candy was always the big motivation.
Now Avila, 28, loves to see the reactions of the kids that come by to see all the Halloween decorations on display at his home located on the corner of 9th and M streets in Merced.
Avila’s home screams Halloween with a collection of spooky clowns, life-size witches, giant 12-foot skeletons, ghosts, tombstones, monsters, coffins, giant spiders, werewolves, creepy looking trees and other decorations that light up and are synchronized to music.
“Everything that we see that we can afford, we just get it,” Avila said.
Avila has lived in the same Merced home for 13 years. He started decorating for Halloween in 2016 with a couple things he bought from the Dollar Store. He’s been adding to his collection ever since and has really gone over the top the last few years.
Now it’s impossible to miss the Avila house when you drive by, especially with everything lit up at night. The over-the-top decorations draw large crowds during Halloween season.
Avila says when he notices larger crowds on the weekend he’ll turn on the fog machines to really spook up the decorations.
Alejandra Moreno brought her two young kids to check out the decorations recently. Moreno drove by the house and noticed the decorations and wanted to bring her children to see the house.
They walked along the sidewalk, stepping on the foot pads that operated the animatronic figures that talk and move. The kids jumped, screamed and smiled as some of the figures startled them.
“The kids love it,” Moreno said. “I just got them from daycare and wanted to bring them by the house.”
Avila works with his friend Leovardo Gallegos to dress up his house for Halloween each year.
“We usually start at the beginning of September with the decorations so that we can have everything set up by October,” said Gallegos, who’s been friends with Avila since second grade.
Avila and Gallegos work for the same company that paints and resurfaces running tracks for high schools and colleges on the West Coast. When they travel for work they will often stop at stores and shop for more Halloween decorations that they can’t find in Merced.
“We’re always bringing a truck load of stuff back with us,” Avila said.
The decorations can get expensive with some of the bigger items costing $200 to $300.
Avila and Gallegos says one of their inspirations was Harmony and Ken Anderson, a Merced couple who go all out every year to decorate their home, located at the corner of Parsons and Oregon, for Halloween.
“We love that house,” Gallegos said.
Avila said they start planning the decorations a couple months before Halloween and the plan each year is to showcase the newest decorations. This year it’s the giant Deadwood Trees that they found at a Home Depot in San Diego.
A couple of days before Halloween they will take down a lot of the decorations so that they can construct a walk-through canopy that serves as a make-shift haunted house.
Eight to 10 family members and friends will help Avila and Gallegos by dressing up and playing parts in the haunted house as families walk through on Halloween.
Gallegos said last year there was a line of people that went down M Street waiting to go through the haunted house. Avila said there was about 3,000 kids who came by the house last Halloween.
Avila said his neighbors don’t seem bothered by the extravagant decorations, but they have told him they’ve had to buy more candy because of the amount of people who come by on Halloween.
“It’s worth it,” Avila said. “It’s really heartwarming seeing the kids enjoy Halloween. They scream and laugh, but in the end, they all have fun.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2024 at 12:00 PM.
