They prepare. They plan. They spend a lot of time — some might say too much time — on their craft. They’re your friends, your neighbors: The D.C. residents who go all out with Halloween decorations.
“I find Halloween a very joyful holiday,” says Woodley Park resident Lauren Smith, a member of this enthusiastic cross section of locals.
But like Smith, many of these Halloween preppers are also tuned into the news — and the news, well, you’ve read it. “There is so much pain happening in the country and in D.C., and it felt wrong to do a joyful display without also making a statement,” she tells The 51st.
Her statement comes in the form of two 12-foot skeletons standing in her front yard. One is dressed like the Statue of Liberty, the other like Uncle Sam — but both are holding “Free D.C.” signs. And standing in between them is a skeleton dog, holding two inflatable sub sandwiches in its mouth — a nod to Sandwich Guy, the city’s erstwhile folk hero made famous in August when he tossed an uneaten sub at a federal law enforcement agent on U Street NW.
“This was a way to thread the needle, to do something fun for the kids but make a statement about the disenfranchisement in D.C.,” she says.
And Smith isn’t alone. Not far away in Kalorama is another large skeleton holding a sandwich; “This year our skeleton is dedicated to a hero of D.C.,” reads a sign in front. At least four other sub-tossing skeletons have been spotted across the city. (Real-life sandwich guy Sean Charles Dunn is still fighting a charge of assaulting a police officer; his attorneys say the prosecution against him is vindictive and selective.)
Over in Cleveland Park, an inflatable Darth Vader wears a Free DC t-shirt. (Would the real Darth Vader want to free D.C., or to ruthlessly control it? Discuss.) Another resident put out a Lego display of the White House — with a bulldozer demolishing the East Wing. In Brookland, a resident has the usual gravestones in their front yard, but resting in peace aren’t people but rather “Tylenol,” “Free Speech,” “Due Process,” and “The Rose Garden.”
For some D.C. residents, Halloween isn’t a time to avoid the obvious politics of the moment — but rather lean right into them. (Last year, Smith had the skeletons dressed up as the two presidential candidates, and the dog was Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.) That, of course, could prompt others to roll their eyes; can’t something, anything, be free of politics?
“Somewhere along the way, people devalued that D.C. is a real place, and we don’t have representation that other places have. We should use the tools that we have to make the statement that we can to advocate for our community,” Smith says. “No one is coming to save D.C., so the citizens have to stand up for themselves. This is one way to do that.”
Plenty of protest themes going on with Halloween decorations this year:
Still, she tells me she wanted to balance making a statement with keeping Halloween, well, Halloween. “There’s a lot of schools in the area. People thank us and say their kids look forward to seeing the skeletons. That’s why we wanted to thread the needle, knowing that kids would be coming by,” she says.
And who knows, maybe some of those kids will approach this Halloween with the same spirit. The Ward 3 chapter of the Free D.C. Project is hosting a Sandwich Guy costume contest on Friday, after all.
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