12-foot skeletons are taking over Tacoma neighborhoods and climbing over chimneys

They erupt from the earth. They climb roofs. And they’re coming for you.

Or at least your neighbor’s lawn.

The 12-foot-tall Home Depot skeleton has taken over America’s front yards and Pierce County is not immune to the Halloween invasion. The bony giant pops up all over the South Sound and their owners can’t stop from dressing, modifying and taking them apart.

“Skelly,” as it’s called, has sold out every year since its introduction in 2020. This year, Skelly has several other friends that seem to be just as popular, including a 5-foot skeleton dog.

“I think it’s insane that people are so infatuated with these skeletons,” said Tacoma artist John James Nelson. He’s now on his third Skelly.

Titlow Beach area residents Kyle Rinner and wife Hannah Wickstrom bought their first Skelly in 2023. Rinner first tried talking the Tacoma Home Depot into selling their floor model. The store refused.

Eventually, he found one at the Gig Harbor store and notified other aficionados who quickly bought the remaining few.

Year-round decoration

Sometimes to the annoyance of their neighbors, some Skelly owners keep theirs up year-round, dressing them in seasonally appropriate attire and props.

Rinner and Wickstrom are those people.

Last Christmas, Skelly was dressed as Santa Claus.

“And then in summertime, we did a guy with shorts, with a towel … a little drink in his hand, like on the way to the beach,” Rinner said.

But his neighbors haven’t complained, he said. He’s gotten only compliments. That isn’t always the case with home owner associations that often have strict rules about seasonal decorations.

“I see a lot of issues with HOAs online,” Rinner said. “People fighting them if you have them up during non-October time.”

It’s a dead man’s party

For some, the only thing better than a Skelly is two Skellys. Or more.

Rinner and Wickstrom recently purchased a used “Inferno” model, which features a jack-o’-lantern head. Theirs is covered in fake ivy, glued there by the previous owner. The couple have named him “Rhody” because he lords over their rhododendron bushes.

Now, the two figures frame each side of their home.

It’s an impressive sight. But the couple’s display pales in comparison to the Broadway-worthy production staged by North End Tacoma couple Chrisy and Paul Vindivich. Their home is a Disneyland of ghouls and evil jack-o’-lanterns. There are so many Skellys and his ilk that a visiting news reporter lost count in the mist that shoots periodically from a fog machine hidden among the figures.

“It’s a labor of love,” Chrisy explained. Like others, she likes to customize her Skellys. She modified one by “corpsing” it.

First, she wrapped its bones in plastic.

“Then you use some type of a heat gun, which melts it onto the bones, and then from there, you just kind of make it look as gory as you want, flesh like,” she cheerfully explained.

Going all in

It wasn’t always like this, the couple said. When they first moved into the house a decade ago, their Halloween decorations were, according to Paul, “very sad.”

“It was just a few minor decorations, a few things in the windows, some things sticking out of the ground, but nothing very impressive,” Chrisy said, dwelling for a moment in the shameful memory.

So, when did they lose their minds?

“Probably, when we saw the first 12-footer,” Chrissy said. They bought it. “And it led to one more and … ”

The display is so large that it’s spilled over into their next door neighbor’s yard. Fortunately for the Vindivichs, those neighbors are Chrisy’s sister and family. There might have been family pressure involved during the expansion, Chrisy hinted.

It’s not all frights in the Vindivichs’ display. One smaller skeleton is dressed liked Raygun, the Australian breakdancer who received zero points at the recent Paris Olympics.

But where do they keep all the decorations during the offseason? In a crawl space underneath the house, of course. Where else would you hide bodies?

“The things we do for Halloween,” Paul said. “But in a month, we’ll swap it all out for Christmas.”

Bone yard

Take a drive by the University Place home of Jared Anderson and you might see him tossing bones in the air.

“I’m just down here, throwing bones on the roof,” he said. “Wherever it lands, it lands.”

The orthopedic disaster playing out on his roof in the 8400 block of 35th Street West is overseen by a giant Skelly. It’s climbing over Anderson’s chimney. Parts of smaller, more human-sized skeletons are scattered below.

Anderson removed the Skelly from its stand and then rearticulated its arms and a leg for the desired effect using bungee cords and ropes.

“None of the arms are actually even in the sockets, because the arms don’t bend that way,” he said.

Anderson, the father of two, said he’s always been into Halloween, but this is the first year he’s succumbed to the Skelly craze. He got his normally $299 model half off.

There’s no story line to the scene, he said. He just wanted to add some movement to his Skelly.

“I like skeletons and spiders because you don’t expect them to move,” he said. Giant spiders occupy the bottom half of his house.

A passing car suddenly slowed and then came to a halt in front of Anderson’s house. Gawking kids stared from its windows.

“I‘m seeing a lot of turned heads,” Anderson said. “It’s fun.”

Guardian of the pumpkin patch

Nelson bought his current Skelly in Detroit and drove it to Tacoma where it stands guard in a traffic circle outside The Beach Tavern at Titlow Beach. The Skelly keeps watch over a growing sea of jack-o’-lanterns.

The carved squash are creations from the Titlow Pumpkin Patch , an annual community event Nelson has run since 2020. He is the creator of the TACOMA sign installed on pilings just off shore from the beach.

Nelson likes to wear bandannas and so does his Skelly. The skeleton features something else others don’t have: a glowing red, beating heart.

It’s clear to Nelson that a Skelly’s ability to be modified is part of their popularity. After all, who wants a naked skeleton in their front yard?