Halloween 2024

Theme: The Return of the Devil’s Bounty

2024 was by far our most ambitious year yet. Wanting to make this a celebration not just for ourselves and our party guests, but for the entire neighborhood, Matt and I wanted to do something big. The idea to build a pirate ship started as a joke and evolved into our pride and joy, The Devil’s Bounty.

Becoming Shipwrights

Matt started by blueprinting out every step of construction. Our ship was going to be roughly 12 ft long and 20 ft tall from base to the tip of the mast. We had to figure out a way to not only build the ship but store it and make it safe to be near.


From there, we started with the boards that made up the majority of the ship itself. Matt and his father cut up the boards (roughly 150 of em) while Matt’s Mom and I painted and stained them to give them an aged look. While the paint was drying, we moved on to the skeleton of the thing. We based it’s design off of a prop we used the previous year; the photo wall. With leg supports held down by sandbags, each portion of the ship could stand on its own. The ship was divided into four parts to ensure we could store it in our tiny garage. After 12 hours of work, we completed the body of the ship.


The mast posed it’s own set of problems. We wanted something light enough to lift while also strong enough to withstand the pull of the winds. We also needed it to be sturdy enough to hold up the cross beams for the sail. We went with two 1 inch thick PVC pipes that we attached at the center with a bracer. Matt then stuck the pipe into a bucket of cement. From there, he figured out a rigging system that would balance the mast by attaching it to key areas on our lawn. Big thanks to Paul and Becky for helping us do the actual engineering on that end. The sails were soaked in water mixed with mud and then rung out to give them an authentic worn look.

A fun side note is that while we were setting up the mast for the first time, as a practice run, we did not have it affixed to the ground yet. On a particularly windy October day, I was nearly taken away with the sails while I was holding the mast in place.

On the night of the event itself, we added some finishing touches. We lashed one of our many skeletons to a simple animatronic ship wheel, threw a couple of spotlights on it, draped a ton of fake seaweed all over the hull, and set up a speaker that played 5 hours of creaky boat sounds.

Graphics & Art

I had a ton of fun with both the invitations for this party as well as the signage I got to make for around the house.

Decor & Design

We wanted the interior of the house to double as both a sunken, haunted ship, and a rowdy pirate tavern.

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Monster of the Week: The Beacon Society