Transforming the Urban Landscape: The Rise of Halloween Porch Displays

In the heart of New York City’s Upper West Side, Hillary Wallace’s brownstone has become something of a neighborhood landmark each October. When a truck delivering 4,000 pumpkins arrived on Amsterdam Avenue recently, locals weren’t surprised – they’ve come to expect Wallace’s annual transformation of her 135-year-old home into a sophisticated Halloween spectacle. Since purchasing her brownstone eight years ago, Wallace, who owns Simon-Wallace Design, has turned seasonal decorating into a personal passion project. This year’s theme, “Someone is Always Watching You,” features enormous, blood-rimmed eyeballs flanking her entrance and meticulously arranged exotic gourds cascading down her twelve front steps. The installation, which cost approximately $4,000, eschews typical Halloween kitsch in favor of a “mystical, New Orleans potion theme” with artist-painted details and pumpkins grown in specialty molds to form spooky faces. “We spend five days going through everything,” Wallace explains, “from where to place the bugs and how we wanted the rats to look on the trees. I’m out there in my overalls, climbing trees and making sure everything looks perfect.”

This elaborate approach to Halloween decorating represents a growing trend across New York and its affluent suburbs – a phenomenon now known as “pumpkinscaping.” Homeowners are investing hundreds, even thousands of dollars to create impressive seasonal displays, with many turning to professional services rather than tackling the task themselves. In Bronxville, Katie Petruzziello, a mother of three who works at PricewaterhouseCoopers and writes children’s books, hired Gia D’Onofrio’s company Platinum Porches to create a stunning 50-pumpkin arrangement outside her century-old home. “This is so worth it because I didn’t have to carry the pumpkins to the car, lug them to my porch, and figure out what to do with them,” says Petruzziello, who paid around $450 for a display that will remain until Thanksgiving. “Anyone can buy pumpkins at a supermarket or pumpkin patch — but the way Gia styles and stacks them is so gorgeous.”

The business of seasonal porch decoration is booming as busy professionals outsource the labor-intensive process of creating these Instagram-worthy displays. D’Onofrio has decorated over 70 homes in Westchester County alone this season, with services ranging from $325 to $1,000 for design, delivery, and setup. She even offers removal and composting services for environmentally conscious clients. Across the Hudson in New Jersey, realtors Samantha Zoller and Emily Gonzalez have launched The Entry Edit, a seasonal porch styling company catering to dual-income households with limited time for decorating. “Busy parents in dual-working households don’t have the time to go out and buy all these pumpkins for their front steps,” Gonzalez explains. Their cascading pumpkin arrangements run between $400 and $1,200, offering clients impressive curb appeal without the physical labor or creative pressure. “Our customers love seeing how amazing their porches look — and they don’t have to lift a finger to create this look.”

For those seeking even more distinctive seasonal decor, specialized services have emerged. Marc Evan, co-owner of Maniac Pumpkin Carvers in Yonkers, creates intricate pumpkin carvings that can cost clients “a couple of thousand dollars.” His high-end clientele in Brooklyn and Manhattan sometimes require NDAs before commissioning his “museum-worthy works of art” that become the centerpiece of their Halloween displays. “I think the trend toward having portraits carved in pumpkins is a natural evolution of the craze surrounding all things pumpkin — and Halloween,” Evan notes. His company, which appeared on “Shark Tank,” represents the luxury end of the Halloween decoration spectrum, where discerning homeowners seek bespoke seasonal art that elevates their curb appeal beyond typical holiday decorations.

On Manhattan’s Upper East Side, lifestyle influencer Kristi Hemric has turned her East 78th Street brownstone into a showcase for seasonal creativity, planning not just one but four different Halloween themes that evolve from August through October. While she keeps her budget private, her elaborate displays extend well beyond pumpkins to include illuminated black foliage, tombstones, potion books, and ceramic skulls. When her planned 100 oversized custom LEGO flowers became delayed in transit for her final Halloween installation, Hemric simply pivoted, adapting previous decorations by incorporating black LEGO bricks. This adaptability and commitment to seasonal displays reflects how seriously some urban homeowners take their decorative responsibilities, creating miniature public art installations that become neighborhood attractions and social media fodder.

Beyond aesthetics, these elaborate Halloween displays foster community connections in otherwise anonymous urban settings. From her office above her stoop, Hillary Wallace enjoys overhearing reactions from passersby, including French students counting cockroaches in their native language. “I’ve had people put letters under my door telling me that they took their baby’s first Halloween photo on my stoop and now that baby is 4,” she says. Even more touching, couples have chosen her decorated steps as engagement spots – testament to how these seasonal displays become woven into the fabric of neighborhood life. Already planning her Christmas-themed “Candyland with a Twist” display, Wallace embodies the spirit of those who view their home exteriors as canvases for creativity that brightens urban life. “People have even gotten engaged here — right on my stoop,” she reflects. “Doing this is so much fun.” In neighborhoods where residents might otherwise remain strangers, these seasonal transformations create shared experiences and unexpected moments of joy, making the significant investment of time and money worthwhile for those committed to this growing urban tradition.