A haunting in Connecticut: Darien couple creates spooky surroundings

Written by Lynsey Santimays
Friday, 30 October 2009 12:11

Halloween may be this coming Saturday, but Kimberly and Christopher Van Munching have been preparing for months for their favorite frightening holiday.

“We start making decorations in August,” Kim said, “which really creeps out my friends when I tell them I’m working on making a corpse.”

Kim, an artist, and her husband, Chris collaborate to decorate their Dew Lane home to the nines for the Oct. 31 holiday. Chris is the “idea man,” while Kim makes those ideas come to life — or death.

The majority of their decorations are hand-made, which is why their preparations start when most people are thinking about sun and beaches rather than goblins and ghouls.

“Even if we buy something, we usually end up tweaking it or personalizing it,” Chris said.

“Store-bought decorations aren’t always up to our standard, so we have to tweak them,” Kim adds.

Their home — both outside and inside — is full of these custom decorations. “Once it hits Oct. 1, we start putting decorations up,” Kim said. “We can’t wait!”

Inside their house, the den, library and dining room are transformed to become spooky spaces. The den includes a larger-than-life spider, a goblin baby, and a creepy re-make of the famous painting “American Gothic,” done by Kim. The decorations continue in the dining room, with cut-outs in the windows and goblins on the shelves. In the library, two skeletons have taken residence, in addition to several skull heads and ravens.

Outside, the Van Munchings have more than 20 pumpkins throughout the lawn, hand-crafted tombstones, and various skeletons, monsters, and ghosts to frighten any visitors. On Halloween, the Van Munchings create their own live “hauntings” outside, as well.

“We light all the candles in the pumpkins, play scary music, dress up as monsters and hide throughout the lawn,” Kim said.

“We want the kids to have a good-natured scare,” Chris said. “They have to earn their candy when they come to this house.”

Both Kim and Chris seem like a match made in Halloween-heaven. “We didn’t know when we first met that we both had the same favorite holiday,” Kim said.

Since they’ve been married, they have been converting their home into a haunted house for the holiday. “It has been at least 10 years, maybe more,” Chris said. Their first decoration was “Uncle Fester,” a fearful skeleton creature that they still use today.

“Every year, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Chris said of their decorations.

To get new ideas for each year’s decor, the two turn to their favorite source, horror films. “I’ve always loved horror movies,” Kim said. “It is where we get a lot of ideas.”

Not only do they like to dress up their home, but they love to costume themselves as well. “Every year I am some sort of monster,” Kim said. “I was trying on my costume for this year, and my son asked me, ‘Mommy, can’t you be something pretty this year?’”

Their son fits right into the fright-loving family, also. “He was originally due on Halloween,” Chris said. “But he came early — on Friday the 13th, underneath a full moon.”

“We knew he’d fit right in,” Kim said with a laugh.

With their decorations for this year set and ready to go, the only thing left to do is hope for good weather. “A lot of people are worried about the weather for the World Series,” Kim said. “I could care less about that — I want nice weather for Halloween!”

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