The temperature may be kissing triple digits, but Halloween is starting to fill up the shelves in stores across Houston. For those who want to get a head start on Spooky Season, CultureMap took a quick tour of prominent national retail chains to see which Halloween decor items are already available.

It will still be a month or so before the seasonal Spirit Halloween stores crop up to haunt the shells of defunct business, but the company has already put out its slate of 2025 animatronics for order. As always, people in the market for a nine-foot scarecrow to scare the neighborhood kids with its ghastly, mechanical motions will find that Spirit is the place to go.

The store's primary competition in the animatronics market is a bit slower on the draw this year. Home Depot hasn't put out any decorations for sale yet, and Lowe's only has a handful of inflatables. Granted, one of them is a life-sized skeleton DJ with bluetooth that allows people to spin spooky tunes from their living rooms, so at least Lowe's has put its best foot bones forward.

So far, the best one-stop shop for Halloween stuff is definitely At Home, where ghosts and ghoulish things are already out in force. Some highlights from its catalogue are skeletal yard gnomes, an inflatable black cat that was literally too big to photograph properly, and an excellent selection of faux graveyard decor. One new trend this year seems to be evil plants, including eyeball cacti in pots and plenty of things clearly inspired by Little Shop of Horrors.

Cracker Barrel is one of the most underrated Halloween dealers around. The restaurant and store brings the same kitchen kitsch to the holiday as they do for Christmas, including Spooky Tree ornaments. While the selection is fairly modest, shoppers won't find a better selection of Halloween salt-and-pepper shakers. The ones that were made out of hanging ceramic bats were especially adorable.

After the closure of all the Joann Fabrics stores, some might have expected Michael's to step up its Halloween game. While it's still the home of all the charming Lemax miniatures, the rest of their stock proved a bit lacking. On the other hand, it's nice to see so much pink among the black in Halloween decorations. The store also carries a broad spectrum of paint kits and other craft activities for the holiday.

Lastly, Home Goods has a mishmash of everything, though it leans heavily into cute ceramics. It's also one of the few places shoppers are likely to find Disney Halloween items outside official stores, though that stock is limited. The best way to shop at Home Goods has always been to walk in without any real idea of what to buy and just let the cluttered shelves reveal their treasures. This goes double for Halloween, which offers spooky themed utensils, unique snow globes, grumpy pumpkins, and a few larger pieces to add somber gravity to any home expecting trick 'r treaters.

Wherever you go, Halloween is peeking around the corner, waiting to banish the heat and usher in cool nights full of scary stories.

  

Photo by Jef Rouner

Cracker Barrel offers the same level of kitsch for Halloween that it does for other holidays.