By Chad Koenen

Publisher

hat began with a few decorations, spread out over a small 100 square foot area of her lawn, has transformed Jennifer Windels’ home on East Gilman Street into a spooky, yet delightful, Halloween tradition that brightens up the sky in New York Mills. With Halloween just over a week away, Windels and a group of local volunteers are taking advantage of a warm fall to get better-than 1,000 Halloween decorations out of storage and put in place before Halloween—ghosts, goblins, skeletons, pumpkins and all. 

Windels started her decorating tradition in 2005 or 2006 and has expanded exponentially through the years from a little 10×10 area with a few lights to a massive display with anywhere from 1,200-1,300 decorations each year. 

“My brother Randy used to do a haunted hay ride on his farm so that’s how I got started. I blame him for giving me the bug,” said Windels. “A lot of the pieces were from his hay ride and when he quit he gave several of the items to me.”

Randy has since passed away and since that time Windels has been busy transforming her corner of Gilman St. into an oasis of Halloween decorations, treats and one-of-a-kind items that keep people coming back each year to see what is new at her home.

“(Randy) passed away in 2018 and since then I have kind of gone gung ho,” she said. 

In order to help decorate her lawn each year, a collection of family and friends start getting the decorations down from storage at the end of September and begin laying out some of the pieces outside. Since a number of the items cannot be left outside in the elements, Windels said people who stop by prior to Halloween will not get the full effect. About a week before Halloween a group of volunteers works overtime, navigating busy schedules of full-time jobs while taking advantage of nice fall days to get the finishing touches put on the decorations.

“Anybody is welcome to stop by and see the decorations on Halloween,” said Windels. “I don’t mind people coming earlier, but they would truly miss out on half of the good things because they are not set out until Halloween.”

Last year approximately 300 children and 200 adults stopped by her home at 406 Gilman St. to go trick or treating and see what all the fuss was about in town. While it takes a lot of time to get set up each year, Windels said all of the work is worth it to see the local youth smile, laugh and even scream a little as they see all the headstones, ghosts, decorations and lights on Halloween night.

“I like seeing the people come through and how much they enjoy it,” said Windels. “It’s nice to see the surprise on the little kids’ faces, and even the adults are to the point where they like to walk through to see everything that has changed.”

The only request of Windels is that people don’t run on the lawn at her home when the decorations are set up as there are a number of cords and wires placed throughout the lawn to give the decorations a mind of their own. In addition to well over a thousand decorations, the decorations will be set up in a way where people can walk through a number of the ghoulish creations before they get to her front step for a trick or treat. There will also be a place where people can take pictures with some of the decorations and share a few screams and laughs along the way.

While Windels continues her family tradition of going all out on Halloween, she credits the assistance of Mike and Julie Cole who help to make the decorations come to life each fall. In fact, Windels said the festive Halloween lawn at her home wouldn’t be possible without their help and creative spirit.

“I wouldn’t be able to do this without their help,” she said. “We laugh that I am the brains and (Mike) is the brawn.”

Windels’ home is located at 406 Gilman St. in NY Mills.