By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
TINTON FALLS – Some skeletons have taken up residence on a Tinton Falls lawn, but don’t be scared; these bony figures offer more laughs than fright.
The skeletons – numbering at times five or more, with nonhuman bony figures like dogs and fish joining the mix – began appearing last fall, arranged in scenarios usually reserved for humans, not the dearly departed. The intricate, ingenious tableaus are the brainchild of homeowner Shelly Schneider.
It all began organically and then “snowballed,” Schneider said. A self-described creative person who worked for years as an assistant to an interior designer, Schneider goes all out decorating the interior of her house for Halloween. Last year she dressed two skeletons in her sons’ old hockey gear and put them in the backyard. She sent a photo to her sons, then away at college, figuring they’d “get a kick out of it,” she said. “They thought it was hysterical.”
After posting the photo on Facebook to more positive reactions, Schneider moved the skeletons to the front yard, thinking, “That way somebody else gets to see them and gets a chuckle out of them.” She left the “hockey players” there for a few days, until the Jets – her husband John is a long-suffering fan – won a few games in a row in October.
You need to put Jets jerseys on the skeletons, he told her.
“It became almost like Elf on the Shelf, but for Halloween,” Schneider said.
“Everybody just seemed to like it so much that I decided to change it every day.” After creating elaborate scenes for about two weeks last year, Schneider hit the ground running Oct. 1, lining up six skeletons with a sign announcing their return. Soon enough those driving along Sycamore Avenue were witness to Schneider’s quirky, often hysterical, not-so-spooky creativity: The final dramatic martial arts scene from “The Karate Kid” for all the ’80s kids; skeleton Barbie and Ken to capture the zeitgeist of late summer; a very meta magician skeleton sawing another skeleton in half. There have been skeletons fishing, skeleton frat bros playing quarters, skeletons grooming their skeleton dogs. Schneider seems to have an endless supply of funny montages to choose from (actually, she keeps a list of ideas on the Notes app of her phone, which she said numbers about 45).
Surprisingly she does not have the entire month planned out but rather pulls from her list whatever strikes her fancy each day. She tries to keep her expenditures to a minimum, repurposing cardboard boxes for signs and more, utilizing sports equipment, lawn furniture, workout gear and beach towels as necessary or sourcing cheap items from eBay.
“ ‘The Karate Kid’ one probably cost me the most because I had to buy both (characters’) costumes,” she explained.
“There’s one I wanted to do last year, but I didn’t have the props that I needed,” Schneider said. “There’s a couple that I think the girls would really like or the boys would really like, for the little kids. But I’m not ready yet,” she said.
She tries to change the display under the cover of darkness, either later in the evening or early in the morning. Schneider said the kids across the street watch for her to start setting up a new scene and get “so excited,” which makes her happy.
Schneider, a Girl Scout leader for many years, said she loves making the scenes because it gives her “some- thing fun to do for 31 days.” Some arrays prove more challenging than others, but that is also part of the enjoyment of the project. “That Barbie box was so much fun to make,” she said. “I got the biggest kick out of doing that. I didn’t know what I was doing. Didn’t know if it was going to work.”
Schneider’s tableaus are basically family-friendly (as long as you don’t mind skeletons, that is). “There’s nothing gory, bloody. It’s more silly,” she said. Even though she loves Halloween, she said she doesn’t like scary movies and would never go to a haunted house.
Schneider’s husband helps in a pinch when she needs something elaborate built, like PVC goalposts, but generally she does everything herself, which she doesn’t mind.
“If I don’t have something to do… I have to find something to do,” she said.
“I’m a big tinkerer.”
While Schneider said Christmas is fun for decorating, Halloween is her favorite. “There’s no strings attached. There’s no presents to buy. There’s no stress. It’s kind of a free-for-all. You can be a little crazy and it’s OK,” she said.
After she finished last year’s scenes, Schneider said she received several thank you notes from strangers. “Random people that don’t even live in Tinton Falls mailed me thank yous. To go out of their way was so lovely,” she said.
“It’s very heartwarming and I’m just glad that we’re making people happy,” Schneider said, noting the adults seem to get as much, if not more, of a kick out of it as the kids.
“If it makes somebody smile when they drive by on their commute or the kids going to school, then I accomplished what I wanted to do.”
If Sycamore Avenue isn’t part of your daily commute, you can see all the skeleton scenes by following Schneider on Instagram @sycamorefarmsnj.
The article originally appeared in the October 12 – 18, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
