Hetal Shah is taking Halloween into a whole new era.
The self-proclaimed diehard Swiftie has decked her yard with spooky seasonal décor dedicated to the various eras of pop star and global phenomenon Taylor Swift.
Filling the “blank space” with Taylor Swift-inspired skeletons
Though the Naperville resident is admittedly a fan, the idea for the tribute actually came from a younger member of her household.
“My daughter, who’s five and a half, she loves Taylor Swift. Recently, she just got into it,” said Shah. “And so she saw our skeletons – we were going to do some decorations – and she said, ‘why don’t we do something with Taylor Swift?’”
Shah thought, “why not,” and got to work filling the “blank space” on her yard.
“The idea is go big or go home. I decided to go big,” Shah said. “We got a few more skeletons and we decided to recreate the eras tour with all of her outfits.”
Pumpkin projections of pop star add more “style” to display
Then she decided to throw in a bit more “style,” adding in Swift’s signature friendship bracelets, along with a special projection pumpkin.
“It’s called Trick Ghastly. And they make these pumpkins that have little facial features on them, and they can dance and move to songs. And so we put Taylor’s images on in the background, so we’ve got her music playing and different images of Taylor,” said Shah.
And no Taylor Swift display would be complete without a nod to her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce.
“Look what you made me do”
Shah said the idea to create a unique Halloween display didn’t come from her “wildest dreams” – instead, she drew inspiration from a piece of her past.
“So when I was a kid…we had this neighbor that lived across the street from us and she would do Halloween decorations every year and everyone would look forward to it,” Shah said. “And so that was something I looked forward to every year. And so we wanted to recreate something like that. Taylor just happened to be a great theme for this year.”
Now that she’s seen the appreciation passers-by have given her efforts, she’s inspired to continue the trend in years to come, with plans to pick a different theme for each year, “where the kids in the community, people walking by, get to see a fun thing for the month of October,” Shah said.
The display is located at 703 Parkside Road. Shah said the public is invited to stop by, take a photo, and “tag Taylor in it, see what happens.”
She hopes to keep it up for the first week of November and will take it down as the weather starts cooling down.
Photo courtesy: Hetal Shah
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