Gore-gian home goes full spooky for Halloween
HUNTLEY – Since 2005, Huntley resident Joe Buedel has continued to work on building one of the most elaborate Halloween displays located within the Georgian Place subdivision at 10716 Wheatlands Way.
Starting in midsummer, Buedel begins transforming his ordinary front yard into a bone-chilling haunted graveyard full of both static and animatronic/pneumatic props with music and sound effects that can be heard several houses away.
“We have fog machines and special effects. We have music and sound effects. I run this with a team of people that are part of Holiday Habits. That’s the name of our group and its family, friends, and neighbors,” said Buedel. “You know, my neighbors are completely supportive to a point where my neighbors actually let me expand into their yards. So, I actually utilize the neighbors on both sides of my house to make our graveyard bigger.”
Buedel told My Huntley News that on average he and his team of volunteers see about 7,000 visitors a year, however, last year he saw his biggest crowd of over 13,000 people in just six weeks.
In addition, Holiday Habits also hosts a “Scare Night” every year or what Buedel calls a second Halloween.
“It’s basically we have live actors that dress up in costumes and in makeup and again, they’re friends, family, and neighbors and they dress up and they walk around inside the graveyard within the fence and also down the sidewalk and on the driveway and everything else,” said Buedel. “We’ve been doing this for probably about 10 years with the actors now…Last year we had over 3,000 people on ‘Scare Night.’ 3,000 people in like six hours. It was crazy. It was awesome.”
This will be the 21st annual “Scare Night” that will take place on Oct. 16 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. If individuals aren’t able to attend “Scare Night,” Halloween night will still provide plenty of scares and other spooky treats for attendees.
Holiday Habits costs approximately $3,000-$5,000 a year to run and maintain, which Buedel admits as being a reason why he often thought about not continuing his annual Halloween display.
Buedel credits the support of his friends, family, neighbors and other Huntley community members for their generous donations that have helped in the maintenance and growth of Holiday Habits.
“So, I have been super blessed with the neighbors and the town and the village and everybody supporting what I do. I mean I literally only had one complaint since I’ve lived here and it was only because we have an electric box that’s part of our display that pops. It almost sounds like a machine gun when it goes off a lot and it was driving [the neighbor’s] dogs crazy,” Buedel said. “But other than that, the support in the neighborhood has been just phenomenal.”
While Buedel’s decorations don’t stay up past Oct. 31, kids will be in for an unforgettable treat on Halloween night.
“I give away full-size candy bars on Halloween. So, every kid gets a full-size candy bar and then every 100th kid gets a movie theater-sized candy bar. So, the big ones,” Buedel said. “We take their picture with their candy. They get a bigger candy bar so they get to show off to their friends and then all the kids want to be the 100th or the 200th. So, it’s pretty cool.”
Adults don’t get left out of a fun experience as Buedel builds something new into his display every year. This year, Buedel states that he animated the bride to his life-sized bride and groom monster props. Buedel hopes he can animate the groom prop for next year.
“They’ve been just static props for 20 years. This is the first year that I animated the bride so she now actually tilts her head down. Her hands are down and then she lifts her head up and her hands up and then she comes seven feet at you,” said Buedel.
“That’s part of my fun and I also studied like phobias. So, we try to interact with people based on a lot of different phobias. So, people are scared of spiders. They’re scared of snakes. They’re scared of clowns. I’ve never really even had clowns in my display until a few years ago. I was shocked at how many people are scared of clowns. So, I started studying all the phobias the last five or six years and we try to incorporate a lot of those into our haunt.”
Holiday Habits operates every day in October from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and runs until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Buedel says he is always looking for volunteers to join the Holiday Habits crew.
“It’s a massive amount of work. Everything still stays at my house. I have a three-car garage filled with Halloween and Christmas [decorations] and I have two attics that are pretty much packed. So, it all still fits here, but it takes a team of people to get it all out and people help with set up. They help with cleanup. They help with acting. I have people that help with the distribution of candy, with security. There’s a lot of different things,” said Buedel.
Additionally, individuals may also make donations such as money, Halloween props, or just time. Donations are not a requirement to attend Buedel’s display.
For more information on Holiday Habits, visit holidayhabits.com.
Residents may also visit chicagohauntbuilders.com to view a full list of other free interactive residential Halloween displays.
