Local Halloween Decor Hunt reveals tricks and treats

Our local Halloween decor hunt features both monsters and vintage-style tricks and treats, including lots of Frankenstein and more finds from Dollar Tree, Marshalls and more. It's not always easy to travel hours away to larger cities to find heavy hitter stores like Homegoods, Lowes and Target during Halloween decor hunting season. For this week's Halloween Haunt special, we set out to explore our local options including Marshalls, Ross Dress for Less, Dollar Tree, Walgreens and Five Below. Finding major monster decor, as we Universal Monsters fans tend to prefer, is very limited -- but even here we found a few things to add to the spooky collection.

Each year, Dollar Tree has had a hanging, jointed Frankenstein monster made from paper. Except none was to be found this. year. Instead, they offered this purple felt version. For $1.50, we picked it up since it is Frankenstein's monster and it's easy to hang.

Marshalls has bene a huge letdown this year. In fact, this haul was the first where we've picked anything up at all. And even here, we almost missed it. But, these two hand soap offerings were very eye-catching. The first features vintage 40s style Halloween imagery.

The second soap featured classic monsters Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy, plus a jack o'lantern and a witch. The container and artwork are almost opaque, though it doesn't show great in photos, that adds to the 60s or 70s stylings of the designs.

Several years ago, we picked up a bat rug discounted at World Market. It's been great, but the toll of harsh winters and sweltering summers have left it a little rough looking. I'd seen a similar version on one of the online stores, but it was pretty expensive. To my surprise, this one came from Five Below and it was an immediate pickup. It may not last as long as the World Market version did, but that just becomes an excuse to get a new one next year!

If there's anything we don't need it's dish towels. But there are some that are too unique to pass up. The first one that offers us to "Come in for a Bite" features Dracula and came from Dollar Tree. The second came from Ross Dress for Less and features Casper. We're not huge Casper fans, but these oddities look great and harken back to a classic, vintage character.

Dollar Tree, at least in the midwest, has been very staggered in its Halloween decor availability. We've seen these stand-up plush Frankenstein and Dracula monsters online, but never in store. Then, to our surprise, it just showed up. They only had these two and one other Frankenstein. They're not great designs, but it was Universal Monsters archetypes at Dollar Tree and that's worth supporting, plus they're great inexpensive decor.

Another Dollar Tree find, this cardboard box was one of several cool designs. They also had multiple sizes. We went for this one because of the spooky green, which doesn't show well in the photo.

From cardboard books to real books: This was one of several Frankenstein novels at Marshalls. The artwork might be AI, but the colors are great and this one actually has embossed printing which makes it really stand out. We love picking up the various editions of Frankenstein and Dracula, especially those that feature the Universal-inspired designs for the monsters.

Back to Dollar Tree, we also found these Frankenstein erasers for $1.

The local Walgreens has had almost no Halloween. We saw a plan-o-gram and it doesn't look like they'll be getting the Peanuts offerings or much of the Halloween collection. They did have this scarecrow or jack o'lantern man that stood out on the shelf. One of our favorite YouTubers described it as gangster jack o'lantern and that made us think of our own character Gourd Rotter. This gangster isnt' weilding a tommy gun, though, he's armed with a Johanna Parker ghost.

Marshalls hasn't had much Johanna Parker this year, but when we found these Dracula salt and pepper shakers, it was an immediate pickup. They also had one set of the black cats, but nothing else.

Also from Marshalls is this 40s style Frankenstein monster bag. It's not huge like a grocery bag, but it's made out of a heavier canvas material similar to what you might find a Barnes & Noble. Marshalls also had different Frankenstein and Bride bags, but they didn't look as good and felt flimsy. This one was the definite winner.

While the bag was what caught our eye when we walked in the store, it was the artwork on the tag that really sold it. This vintage-style classic monster and Halloween designs popped out as much as the bag itself. We're not sure if they make a Dracula bag, but if they did it would be an instant pickup.