Macabre makeover in the McKennan Park Neighborhood

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Many families and their kids are getting ready for trick-or-treating and Halloween fun this week. If you drive around you’re bound to see at least a handful of houses decorated for the spooky holiday.

However, one house particularly in the McKennan Park Neighborhood in Sioux Falls is catching many people’s attention.

Jacque McNamara’s house has become well known in the McKennan Park Neighborhood around Halloween time.

“What amazes me is they’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s a new one and this is a new one.’ And so they actually keep up with all the new things and the ones that we’ve already had. They’re very in tune to it,” Jacque said.

Since 2021 her family has been decorating for the spooky holiday in a big way. Her daughter Colleen McNamara who helps set up each year says her children were the ones who inspired her.

“Watching the kids get so excited about it. He’ll go outside and he’ll see people walking by and he’s like, Let me show you this and brings them all through the yard and gives them a tour of everything. And he’s like, watch what this one will do. And it’s just fun watching,” Colleen said.

“They thank us all the time and they tell us what addition it is to Sioux Falls and just how much they really enjoy it,” Jacque said.

Each year there is a new Halloween theme. This year it is water.

“We got the captain of the ship. This year and then we got the witch who is more for like the sea. So we had more water things and then we got the Kraken, which was hard to get a hold of,” Colleen said.

As for planning, they watch for what hot items will be rolled out during the summer months.

“It’s the second week of July and it’s normally at some point in the middle of the night, they drop all of their Halloween stuff online and it trickles in there,” Colleen said.

With all the moving parts, the setting up process typically takes a few days.

“They just kind of have their own theme. So over on the side now there’s the graveyard. So we try and add new things to the graveyard,” Colleen said.

Jacque’s neighbor, a professor at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, even took notice and brought over some art students to draw her house.

“It was really quite interesting. He brought them over and they were just sitting in the grass or sitting up on the wall and they were just pick whatever they wanted to draw of the Halloween stuff and they were drawing them. They were all actually really good drawers. And then he shared the drawings with me. So that was I was happy that he did that. I got to see them all,” Jacque said.

Throughout the month many people are stopping by to take a closer look at the haunting masterpiece.

“I think the favorite thing at the house is the big skeletons, all three of them,” Ezekiel Wadsworth said.

It gets even better, and busier after the sun goes down.

“They’ve made Halloween for the last couple of years such an amazing event here in the McKennan Park area. And then also Sioux Falls in general. It’s such a great thing for families in the community,” Sioux Falls resident, Amy Ripley said.

“It’s a lot of teamwork and it’s a lot of enjoyment just all together,” Colleen said.

Last year their neighbors kept count of how many people came by the house on Halloween and said they counted close to 2,000.