Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Halloween in Minnesota, yesterday & today October 31, 2025

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One of several scary characters positioned in a residential yard near downtown Waterville. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, my friends!

For sale at The Barn craft sale in September in Cannon City. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

If I was a kid, I’d be super excited about putting on my costume, grabbing my candy collecting bucket or bag and heading out to trick-or-treat. But, since I’m an adult, there will be none of that, only a quiet evening at home. I didn’t even buy candy to hand out since the number of trick-or-treaters to our house sometimes numbers zero. Plus, the cost of candy is too high.

Thrift shops, like the Salvation Army in Red Wing, are good sources for Halloween costumes. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)

But my grandkids, ages nine months, six and nine, will join countless costumed kids canvasing neighborhoods for treats. Izzy is dressing as Pikachu, Isaac as Numberblock Six and baby Everett as a dragon. Not that a baby can eat candy, but, well, his parents are pretty excited about their son’s first Halloween. I remember our oldest daughter’s first Halloween costumed as an angel. And I remember my childhood Halloweens in rural Minnesota, especially the year I dressed as a gypsy.

In Waterville, warnings in a neighborhood Halloween display. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)

I remember Mom dropping me and my siblings off in my hometown of Vesta, population around 360, to collect goodies. This wasn’t necessarily ring the doorbell or knock, then grab and go. Sometimes we stepped inside to show off our costumes and sign a guestbook before being given our candy. Or, in the case of Great Aunt Gertie, a homemade popcorn ball, which was quite capable of causing a chipped tooth. When we were done gathering treats, we went to Grandma’s house where Mom picked us up for the short ride back to the farm.

The entrance to Coy and Kathy Lane’s Haunted Mini-Golf interactive Halloween display at 234 First Avenue Southwest in Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)

One aspect absent from my childhood Halloweens were yards full of spooky decorations. Today they are everywhere. My neighbors up the street, Coy and Kathy Lane, create a themed display in their yard that is open from 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. the entire month of October. This year they built a haunted mini golf course. It’s impressive. Sound, lights and action make this a fully-immersive experience created by a couple who clearly love Halloween. They’ll be handing out full-sized candy bars on Halloween, the final date the display is open to the public…until next October.

A Halloween display on a front porch in small town Nerstrand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)

All around Faribault and neighboring communities, inflatables and other factory-made decorations have popped up in yards. Cats. Frankenstein. Skeletons. Witches. And on and on.

As much as I dislike creepy dolls, I posed with this one at Coy and Kathy Lane’s haunted mini golf course. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo by Randy Helbling, October 2025)

But the single freakiest Halloween decorations for me personally are the dolls. I can’t quite put my finger on why they creep me out other than that they do. My neighbors have an entire family of creepy dolls circling one hole in their mini golf course. I posed with one of them while Randy took a photo. We were there with our two oldest grandchildren during daylight hours, which likely explains why all of us were more entertained than scared.

I spotted this creepy doll in a storefront window in Montgomery, Minnesota. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)

Now had a mouse been running around or a bat flying about, I would have fled the Halloween scene, snap, just like that.

My favorite hole at the Lane Halloween display features clowns. And, yes, some move. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)

TELL ME: What are you doing for Halloween? Also, I’d love to hear a Halloween memory or story. Please share.

© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

More Halloween-themed scenes in Faribault November 1, 2022

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Halloween scene, 4 Third Ave. SW, Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2022)

IN MY UNSCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS, I’ve noticed more Faribault yards decorated for Halloween in a big way this year than in the past. I realize this is the day after, but I expect many decorations will remain in place at least until the end of the week. Why not given all the time, effort and expense involved in creating scenes that mostly scare?

Recently I snapped photos of Halloween scenes in two yards, both up the hill from my house. Because of a locking zoom lens and camera failure (within weeks of one another), my photos are limited. Thus I encourage you, if you live locally, to drive by these residences for the full picture.

(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2022)

Skeletons and skulls seem to play big into this season’s Halloween décor. Maybe they always have. Whatever, they fit the fear factor.

(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2022)

A skeleton dressed as a clown multiplies the fear as he looms in a tree at 234 First Avenue Southwest. Clowns scare some people. Not me, although I remember not liking them as a kid.

(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2022)

The First Avenue yard features several over-sized skeletons. When I was there one evening attempting to photograph in the dark with my failing camera, the scene illuminated in green, eyes flashed, something made a creepy sound and fog rose. You’ll need to imagine that given the photos were promptly deleted.

Frankenstein intimidates. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2022)

Skulls and graveyards and an assortment of scary fill this yard and the one at 4 Third Avenue Southwest across from the former Immaculate Conception Church. Perhaps most intimidating, though, is the life-sized Frankenstein outside the front door. If I was a kid, that would keep me from seeking candy at that house.

Graveyard at Third Ave. SW. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2022)

All in all, these Halloween scenes show the giving spirit of the folks who live here. They obviously love Halloween and sharing their enthusiasm with the community.

TELL ME: Are there any particularly creative Halloween displays in neighborhoods where you live?

NOTE: I purchased a used Canon zoom lens and a used Canon EOS 60D on Saturday. The camera is an upgrade from the used 20Ds (I was on my fourth of the model) that I’ve used for a dozen years or more. I’m happy to have functioning camera equipment again. I appreciate the guidance I got from local photography teacher and creative Johnnie Walker and the excellent customer service from the good folks at National Camera Exchange in Golden Valley.

© Copyright 2022 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Halloween in Hayfield October 27, 2016

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A doll's head lies next to a tombstone in a Hayfield, Minnesota, yard decorated for Halloween.

A doll’s head lies next to a tombstone in a Hayfield, Minnesota, yard decorated for Halloween.

 

YOU WON’T FIND A SINGLE Halloween decoration in my yard. It’s not that I’m anti-Halloween. It’s just that, without kids at home anymore, I don’t feel the need to decorate. And the trick-or-treaters who stop at my house typically number less than a dozen.

 

 

Looking from the Gargoyle suspended from the Kuster home toward Hayfield's Main Street.

Looking from the Gargoyle suspended from the Kuster home toward Hayfield’s Main Street.

 

But then there’s Brianna Kuster who lives in Hayfield, a Dodge County community of about 1,300. She loves Halloween. So much, in fact, that she and Ryan were married on October 31. Their first of two children, a son, was born on a Friday the 13th.

 

halloween-43-building-exterior

 

Until last Saturday, I’d only been to Hayfield once previously and I’d never met Brianna. But as I was photographing her Halloween adorned home in the former The Herald newspaper office, Brianna opened her front door to let out the dog. I nearly toppled over in fright, not expecting a canine to bound out of a building.

 

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Along Main Street in Hayfield, Brianna and Ryan Kuster have decorated their property for Halloween.

Along Main Street in Hayfield, Brianna and Ryan Kuster have decorated their property for Halloween.

 

halloween-34-pumpkins-skeleton-in-tub

 

Thus my introduction to this young mother who creatively staged her House of Kuster, est. October 31, 2009, property for Halloween. The décor is tastefully done with nothing particularly ghoulish.

 

halloween-29-cemetery-sign

 

halloween-32-tombstones

 

halloween-38-bugs-on-steps

 

There’s a humorous bent and an obvious attention to details. This is kid-friendly.

 

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That said, Brianna shared how she recently scared a group of students walking by while on a field trip. She simply peered through the curtains. That was enough to get a rise.

 

halloween-flyer-hayfield

 

As we talked, Brianna carried totes of Halloween items to a vehicle for transport to the fire hall a few blocks away. The Hayfield Fire Department is sponsoring a Spook House & Carnival and this Halloween lover was on it.

 

halloween-39-black-cat

 

Before leaving, Brianna invited me into the former newspaper office. There’s no evidence this Main Street building once housed a community newspaper. The Kusters live upstairs and hope to some day finish the lower level, which holds great promise with worn wooden floors. As we stepped inside, a black cat (imagine that) walked through an open doorway. And then I noticed the mini green skulls lining the stairway.

 

On the Kusters' front door...

On the Kusters’ front door…

 

Yup, this is the home of a family (or at least a wife/mother) who loves Halloween. And I expect come October 31, the House of Kuster will draw lots of trick-or-treaters to the Main Street of this small southern Minnesota farming community.

 

When the Kusters purchased the former The Herald building, they also bought the property next door. They tore down the house there. The vacant lot is now the setting for the bulk of the Kusters' Halloween decorations.

When the Kusters purchased the former The Herald building, they also bought the property next door. They tore down the house there. The vacant lot is now the setting for the bulk of the Kusters’ outdoor Halloween decorations.

 

TELL ME: Do you decorate for Halloween or have a neighbor/friend/family member who loves Halloween as much as Brianna Kuster?

© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling