The Creepiest Crypts in Town

Winners of the 2017 Creep Your Crypt Contest Announced

By SARAH SHMERLING | Managing Editor

Giant spiders, creepy zombies, ghoulish ghosts. Thirty-eight homes donned their Halloween best and entered the 2017 Palisadian-Post‘s Creep Your Crypt contest.

And though each home was spooky, three winners were voted on by the community in three categories: Creepiest Crypt, DIY-Originality and Best Theme.

Taking home the award for Creepiest Crypt this year was the Cohen family—Scott, Ashley, Mason (9) and Soleil (7). Their Alphabet Streets home, located on Embury Street, featured an assortment of spooky creatures, including a skeleton sporting a “beware of zombie dog” sign and ghosts suspended from their trees. Their favorite decoration was a bloodied head on the mailbox.

“Our kids were the architects of this spooky house,” Ashley explained to the Post. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the children in this great community of the Palisades having fun.”

Over in the The Huntington, the Archipley family—Jack (2), Johanna, Leona (5) and Jeff—snagged the award for DIY-Originality.

“We had a lot of fun doing it,” Jeff Archipley shared after learning that their Chapala Drive home had won.

A blaze of orange and purple lights illuminated their front yard, which included a fenced off graveyard guarded by a monster.

Down the road from the Archipleys, another Chapala Drive home won the prize for Best Theme: Lauren, McKay, Beau and dog Jack Evans.

“Our favorite decoration this year was the electric ‘no vacancy’ sign we hung above our front door,” Lauren said. “My daughter told me we really needed to ‘up our game this year’ if we wanted to win, so we couldn’t resist the creepy addition.”

This is the second time the Evans family has taken home a prize. In 2015, they earned the DIY-Originality trophy.

“All of us are so excited to have won,” Lauren said.

McKay said that when she found out, she “exploded with happiness.”

“It was really fun competing as a family, and winning is just the icing on the cake,” Lauren shared.

Each of the winners takes home a sparkly trophy, in addition to hundreds of dollars worth of certificates to local restaurants and businesses.

The next chance to participate in a home decorating contest is Deck Your Halls. Check the Post later this month for all the details.