A Cumbrian home turned hair-raising Halloween house is bringing joy and raising money for charity.
Homeowner Philip Pattinson, 42, has transformed his home in Hensingham with dozens of Halloween decorations – many being handmade – as well as props and lights and he’s even set up photo opportunities for trick or treaters too.
Alongside his next level decorating – Philip and his wife Dianna have also put together 300 bags of sweets for local trick or treaters and have set up a collection box to raise money for West Cumberland Hospital’s breast screening unit.
But the idea to decorate his family home on a bigger scale first came in 2019 – when the electrician started doing more exciting decorations at his wife’s request.
He said: “It started after my wife moved in in 2019. She wanted to do a few different things like hang a fake dead body from a tree, so I did a couple of the things she wanted but it was nothing much at that point.
“Then in 2020 we did a bit more and did a lockdown theme, so we had things like a skeleton in the stocks for breaking the two meter rule and obviously it was Covid and people weren’t going out, but they were saying you could trick or treat with social distance.
“So my wife instead of giving out sweets made bags up a week early so we didn’t touch them and I put in a few groups that we were doing it and that people could come and look at the garden.
“People were actually driving their kids to visit and look at the house and we had one woman in particular who said it was the first time her son had come out of the house because he wouldn’t come out through Covid.
“So it was nice little things like that and we just carried it on for another year. It started with a dead body in a tree and it’s just escalated from there.”
The pair have since decorated their garden under a variety of horror themes including Shaun of the Dead, The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror and Lydia and Beetlegeuse’s wedding – inspired by the pair getting married.
Philip added: “We started properly doing it three years ago when we created the pub from Shaun of the Dead in our front garden.
“We had a sign up saying The Winchester and had the barman from The Shining, Jason, Freddie Krueger and Michael Myers as skeletons dressed up sat out with beers.
“This year we’ve done a ‘school photo’ theme because my wife said about doing it so kids can get their photos taken. So this year the kids can go stand next to Freddie Krueger headmaster with his arm around them for a picture.
“But my wife actually isn’t a horror movie fan at all – she says she will watch horror films, but she doesn’t like them. But I do enjoy some of them.
“In the past we’ve had little kids scared of the skeletons, so in another part of the garden I’ve made a pumpkin box from palettes that kids can stick their head through like you would at a funfair.
“So while their big brothers and sisters can get their picture taken with Freddie, they can do that instead.”
Many of Phillp’s decorations are handmade and he said he often gets materials from local people who are happy to give things like scrap wood and pallets away for free.
He added: “I’ve made a coffin from scratch this year and I’m happy with how that turned out. My dad has also helped out with a few things.
“I started making some stuff in September like the coffin which I made in one day and other stuff I make as I get it and I start putting things out in October and it takes roughly a week to get it all finalised.
“But I like putting out the skeletons because every one is a different character from a movie or book or something.
“I couldn’t think of a cameraman for this year, but I remembered from years ago a DVD I watched from Blockbuster, One Hour Photo, where Robin Williams plays an evil character so I’ve done that.
“Sometimes people don’t get what they are but every now and then people do recognise them.”
The pair first started to raise money for different charities each year after local people kept asking if they had a collection box.
Philip said: “People were asking if we were collecting, but I didn’t realise that was a thing you could do, we were just doing it for a bit of fun at first.
“But three years ago we decided so many people were asking that we should do it. I play football for Tubby FC who did a match and were raising money for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) at the time, so we raised money for CRY too and handed it in with them.
“Last year we raised money for Dementia UK and this year we’re raising money for the breast screening unit to tie in with money already raised in a football match between Tubby FC and NHS International FC.
“Every year we’ve got bigger but it’s all just a bit of fun and the charity thing is just a nice extra.”
Philip said that a team from Whitehaven Fire Station are also planning to bring down a fire engine and take their collection bucket to help with fundraising while also giving youngsters a chance to see a firetruck up-close.
He said: “When I’m doing the Halloween stuff everyone stops and talks to us and is friendly. I started it for my wife but it does bring joy and that’s one of the reasons I’ve carried it on.
“People stop and talk and say its brilliant and even the kids running about say ‘oh your garden’s great’ and it’s the little things like that that are just nice.
“We have got plans for next year already and we’ve got a few more things coming next week and my wife and her friends will be dressing up on Halloween night.
“But the amount of people we see outside walking up and down sometimes for about 10 minutes taking photos and having a look is great and we see the same kids coming again and again and spotting different things.
“So you do get fun out of it, it’s not fun taking things back down, but when it’s up, it is good fun.”
Philip and Dianna will start handing sweets out to trick or treaters tonight and will continue handing them out every evening after 6pm until Halloween.
