GRANTSVILLE, Utah — After a bit of a skeleton decoration scandal in Grantsville last year, the city has taken it upon itself to embrace Halloween decorations this year.
The city asked businesses to put out their best skeleton decorations this year. And soon, residents will get the chance to vote on a winner.
“Businesses not only are doing it, but private citizens," said Grantsville Mayor Neil Critchlow. "It’s an amazing experience to do this. People are taking walks with their kids to look at the skeletons."
The city has asked local places to go all out for skeletons for their competition.
“When they came up with this, I was happy because it was a chance for them to show that they all have a great sense of humor and they love that the town wants to do fun things,” said Christina Keener, a Grantsville business owner.
Critchlow explained how they're taking bad publicity from last Halloween season and turning it into good by getting everyone involved.
The idea came from skeletons pole dancing in a Grantsville neighborhood in 2023. The city said the display needed to be taken down — but only because it was attached to a city street sign. The residents then put the display in their yard with their own pole.
“It went pretty viral last year, kind of gotten more exotic. We have the stripper crew down there at our neighbors, and it’s kind of turned into a whole neighborhood thing,” said Grantsville resident Bryan Duvall.
This year, Duvall and his family went with the same theme as their neighbors down the street.
“These two men right here are watching the woman, and the woman here is saying hi to that man," said Breyker Duvall, showing around the display. "If you look over here, you'll see that there's one over here and the one over there is waving her arm and she has money. And that big guy over here is security, and you have to be 21 or older to get in."
Breyker said he's just happy that the whole town is celebrating his favorite holiday.
“I just love Halloween. My favorite time of year — everybody loves it," he said.
