We live a little off the beaten path, so getting trick-or-treaters to walk the extra block to our place takes a little work. Rather than resorting to Hollywood premiere style search lights, this year we floated up some spooky Spirit Lights to try an entice people to make the trek, and it worked extremely well.

This is a very quick and easy project, with huge effect. Our "spirits" were attracting people from entirely different neighborhoods!

One caution: If you live near power lines, or it is an excessively breezy night, you should NOT attempt this project.

Spirit Lights from That Will Guy on Vimeo.

Step 1: Tools & Materials

Required Tools

Scissors

Materials

Very large, BLACK, helium balloon(s)
Miniature glow sticks
12" size, white balloons
Cheesecloth
Spool of fishing line

Not all party stores carry balloons large enough for this, so you may need to ask around. The ones I used were 3' in diameter, and a little pricey ($14 filled), but well worth it. I've attempted this before with standard size balloons and it did not work well. It took three standard balloons just to hold one ghost aloft, and even then it was a little sketchy. The monster balloons cost a little more, but they can keep up 2 - 4 ghosts each, depending on how many glow sticks you use.

Step 2: Creating Spirits

Assembly of the "spirit" balloons is very simple, and is a great way to get kids involved, so grab yourself a helper, and let's get started!

Note: Don't start too early, or the glow sticks will start losing their power before it even gets dark out. I started cracking and shaking mine just after sunset. If you have everything else prepped beforehand, final assembly goes real quick.

For each Spirit, you will need:

one glow stick
one white balloon
one 3' x 1.5' piece of cheesecloth (approximate size)
5 feet of fishing line

I actually used two glow sticks in each of my balloons, but decided later that wasn't entirely necessary. Using more glow sticks allows you to blow the balloons up a little larger, but they also add quite a bit of additional weight. Also, the larger you blow the white balloons, the less glow you get overall. It's a bit of a balancing act, and certainly adjustable for the look you're ultimately going for. In the end, I decided that using 1 glow stick, and just slightly inflating the balloons looked the best.

For each spirit, have your helper crack a glow stick and shake it up well.

While that is happening, blow up a balloon a little bit, then let the air out. This just helps to make sure the inside of the balloon isn't sticking to itself, and makes it a little easier to insert the glow stick.

Once you have a well-shaken glow stick, have your helper place it inside the balloon.

Now, inflate the balloon and tie it off. If you're not sure how much to inflate the balloon, take it into a dark bathroom and judge the amount of glow you're getting, then let out, or add more air, as necessary.

Step 3: Giving Them Clothes

For extra effect, if you don't have rain in the forecast, use the cheesecloth to really give them a wispy, spirit look. If it is raining, you will need to skip this step because once the cloth soaks with rain, even the giant helium balloons will not be able to keep them up anymore.

With the balloon knot pointing up, drape a piece of cheesecloth over the balloon, and have your helper hold it.

Cut off a length of fishing line, at least 5' long, and tie one end around the balloon knot, thus securing the cheesecloth in place, and creating an invisible tether for your spirit.

Step 4: Launch!

Once you have prepped all of the spirit balloons you plan to use, it is time to head outside and launch everything. The giant balloons will probably come with weights on them, and I'd recommend keeping them in place until you're ready to send each one up.

Pick a place close to your house, and preferably away from any paths where people might be walking; if the wind picks up a bit, and the balloons start drifting, you don't want the lines falling across where people can get tangled in them.

Pull a little lead off the reel of fishing line (don't cut it yet!) and tie it to one of the black balloons. Once it is secured, cut off the weights and start letting out fishing line so the balloon rises about 15 feet in the air. If your first spirit is too close to it, when people look up, they are more apt to see the black balloon and spoil the mystery. If it is really too close, it could even illuminate the black balloon a bit, so give yourself a good deal of room.

Once it has floated up a bit, tie a loop in the line. I'm not too versed in knots, but hopefully the pictures show what I'm talking about. Since it's really hard to see the fishing line, I took pictures of the same process using regular string.

With the loop in place, tie the lead from the spirit balloon to the loop, and then start letting out more line to send that one up in the air. After that balloon is 5 or 10 feet above you, repeat the process with the next one. If you are using 1 glow stick per balloon, you can place at least 3. If you're using 2 glow sticks per balloon, you'll only be able to attach 2 of them. Once you've got your final one attached and floated up, tie the line off on something secured to the ground.

Keep your helper handy for this process, it's a little tough to juggle all the stuff on your own.

Step 5: Stand Back and Admire Your Work

That's all there is to it. Repeat step #4 for each large balloon you have and stand back to admire your work.

On a cloudless night, the black balloons will almost completely disappear in the black sky. Even with some cloud cover, they aren't all that noticeable (but you can see one of them in my pictures). If there is a little breeze, the large balloons will drift around some, and the long leads on the spirit balloons will allow them to drift around independently, giving the whole display a really cool random look!

The pictures and video don't quite do it justice, but it is amazing in person.

Other ideas:

Make some extras and hang them near your front door. We create a graveyard by our porch, and I tied some from trees over there.
String fishing line between two high trees and hang them down from there, for more of a horizontal spread look.
I used the traditional green glow sticks, but other colors could be interesting as well.
Try full-size glow sticks, with slightly larger balloons.