The leaves are turning colors, Hocus Pocus is playing on every other channel and candy corn is on sale — it’s officially spooky season.

Halloween brings excitement and a general interest in all things scary. As soon as October hits, it’s time to bring out the skeletons and pumpkins.

With a little bit of help, it’s not too difficult to turn an everyday apartment or house into a Haunted Mansion. Many department stores like Target, Michael’s and Shopko in Eau Claire are great places to find inexpensive and quick decorations.

A person can buy window gel clings, frightfully fun lights, pumpkin-printed dishcloths, and paper cutouts at any of these stores. This is often a good place to start when looking for quick and easy decoration ideas.

For those feeling a little crafty, colored construction paper is one way to make Halloween decorations for less. All that’s really needed is some colored construction paper, markers, a pair of scissors and some tape.

Go the extra mile by adding glue-on eyeballs, glitter glue and other fun pieces to spice up the spooktastic decorations. The full moon is the limit when it comes to making Halloween decorations with construction paper.

Making personalized Halloween decorations can be simplified one step further by using a printer. A person can find a design they like online, print it out using a campus printer or personal printer and then color in the designs.

There’s tons of different ways for people to DIY their own haunting decorations. All a person has to do is boot up their computer and start their hunt. Websites like the diynetwork and pinterest are great resources.

Now that the living space has endured a haunted mansion-inspired transformation, it’s time to find a costume.

For many people the hunt for a great costume starts by looking at Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and the Internet. Collaborating with friends and family is another great way to come up with clever costume ideas.

Often times complete costumes can be expensive when one purchases them at a local department store. Shopping at thrift stores such as Goodwill and Savers in Eau Claire can be a solution to that problem. Another route a person can take is to talk with their friends and family members. They could find the missing piece to their costume in another person’s closet.

Finally, a monstrous appetite calls for platefuls of spooky snacks. It’s easy to spice up classic snacks without scaring the wallet.

One easy way is to make a trail or snack mix. Pop some popcorn and add Halloween candy like candy corn, Reese’s pieces, M&Ms, Kit Kats — the options are endless. Another option is rice krispie pumpkins. All that’s needed is a box of rice krispies, marshmallows, orange food coloring or sprinkles and rolo candy for the stem.

For a healthier snack, a person can make banana ghosts. To make the banana ghost, peel the banana and then add chocolate chips to make the face.

There are also tons of recipes online at websites such as Taste of Home and BuzzFeed for foodie inspiration.

Don’t let November 1 smother the spooky spirit. This new month brings the arguably best part of the Halloween season — crazy candy sales.

Huggett can be reached at [email protected].