Elaborate and charitable Halloween display helps Skokie couple earn Village recognition

On a certain quiet residential block in Skokie, most houses display modest Halloween decorations — the occasional carved pumpkin, a ghost here, a ghoul there.

But one house is teeming with spooky embellishments. Tombstones pepper the yard. Skeletons climb the home’s facade. A tunnel of white spiderwebs leads to a real pumpkin patch growing at the feet of a witch’s cauldron and a 10-foot-tall monster with a pumpkin head. 

A sign next to a skeleton driving a skeleton-horse-drawn carriage identifies the spot as “Jack’s Hollow”; though Chris Gattorna and Amanda Bird said the scene that they intricately prepare every year is already well-known among their neighbors.  

After listing their house on a map documenting Chicago-area Halloween displays in 2021, the couple added a donation box outside their front door to transfer some of the attention into support for the Community Animal Rescue Effort, a Skokie animal rescue. 

Earlier this year, the two were the first recipients of the village’s Common Good Recognition Program, which highlights people making a “positive impact in the Skokie community through acts of kindness, service, leadership, inclusion and community-building,” according to a village webpage. 

“It can feel so overwhelming to be like, ‘I want to make an impact in my community, I want to be a part of it, but I don’t know what to do, or I can’t do all these things.’” Bird said. “And it’s like, you can literally make everything a little bit better just by doing something you like and talking to your neighbors.” 

Gattorna said the Halloween display began modestly in 2015 with just a few foam tombstones and a light outside his home. He then began adding something new each year. Some of the pieces he made himself, using PVC pipe to structure the tunnel of spider webs. 

After meeting Bird, the two bonded over their shared love of Halloween, and she moved in with Gattorna in 2021. While they typically begin setting up their display in early September, spooky decorations remain on display inside their home year-round.

That means fixtures of their living room include a “Creep-mas” tree with black pine needles, spiders and ghost ornaments; a framed gallery of Halloween-themed prints; and ceramic pumpkins.

“Our kids will bring friends over and they’re like, “Oh wow, you decorate your living room too.’ No, this is just how it is,” Gattorna said, adding that he loves that the holiday is a little bit “weirder” but also “imaginative and creative.”

Bird echoed that she loves seeing kids come to their door who have created their own costumes. 

After hosting pumpkin carving nights at their house, Bird also likes to facilitate “basic mom rage” get-togethers in which they smash pumpkins for catharsis. 

Nowadays, Gattorna said they’ve run out of space for gaining new fixtures to their halloween display. But going all out every year, including an ongoing countdown of how many days left until Halloween, has inevitably garnered attention from the community. 

Gattorna said they’re often recognized at farmer’s markets as the couple behind Jack’s Hollow. Last fall, a 4-year-old neighbor brought his grandmother to their house every day to check on the status of the decorations, Bird said, eventually learning all of the skeleton’s names. 

So it was a nearby resident who nominated them for the village’s new Common Good Recognition Program. 

The couple said the Chicago Haunt Builders website encouraged participants to select an organization to support, and so they chose the Community Animal Rescue Effort, from which they adopted their dog, Murray. 

They’ve since accrued and donated dozens of packages of dog and cat food for the local shelter’s free pantry, but the village award also highlighted the couple’s work in other areas. 

The two reportedly are big supporters of Skokie’s Main Event, Bird offers face painting at the Skokie Farmer’s Market, Gattorna works for the Niles Township Government and Bird has organized in response to federal immigration enforcement action in the North Shore. 

“We’re hoping that it will encourage more people to nominate (others to the program) because Skokie is so big, but really it’s like multiple Skokies. So we know what we know, but there’s got to be people who are doing things in their part of the community that are even more impactful than the things that we do,” Bird said.

“I know there are, but it’s a matter of getting someone to notice it and talk about it, and I think that’s what the village is really trying to do.”

Yet whatever work they do in their professional or personal lives, Gattorna said they primarily are still recognized as the ones behind the “Halloween house.” If that’s what works to get people aware and involved with other issues, Bird she’s happy with that. 

The couple said they’re both glad that the decorations are something their family can do together. 

Gattorna’s boys are young enough to keep trick-or-treating, but they prefer to stay home on Halloween to help pass out candy and talk about the giant spiders and skeletons crawling around their home. 

“It’s cool, I think, especially having kids of our own to be able to show them, ‘Hey, you can enjoy the things that you enjoy. And as long as it’s fine that you enjoy them, don’t worry about what other people think,” Gattorna said. “But it’s even great to just know that it’s so embraced.”

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Become a member of The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a member? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.