Mission Viejo Halloween: the 2026 winners

Happy Halloween, and welcome to this year's winners of Mission Viejo's Halloween home decorating contest. Neighbors all over the city entered, and the judges picked a first and second place in five categories: Scariest, Best Theme, Most Creative, Pumpkin-Tastic and Best Special Effects. That's ten winning homes. Two of them sit almost across the street from each other, so we'll make nine stops, in about thirty-five minutes.

I'll tell you what each display looked like when the judges came by, so you may spot something new. These are people's homes, so please stay on the street and in the car, 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. Now, let's go find some skeletons.

Here's the stadium. Start with the foosball table, the life-size kind: skeleton players lined up on poles over a strip of green turf, a goal net at one end, and a sign that says Foosball Table, in case anyone had doubts.

Then find the TV studio. A panel of skeleton soccer pundits in suits and ties sits behind a long desk, each one with a famous name card, ready to argue about the match. Behind them is a hand-drawn backdrop full of soccer gear, and a skeleton in a red jersey waiting for the whistle.

This home is no stranger to winning. It took first place for Most Creative in 2022, and again in 2024.

This is it. Look along the fence first: rows of papel picado, the colorful cut-paper banners, with sugar skulls set between them and candles glowing along the top. A giant white skull stands out on the lawn.

Then follow the walkway. It runs under a tall arch of orange lights, like a doorway made of marigolds, and leads back to an altar, an ofrenda, filled with candles and offerings. Up on the balcony there's another big skull, with marigold garlands draped along the railing.

It might be the most colorful stop of the night, and the warmest. Everything here is about remembering, not about being scared.

Welcome to the crypt. Two stone pillars guard the front path, stacked with skulls, and on top of each one a gargoyle crouches with its wings spread. Between them, the path runs up to a doorway hung with red curtains and lit by old lanterns.

On either side, skeleton monks in red robes keep watch, and tall red banners with black crosses hang over the yard. Look up at the roof, too: a big winged demon is perched up there, keeping an eye on the street.

Red light and candlelight do most of the work here. They turn an ordinary front yard into a cathedral for the dead.

Look at the front of the house. Ghostly shapes are projected right across the walls, swirling in purple and orange light, and up on the roof a dead tree with a face and glowing eyes stares down at the street.

In the driveway, three tall ghosts with long white hair stand in a row, and beside them is an old horse-drawn hearse, waiting for its next passenger. Off to one side, a glowing archway opens like a portal, and a giant skeleton with a glowing red ribcage looms at the edge of the yard.

It's the projections that make this one. The house itself looks haunted, not just the yard.

Here it is, and it's all jack-o'-lanterns. They're stacked into tall towers on each side of the door, climbing the porch posts and lined along the edge of the roof. More of them spill down the steps and through the garden, every one with its own face: grinning, scowling, laughing, and one carved like a sugar skull.

The whole porch is bathed in blue light and draped in a giant spiderweb, so the orange faces seem to glow even brighter. There's a neon green web on the garage door, too.

That's a lot of pumpkins, and a lot of faces. It's easy to see why this house keeps winning.

Look for the path of pumpkin lights: little glowing jack-o'-lantern buckets lining the lawn like runway lights. They lead to a Happy Halloween arch and a yard full of friends: a big blue cartoon puppy that a lot of kids will recognize, a famous mouse or two, and a skeleton with a jack-o'-lantern for a head.

Then look at the garage door. A whole storybook village is projected across it, with a cobblestone street, glowing pumpkins and little houses lit up for Halloween night.

If anyone in the back seat got spooked earlier, this is the stop that makes up for it.

Welcome to the circus. There are two winners right here, so look on both sides of the street.

One home took first place for Scariest, for the second year in a row. A giant clown is sprawled across the roof, a huge pair of scissors hangs over the entry, and a striped circus tent sits in the yard between candy-striped poles. A sign by the walk says it plainly: Beware of Clowns.

The other home took second place for Most Creative, and it's a carnival under blacklight. Neon polka dots glow all over the driveway, a giant clown peers down from under a big umbrella, and more clowns stand among the sunflowers and a glowing checkerboard. That home won Best Special Effects in 2022 and 2024, too.

Two clown houses on one street. Somebody here started a rivalry, or a club.

Here's the entrance: a giant clown archway, striped red and white, with a clown's face grinning down from the top. Behind it is a striped big-top tent, and a path lined with little lights leading you in.

Along the way, a clown holding a red balloon waits by the path, which is never a good sign, and another clown in a jester's suit watches from up on the balcony. Glowing tombstones are scattered through the yard, and off to the side, big orange letters spell out one word: Boo.

Three clown homes in a row. Mission Viejo, we need to talk about the clowns.

Welcome to Villains Grove. The house has become a castle, with a glowing sign across the front, and a whole crowd of famous movie villains has moved in. Look for the evil fairy with her horns on the left, the sorcerer with his snake staff by the gate, the sea witch in her purple cave in the middle, and a scheming lion up on the rocks to the right.

Jack-o'-lanterns with mouse ears sit on top of the gate posts, an iron fence wrapped in orange lights holds the villains back, and a row of jack-o'-lanterns glows along the front.

And that's the end of our tour. Thank you for spending your evening with your neighbors' Halloween. This tour was made by a Mission Viejo neighbor, so if you enjoyed it, or something wasn't right, there's an email address on the tour page, and I'd love to hear from you. Happy Halloween.