Every year, shoppers race to get their hands on Home Depot Halloween decor — but not because of the low prices. It’s the quality and advanced features of Home Depot’s Halloween animatronics that get enthusiasts most excited. The big drop of the new 2024 Halloween items happened in the early morning hours of Thursday, July 18. But a few new Home Depot halloween animatronics did become available as early as April 25 this year.
Much to our delight, Skelly, the 12-foot-tall skeleton, is coming back for 2024. And he’s still $299 — the same price he’s been for the last five years. While it'll be hard to find Home Depot sales on these items before Oct. 31 rolls around, I’ll fill you in on when their Halloween decor goes on sale and other tips to help you save more.
I’ll cover when you can expect to find Halloween items in store, when the Home Depot sales happen, the most popular decorations from last season, and how to avoid paying full price.
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Home Depot Halloween Decorations 2024
For 2024, Home Depot is offering a mixture of new decor, a return of prior years' decor, and new accessories for their most popular decor (like Skelly). They've introduced a grave and bone collection with tombstones starting at $19.98 — but these are in-store only.
You'll find new upgraded eyes for Skelly and Skelly Dog, a replica of Frankenstein, and Chucky. New this year is a 12-foot giant animated LED Levitating Reaper, 8.5-foot giant animated Headless Horseman (Knight Dullahan), and 7-foot Plague Doctor.
TIP: If you’re serious about your Halloween decorating, you may want to check out the Home Depot Halloween Haunters Club on Facebook. The group posts lots of tips about how to decorate using animatronics.
Halloween Inflatables
Many of the new inflatables for 2024 are at a higher price than in 2023. Thankfully, the more affordable Halloween inflatables from last year will be available again.
Here are a few of the inflatables we have our eyes on this year:
14-Foot Giant-Sized LED Skeleton Archway — $129 *New to 2024
10-Foot Giant-Sized LED Reaper — $99 *New to 2024
8-Foot Giant-Sized LED Ghost Trio — $79.98 *New to 2024
6-Foot LED Jack Skellington & Zero — $79.98 *New to 2024
7-Foot LED Jack-O'-Lantern Stack — $49.98 *New to 2024
3.5-Foot Hocus Pocus Mary — $49.98
3.5-Foot Hocus Pocus Sarah — $54.98
4-Foot Hanging Minnie Mouse — $34.98
3.5-Foot Bluey Inflatable — $59.98
When does Home Depot put out Halloween decorations?
Home Depot starts putting out Halloween decor in stores at the end of August, usually before Labor Day weekend.
However, they dropped a selection of new Halloween animatronics online on April 25, 2024. Home Depot announced a few of their new products for 2024 back in mid-March, a whole seven months before the spooky holiday.
And new Home Depot Halloween items went live online on July 18. You were able to see the products online at approximately 3 a.m. ET, but you couldn't shop the deals until around 5 a.m. ET.
When does Home Depot Halloween decor go on sale?
Home Depot Halloween sales usually happen at the end of October. But it’s worth checking for a flash sale toward the middle of the month. In 2023, Home Depot had up to 30% off select Halloween inflatables for one day only on Oct. 18.
Bigger Halloween sales happen just a few days before Oct. 31 when Home Depot starts their Halloween clearance online.
Home Depot Halloween Clearance
Home Depot starts their Halloween clearance online at 50% off three to four days before Halloween.
Last year, we saw the first set of clearance deals arrive on Oct. 27. The most popular items (like the animatronics) sell fast — I mean, lightning fast. So online discounts on Halloween decor don’t usually exceed 50%.
If you want to save the most money on Halloween decor, though, wait until the first week of November and stock up for next year. This is when Home Depot Halloween clearance reaches up to 75% off in stores. So a $299 life-size animatronic would only cost $75 in this final clearance stage — if stuff stays in stock that long.
Clearance selections vary greatly by store, and popular items like the animatronics and inflatables always get scooped fast. But if you head to Home Depot when the store opens on Nov. 3, you’ll be the first to shop deeply discounted Halloween decor.
KCL TIP: Bookmark our Halloween deals page to stay up-to-date on the best sales, discounts, and offers ahead of Oct. 31.
Is Home Depot open on Halloween?
Home Depot stores will be open on Halloween 2024 during normal business hours (6 a.m. - 10 p.m. local time). You may even find decor on the clearance shelves by then.
But don’t expect to find Skelly the Skeleton fully stocked on Halloween. Home Depot animatronics like these sell out (and get restocked) multiple times in the months before. So your chances of finding the popular decorations in store on Oct. 31 are slim to none.
Home Depot Halloween Savings Tips
While some Home Depot Halloween items go for up to $400, their prices are still competitive to stores like Spirit Halloween and House of Hauntz. And shoppers say the quality of Home Depot’s animatronics are even better than the specialty stores.
If you have your heart set on new Home Depot Halloween decor this year, here are a few ways to save:
1. Pay for pricey animatronics with discounted Home Depot gift cards.
Discounted gift cards can help you score extra savings when you can’t find a sale price. Before you invest in Halloween animatronics, buy a discounted Home Depot gift card on CardBear.com, then use it to pay for your animatronics purchase.
Right now, you can buy Home Depot gift cards for 3% - 10% off the face value on CardBear.com. They even tell you whether to buy the gift card now or wait for a bigger discount based on average savings in the past.
If you find a discounted Home Depot gift card for 10% off, you’ll save $30 on a $300 animatronic.
2. Buy a storage bag for animatronics to expand their lifespan.
Home Depot suggests storing animatronics and other larger-than-life decor in the box they came in. But boxes can get wet or let in critters, so we recommend investing in a Christmas tree bag or other soft storage bag with wheels.
According to the experts at Home Depot, a 9-foot Christmas tree bag will safely hold animatronics up to six-feet-tall. Home Depot’s large animatronics storage bag ($39.98) is currently out of stock online, but you can grab a heavy-duty tree storage bag off Amazon for $19.99.
3. Use your 10% off military discount to save on your Halloween big ticket items.
Active or former military members can use Home Depot's 10% military discount on most in-stock, full-priced items in stores and online. This includes tools, flooring, lawn, garden, seasonal decor, and patio, no matter the brand. You can even use your 10% discount to buy Skelly the Home Depot Skeleton. This will bring Skelly down from $299 to $269.10.
The military discount doesn't apply to Home Depot sale prices, Special Buys, clearance items, installation services, or delivery fees.
4. Use Google’s reverse image search to compare prices on Halloween decor.
This is my favorite hack for comparing Halloween prices (but in my experience, this hack only works if you're browsing with Chrome).
Home Depot carries a lot of the same brands that other retailers sell, like National Tree Company, Glitzhome, and Calloway Mills. When you do a reverse image search using a photo of the product you like, all the big retailers selling the same product will pop up in the Google Lens sidebar.
Here’s how it works:
Right-click the image of the product you like.
Select “Search images with Google.”
Use your cursor to select which image on the site you’d like to search. It’s okay if it’s not a perfect cutout or if the image is small. Google can usually work with poorly cropped and low-res photos.
Find the Google Lens sidebar pop-up on the right-hand side of your browser.
From there, you can scroll through the results and easily compare prices.
This method may not show you items at every single store, but it catches most of the big retailers.
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