Americans’ Love of Oversized Halloween Skeletons Still Going Strong
By Dominick Reuter
Oct 4, 2026, 11:53 AM GMT+2
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It wasn't all that long ago that towering Halloween skeletons weren't really a thing. That all changed seemingly overnight in 2020, when Home Depot introduced its wildly popular 12-foot Skelly decoration, driving record Halloween sales for the home improvement chain that year.
The trend is still going strong, with more than a dozen online communities devoted to supersized skeletons, including a Facebook group with nearly 300,000 members. Walmart-owned warehouse chain Sam's Club told Business Insider that sales of their version, an 11-foot Reaper, have been running ahead of expectations since it was launched back in June. The Reaper quickly rose to become one of the chain's top ten selling Halloween items, and was sold out at some warehouse locations, as of Friday.
"Halloween is now a season, just like Christmas," said Kara Deleon, Senior Director of Seasonal Merchandising at Sam's Club. "It is truly taking on a much bigger persona than it's ever had in the past."
Americans appear to have embraced the Summerween creep, with online visits to Sam's Club's Halloween decor product listings up 67% in July compared to the year before, the company said. But few things embody that bigger persona than the jumbo skeletons (and their friends) that have been popping up in yards across the US. Some setups last for just a few weeks, while others stay up year-round — to the consternation of some homeowners' associations.
Phil Michalski, an instructional assistant who lives near Philadelphia, told Business Insider he owns both the Home Depot Skelly and Sam's Club Reaper, plus a few others. "The majority are set up all year round, but the weather this year has beaten them down," he said. "My other skeletons will be up until the new year as I put Santa suits on some and a Ebenezer Scrooge hat on another."