Decorating your yard for Halloween? Here are a ton of skeleton pose ideas for a spooky and funny Halloween yard display!
Who doesn’t love a well-decorated house for Halloween. I mean, trick or treating is fun, but trick or treating at houses with awesome decorations is even better.
One of the most popular ways to decorate for halloween is with posable skeletons!
But, you don’t want them just hanging there limp and boring. Posing your skeletons is half the fun.
Today we want to share some of our favorite Halloween skeleton pose ideas to use in your yard decorations!
How do you pose skeletons in your yard?
Before you pick a pose for your skeletons, you need to think through the logistics of getting the skeletons to hold their pose in your yard. You can use a mixture of rebar poles, zip ties, and clear fishing wire to pose skeletons.
How to post skeletons standing in a yard
You will want to use rebar or a similar stiff rod and hammer it into the ground. Then, use zip ties to attach the spine of your skeleton to the pole.
Click here for our step by step tutorial on how to pose skeletons standing or running.
How to pose skeletons climbing a tree
You can pose skeletons climbing a tree by positioning them and then wrapping around their body and the tree trunk with flexible, weatherproof wire.
It helps if you can rest their arm or feet on branches or natural nooks of the tree, so they are helping to support themselves up.
Click here for our step by step tutorial on how to pose skeletons climbing a tree.
How to pose skeletons sitting
You can pose skeletons sitting free-form in a chair simply by bending their joints. Assuming that it is a posable skeleton, it should hold its shape.
You can also use zip ties to connect the hip bones or spine of the skeleton to whatever it is sitting on to give it a more secure finish.
How to pose skeleton arms
Posable skeletons are only so posable. They will hold certain poses, but not all. We use clear fishing wire tied from the wrist bone to the neck bone or a surrounding item to support arms that you want to stay up. This takes a bit of trial and error to get just right.
Skeleton pose ideas for your yard
Here are some of my favorite ideas for how to pose skeletons in your yard for Halloween!
Beach skeletons
If you want to create a rather low effort, funny skeleton scene in your front yard, I highly recommend a beach day.
All you need our beach chairs, a beach umbrella, or even use something like a yoga mat as a weatherproof towel.
Skeleton in a hammock
If you have a portable camping hammock, hang it in your front yard and add a skeleton. Silly but super simple to execute!
This is an easy set up because the skeletons can just sit or lay without needing any supports and people love it.
Climbing/hanging skeleton
Another fairly simple funny skeleton pose idea is to have a skeleton climbing up to a porch or railing.
To get this look, you just want to use zip ties to connect the skeletons wrist to your porch railings.
We looped a zip tie around each wrist, and then looped a second zip ties through that loop and around the porch railing for support.
Running Skeletons
It is always funny to have skeletons running away from something. This could be a large, scary item or something small and silly.
Getting your skeletons to run is a little bit more work than just sitting them in a chair, but it’s not that hard.
We used a combination of rebar and zip ties suppose are skeletons running.
Skeleton clawing out of the ground/a grave
If you are decorating your yard to look like a graveyard, I think that this idea is a must. Set up your skeletons to be clawing their way out of the earth!
This is easiest if you have a broken skeleton. Or, you will have to saw it in half or remove the legs.
Worth it!
Golfing skeletons
Two of our neighbors have done a golfing skeleton set up this year and I think it’s so funny. If you have golf clubs and some old polo shirts, this is a really fun idea.
You will use rebar or similar poles and zip ties to stand them up, and then just pose their arms with the golf clubs, zip tying them in place.
Skeletons Climbing a tree
If you have a lot of trees in your front yard, consider having skeletons climb the trees.
We like to have skeletons climb the palm trees in front of our house, and it always adds a little bit of silliness to our skeleton scene.
These are just held in place with wire wrapping around the whole tree. We try to use their feet on little nooks of the tree to support themselves, too.
Skeleton busting out of a casket
This vibe is a bit morbid for my taste, but if you like more of a graveyard theme, how about having your skeleton bust out of a coffin?
You can build a simple wood box and prop it open for a spooky effect!
Skeleton walking the dogs
This year we decided to have our giant 12 foot skeleton walking skeleton dogs. You could do this with any size skeleton.
We just cut rope to make the faux leashes and tied it around the skeleton’s wrist and the dogs’ necks.
I think this is a really fun and funny idea, too.
Skeleton sitting on a toilet
One of our neighbors put out a skeleton sitting on an old toilet this year, and my kids think it is the funniest thing ever.
If you have an old toilet sitting around, why not give this a try, your HOA will love it!
Want more Halloween decor ideas?
Love Halloween decor? Don’t miss our tutorial on how to make DIY light up pumpkin topiaries!
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Hello, I’m Morgan, half of the creative force behind CharlestonCrafted.com! With a passion for DIY that dates back to 2012, I’ve transformed three homes and now I’m dedicated to helping others craft their dream spaces. Let’s turn your house into a home together!