Twenty Foot Tall Witch Joins Bats, Black Cats & Creeping Spiders In Dan McClain’s Halloween Show

By Pauline Masson –

A twenty-foot tall lighted inflatable witch towers over a jungle of scary companions in Dan McClain’s yard at South Payne Street and Arbor Lane. It is Mr. McClain’s latest symbol of Halloween – his personal passion for celebrating what he thinks is the favorite dress-up holiday for children of all ages. 

Halloween, a holiday celebrated around the world each year, will occur on Thursday, October 31.

Sx times a year a hodgepodge of lighted inflatable characters fill Mr. McClain’s yard – St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween,Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Halloween was the first of his holiday yard extravaganzas, unveiled in 1990. And it remains his favorite. That’s one of the reasons such a large number of Halloween characters bob and weave in the large lawn that encircles his house each October.

The retired former Pacific High English teacher has no children but maintains a lasting relationship with a number of former students. Several show up every year to help set up his outdoor display. 

Halloween costumes and ghost stories dates back to the ancient Celts who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland – home of Mr. McClain’s ancestors – so he is on pretty good ground here building this ancient tradition into a cant’t miss street show with the modern lure of handing out handfuls of candy.

A mission to share his childhood memories of youthful fun and frivolity with community youngsters has filled Mr. Mc Clain’s retirement years. Rather than grow tired of this annual over-the-top display of lighted creatures – against the pleas of the volunteer crew that mans this phantasmagorically exhibit – every year he goes out and buys one more recognizable creature.

It all started in 1990 when he made the far reaching decision to buy himself a souvenir of a favorite childhood memory. He now admits he had no idea how far reaching his decision would be. He went to Target and bought an eight-foot tall inflatable witch and set it up on his front lawn. It was an immediate hit. The neighborhood kids loved it and Mr. McClain was afflicted.

The witch and visiting youngsters was a throw back to his years growing up in North St. Louis where each Halloween pre-teens boys had the run of the neighborhood. And, as he remembered it, had more fun in one evening than they had all year.

The 1990 witch was such a success that the following year Mr. McClain went back to Target and bought an inflatable creature that he could best describe as a ghoulie monster.  He also bought two giant spiders that moved.  He would have bought more but he shopped late that year and two was all the spiders the store had left. The following year he bought a dozen spiders.

After that, his collection grew to pandemic proportion, leaving almost no empty space of the large lawn.

Exhibits in this living museum range from giant bats, crouching black cats, Dracula, fire-spitting dragons, ghosts and a ten-foot-tall Grinch, to pumpkins of every size, a gigantic coiled snake and Mr. McClain’s favorites, giant spiders along the curb line that creep unexpectedly toward visitors. There may be twenty witches. And, just for fun, Mickey Mouse and Casper the Friendly Ghost are on hand.

Counting all six holiday exhibits, Mr. McClain’s collection totals 275 lighted holiday inflatables, including 120 Halloween (80 in the yard), 70 Christmas, 25 Easter and 20 each for St. Patrick’s Day, July fourth and Thanksgiving.

He sets up the display two weeks ahead of each holiday. If school is in session he turns on the lights and air in the afternoon so kids leaving Zitzman Elementary school will see them.

On Halloween night Kathy Richardson and Julie George arrive to dispense handfuls of out candy to trick-or-treaters. But until then the display is open to the public. After dusk, when the lights go on, it’s spectacular.