Greg Zoul and Mari Paramo have a spectacular Halloween display in their front yard at 2421 Commerce Avenue. (Carol Bryant, Central Nebraska Today)
GRAND ISLAND – If you want to see an amazing Halloween display in a front yard, drive by 2421 Commerce Avenue at night.
Mari Paramo and her fiancé, Greg Zoul, live at the address. Last year was the first year that they placed the Halloween “theme park” in their front yard.
“I really enjoyed Halloween growing up,” Paramo said.
“We basically started from scratch,” she said about the Halloween display. They purchased most of the items from Home Depot. They are also members of several Facebook groups focusing on Halloween displays and got ideas from those sites about homemade Halloween decorations.
The display is lit up on weekdays until approximately 11:30 p.m. and until midnight on weekends.
Zoul said he enjoyed going by yards that were decorated for holidays when he was growing up.
Paramo said that they live in a “hidden area” that is two blocks south of Stolley Park. Commerce Avenue does not have a lot of traffic, so the existence of the display last year was initially not noticed. However, “word of mouth” led to people driving by their home and more children stopping at their home on Halloween. Last year, they handed out approximately 200 bags filled with Halloween treats.
This year, they began setting up the Halloween display the first week in October. They spent two full weekends setting up the display. Zoul said they will “tweak” the display until Halloween. They plan to dress up like clowns on Halloween eve.
“It’s become a fun activity for us,” Zoul said.
Paramo said that Grand Island is a “Halloween community,” with decorations for Halloween appearing for sale in Grand Island stores as early as July. So they began looking for Halloween items to go on sale around that time so they could buy items while they were available.
Paramo said their neighbors have been very supportive of the display.
The house is located near Stolley Park Elementary School, and children walking to and from school go by their house.
They initially had different ideas of the theme for the display. Paramo was interested in displaying witches and traditional Halloween characters. Zoul was interested in displaying scarier items such as a graveyard and skeletons. So the display contains elements from both ideas.
Paramo is from Mexico and said that Halloween is not observed in Mexico. Instead, residents celebrate “the Day of the Dead.” It is traditionally celebrated Nov. 1 and Nov. 2, although other dates may be included. It is a time when families gather to pay respects to friends and family who have died.
Zoul said that the display has power generated both from electrical hookups and batteries.
The largest area in their front yard is a graveyard. It has decorations including headstones, skeletons, and illuminated hands.
Another display is a table with “rotten snacks” painted on the side of the table.
Two scary clowns stand next to each other in another area, with one clown holding an animal made out of a balloon.
Just east of their driveway is a skeleton driving a carriage, with skeleton horses pulling the carriage.
A giant illuminated spider is also east of their driveway, with smaller spiders in front of it.
Another figure is the skeleton of a dinosaur riding on the skeleton of a horse.
