Grosse Pointe is notorious for the community’s excessive love of the holidays and expressing that love through lavish decorations.This Halloween, many families went above and beyond to make their houses as spooky as possible, but there were a few houses that stood out more than others. A house on the 200 block of Merriweather is one of these houses that went the extra mile to make this year’s Halloween a special one.
The Schalute family’s house has many skeletons in their yard this year, even featuring a giant skeleton dog surrounded by other skeletons doing various things: climbing the fence, walking a dog and hanging from trees. All accompanied by lights and even a sign with a fun twist to their last name, Skullute. Lynn Schalute, the mother of the Schalute family, explains how her frightening yard slowly accumulated over time.
“Years ago we started with a few skeletons and then it just kind of grew and grew and grew,” Schalute said. “We stuck with that theme because it’s kinda fun, and each year we try to add something a little more.”
Planning such extravagant decorations takes time and hard work, but in the end it’s all for the trick-or-treaters. The Newby house on 493 Moran has a doctor skeleton stabbing another skeleton on a medical table, with a plethora of bloody skeletons around it, even some in “toxic waste” and floating heads. With numerous neon signs saying “keep out”, coffins and normal fall decorations surround the hay and corn stalks. Kelly Newby, the father of the house, speaks about the visitors who come to his house.
“It’s all to watch the little kids come up, and some aren’t thrilled but a lot of other ones just love it,” Newby said. “I think the
parents like it more than the kids.”
One house that has everyone talking and stole the show this year is the famous “Holiday House” on the corner of Lakeshore and Moross, also known as 357 Lakeshore. The Van Sile couple are the residents and the ones responsible for all the over the top decorations. This year they did many radiant lights, a giant skeleton and witch, a graveyard, a variety of skeletons and spiders, a werewolf and pumpkins. The “Holiday House” is constantly talked about in Grosse Pointe, especially around the holidays, which leaves the town wondering why they go all out. Mark Van Sile,finally cleared up the many stories going around town about the house.
“We [Van Sile family] had great holidays growing up,” Van Sile said. “My dad worked, put a lot of hours in, but on holidays we always had special time and that’s something I took with me.”
These extravagant decorations not only spread holiday cheer, but they are also a way to bring our Grosse Pointe and other nearby communities together.
“We have people who come back year after year after y
ear,” Newby said, “Even the people from the post office bring their kids here [to see the decorations].”
