Ladera Ranch Halloween: the 2026 contest homes

Happy Halloween, and welcome to Ladera Ranch. Every October, Ladera Ranch Community Services runs a Halloween home decorating contest, and this year eighteen homes entered. Residents are voting on their favorites right now, so there are no winners yet. Just a lot of skeletons, waiting to hear the results.

We'll visit sixteen of those homes, in about forty-five minutes. Two of them have won first place so many times that they've earned the Legacy Award, so they're on the map but out of the judging. I'll tell you what each display looks like in the photos the families shared. A few of those photos are from last year, so keep an eye out for something new.

These are people's homes, so please stay on the street, and keep it friendly. And if one of these is your home and you'd rather it weren't on the tour, there's an email address on the tour page, and it comes off the same day. Alright. Let's go find some pumpkins.

Welcome to the first stop on our tour, and we're starting in Halloween Town. This home is all about The Nightmare Before Christmas.

By the garage stands Oogie Boogie, the big green boogeyman, holding up a red die. Never play dice with that guy. A little troublemaker in a red devil suit waits at his feet, and the garage door behind them swirls with projected ghosts and grinning jack-o'-lanterns, framed by a string of glowing bulbs.

Over by the front door, look for the famous curly spiral hill against a giant orange moon, with Jack Skellington standing close by. Little glowing Jack heads line the path, and out front there's a jack-o'-lantern with a very famous pair of mouse ears. Purple and orange lights wrap the hedges, and jack-o'-lanterns peek out of the upstairs windows.

The family says that on weekends, the pumpkins here talk. In their photos, three carved pumpkins sit in a row: one grumpy, one sly, and one just happy to be here.

If a pumpkin says hello tonight, it's only polite to say hello back.

Welcome, foolish mortals. This home is a love letter to the Haunted Mansion, and the family's photos from this month show they did their homework.

Start with the garage door. It's been turned into the gates of a moonlit cemetery, with bats flying overhead. In front, four singing busts glow on their columns, and nearby, three ghostly hitchhikers squeeze into one black ride, looking for someone to follow home. Not us. We're full.

On the lawn, the old caretaker stands frozen with his lantern and shovel, his dog right beside him, facing a little graveyard of tombstones while bony hands reach up from the grass. Two tall sheet ghosts glow by the garage, and a giant web of purple lights stretches down from the tree.

Up on the porch, the walls wear that famous creepy wallpaper, hung with spooky portraits and a glowing sign that says Welcome Foolish Mortals. Another sign warns, beware hitchhiking ghosts.

So before we go, maybe do a quick head count in the back seat.

This home is a projection show. On October weekends, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the family turns the front of their house into a giant screen from seven to ten at night, unless it rains. They say the spookier shows come after eight, with a special show once it's good and dark.

The images they shared show just how far this house can travel. In one scene, it becomes a wallpapered house strung with colorful holiday bulbs, with the whole alphabet painted across the garage door. Stranger things have happened. In another, it turns into a crooked, creaky Halloween Town. One scene flashes a marquee sign that reads Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Whatever you do, don't say it a third time. And in another, the house becomes the Haunted Mansion, glowing green and blue, with jack-o'-lanterns lined up along the bottom.

If it's a weeknight or not yet seven, this screen may just look like a house. Show nights are worth the wait.

Most homes pick one look for Halloween, but this one changes its mind all night long.

Welcome to Shipwrecked Island. The family decorated their home in a pirate theme, and in the photos they shared, a whole pirate ship has run aground right on the front lawn.

Its wooden hull has an anchor on the side, and its tattered sails, full of holes, glow green and purple. A skeleton crew is still on duty. One clings to the front of the ship, and another stands at the wheel, steering absolutely nowhere. Green light ripples across the driveway like water, so the ship still looks like it's out at sea.

Then look up. A giant skeleton pirate towers over the garden gate in a red bandana, wrapped in chains, with a striped sash and a sword raised high. From his other hand hangs a flag with a skull and crossed swords that reads Dead Men Tell No Tales. Lucky for us, because he looks like he has a few. Down by the fence, a skeleton creature with tall pointy ears stands guard.

Every island needs a lookout. This one can see over the gate without even trying.

The aliens have landed at Ladera's own Area 51. A sign on the fence says No Trespassing, top secret research facility, violators will vanish without a trace. So we'll be staying right here in the car, thank you.

Behind that fence, it's a full invasion. Glowing green aliens fill the yard, the tallest ones reaching up past the porch roof. A flying saucer has parked on the roof, and a little alien peeks out from the window of his own glowing spaceship. A line of smaller aliens stands along the walkway, like a very strange welcome committee, and even the trim on the house glows green.

The family says the display runs every night from six thirty to nine thirty, with surprise alien visitors and intergalactic fog on Saturdays and Sundays. In their photos, the fog rolls around a whole crowd of aliens, plus one tiny purple alien cat. You can follow them on Instagram at @ladarea51.

We come in peace, and we'll leave in peace, just a little bit quickly.

No tricks, just beats. That's what the hand-painted sign here says, and these skeletons mean it. The family says their skeletons waited all year to finally dance their bones off.

Out front, a giant skeleton with glowing blue eyes stands in the yard wearing a T-shirt that says Dance Til You're Dead. Bold choice of words, considering.

Up by the house, the party is in full swing. A skeleton DJ in a hoodie and glowing green glasses is working the DJ booth, while colored disco dots speckle the window behind him. Off to the side, a skeleton in a neon shirt throws one bony arm in the air, and that shirt says Shake Your Booty. A couple more skeletons have pulled up chairs to watch, next to a jack-o'-lantern in a top hat.

The lawn in front is a little graveyard, with tombstones marked RIP and skulls and bones scattered in the grass. Guess some guests danced a little too hard.

Every party needs a few people who never want to go home. Here, that's the whole guest list.

Ahoy! This display faces the alley, so look for an open garage glowing bright blue.

Up on the balcony hangs a white ship's sail. Below it, a red banner shows a skull in a pirate hat over a pair of crossed swords. Inside, it looks like a pirate party that went on a few centuries too long. A skeleton in striped pants guards a treasure chest. Another, in a red bandana, sits beside an open chest piled with gold coins and a glowing lantern, with one bony arm chained to the wall. Above him, a sign reads Dead Men Tell No Tales.

On a barrel, a skeleton in a white shirt holds a green bottle high, while his friend in a pirate hat leans in for a chat. Look for red glowing eyes in the blue haze, too. And on the door, a little sign says Pirates of the Caribbean.

Dead men tell no tales. Lucky for us, this alley tells plenty.

Step right up! In the photos this family shared last year, this home turned into a creepy carnival. We'll find out together how much of the circus is back tonight.

Last year, the porch wore a red and white striped awning, like a big top, with tall banners reading Creepy Carnival and Enter If You Dare. A row of jack-o'-lanterns grinned along the porch roof, and party lights splashed color across the walls. Up in a boarded-up window, a clown peeked out.

Out front stood a clown taller than the porch, in striped pants, with a club over his shoulder. In the tree, a skeleton with a clown face climbed the branches. Next to him, another clown hung upside down, wrapped up tight like a spider's snack, with only his face and a puff of red hair poking out. Tombstones, a giant spiderweb and Danger Keep Out signs finished the yard.

Every carnival needs a ringmaster. This one may still be hanging around.

Last year's photos show a whole coven moved in here, so let's see what's brewing tonight.

Over the porch hung a handmade sign for an Apothecary, offering potions, poisons, elixirs and brews. Witch hats dangled from the porch ceiling and from the tree out front, glowing like lanterns. A witch with glowing yellow eyes stood guard by the door, next to a sign for the Salem Flying School. Lessons begin at midnight. Broomsticks provided. No scaredy cats.

Not every student passed. One witch crashed right into a porch post, hat, broom and all, and a pair of striped stockings stuck straight up out of the bushes. Little arrow signs pointed one way to the witches and the other way to the graveyard. Purple lights covered the hedges, a twisty black tree glowed with a spooky face, and an inflatable unicorn dressed as a skeleton hugged a jack-o'-lantern.

Flying lessons look tough around here. Good thing the apothecary is right next door.

This home glows red, and the guest list is a lot.

Lined up in front of the house are some famous faces from scary movies. One wears a hockey mask and carries a long blade. Next to him, a figure in a long coat clutches a chainsaw. Then comes a black and white clown with a tiny hat, waving hello, and honestly, he looks the happiest of the bunch. Behind them, a shadowy figure in a brown hat waits by the window.

Nearby, someone in a hooded black robe wears that long white mask with the screaming face, and another figure with messy dark hair stands right behind him, staring.

Now look up into the tree. A ghostly girl with very long black hair sits on a rope swing, her face hidden, in a tattered gown.

That's a whole horror movie marathon in one front yard, and not one of them has said a single word. Somehow, that's the scariest part.

In the photos from two years ago, this house was packed from the lawn to the roof. Whatever is up tonight, here's what that year looked like.

A sign on the roof read Halloween Town, and jack-o'-lanterns lined every ledge. On the balcony, a ghost in a top hat stood under a sign that said Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts. On one wall, a giant spider had caught a skeleton in its web, and a skeleton taller than the porch loomed over the yard.

A crooked signpost pointed to scary places all over the map: Sleepy Hollow, Camp Crystal Lake, Castle Frankenstein, even Mount Doom. A very tall, skinny skeleton in a pinstriped suit stood under the tree, a rag doll with long red hair waited among the pumpkins, and a sign by the fence said Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

Every road on that signpost leads somewhere scary. Two years ago, they all seemed to lead here.

Welcome to the Pumpkin House! That's the family's own greeting, and in the photos they shared, they really mean it.

Start with the garage. The whole door is one giant jack-o'-lantern face, with black triangle eyes and a jagged grin, all traced in orange lights. Even the little garage windows are filled with glowing pumpkins. Look up, and the windows of the house are packed with light-up pumpkins too, with more jack-o'-lanterns lined up along the roof ledge and tiny ones hanging under the eaves.

Beside the driveway sits one enormous dark pumpkin with a sharp silver zigzag grin. By the walk, a pumpkin-headed DJ in headphones, his face glowing green, works the turntables. On the porch, little orange ghosts with pumpkin faces gather around even more jack-o'-lanterns, and smiling pumpkins climb the hedges and the tall shrubs by the door.

Plenty of homes put out a pumpkin or two. This one let the pumpkins move in.

Welcome to the house where the skeletons glow in the dark. Blue light washes over the whole home, and every bone out here shines a bright, eerie green.

Start down low. Behind the fence, a giant skull with glowing white eyes peeks out, arms spread wide, like it just climbed up from somewhere underneath. Big glowing webs stretch across the porch behind it, full of holes.

Now look up. Skeletons are climbing out of the upstairs windows. More are scrambling up the tree out front, and a couple are perched on top of the arbor like they're waiting for a good seat. Around the corner side, a skeleton taller than the fence stands with its arms out and its eyes glowing.

And tying it all together, the hedge out front is wrapped in little orange lights.

This family clearly has a skeleton crew. Judging by the windows, they're also very bad at staying inside.

This house has a spider problem. Or maybe the spiders have a house.

After dark, the white walls glow red and orange. Two giant hairy spiders hang from the upstairs window grilles on long legs, and dozens of little black spiders crawl across the wall below them, all heading somewhere. Not one of them is wiping its feet.

The trees out front are buried in stringy cobwebs, with big white webs stretched behind them. Look for a victim wrapped up tight in a white cocoon, with a spider still holding on. The low walls are draped in gray, like old crumbling stone.

At the top of the steps, a dark skeleton in a ragged veil sits on a bench, keeping a little pile of skulls company.

And the signs out front are very clear. Beware. Go back. Danger, enter if you dare. Keep out.

We'll take their advice and stay right here. Somebody has to tell the spiders they're doing a great job.

Look up. Way up. A towering scarecrow with a carved pumpkin head stands in front of this house, eyes and grin glowing yellow, and his ribs glowing right through his ragged coat. His arms stretch wide, with twiggy fingers reaching across the balcony.

Behind him, the house glows pink, red and purple. Skeletons hang along the upstairs balcony, and a giant hairy spider clings to the railing.

Down below, the doorways are trimmed in purple lights. One is framed by an arch of jack-o'-lanterns. Nearby, a skeleton in a top hat stands beside a figure in a long white veil, like a couple who never left the wedding. In the next doorway, a grim reaper with glowing red eyes holds up a lantern in one hand and a scythe in the other. At his feet, a little crowd of tiny skeleton creatures gathers in the lights, and out front, tombstones hide under stretchy cobwebs.

That photo was taken in September, so tonight may have even more. One thing's for sure. This scarecrow isn't here to keep the crows away, he's here to keep everybody away.

Here we are. In the photo this family shared from last Halloween, two life-size skeletons are carrying a coffin between them, one at each end, like the world's boniest moving crew.

The coffin is open. And sitting inside, looking very calm about the whole thing, is a fluffy white dog. Not a prop. A real pup with a collar, enjoying the ride.

Behind them, green swirls of light danced across the wall and windows, and the hedge was draped in stretchy purple cobwebs.

No promises the pup is on duty tonight. Dogs keep their own schedules, especially at Halloween. And this was a close-up photo, so things may look different from the street. But if you spot a skeleton with a coffin, give the crew a wave.

And that's the end of our tour. Happy Halloween! Ladera Ranch residents can vote for their favorite homes on the LaderaLife website until noon on Wednesday, October twenty-eighth. This tour was made by a neighbor from Mission Viejo next door, and there's an email address on the tour page if you have feedback, or if a homeowner would like their house left off. Thanks for riding along, and good night.