Scary House Brings Out Spirit of Giving Early

While most people are now focused on putting up their Christmas decorations, one Lake Zurich couple was already in the spirit of giving for Halloween.

Todd and Mickey Horndasch live on Old Mill Grove Road. They love Halloween and decorating both the inside and outside of their home for the holiday. This year, they tried something new, a "Haunt Against Hunger."

"We received 40 donations just from the signs posted in front of our house (and one from Facebook)," Todd said. They delivered the food donations to St. Francis Ministry Center.

They got the idea from, but are not affiliated with an organized "Haunt Against Hunger" in Chicago.

"We liked the idea and thought that since there were so many people stopping to look at our house, we would try to bring some food in for our town," said Todd.

They've had an indoor Halloween display at their home for 16 years. It takes about six weeks of preparation to get all the decorations in place, according to Todd.

"Eventually we realized that we needed something big outdoors to attract people to the front door to see what was going on inside," explained Todd.. "We started building the large outdoor creatures about five years ago to lure people to the windows so they could see the interior display."

"We are home haunt enthusiasts and have attended many trade shows and conventions over the last few years," Todd said. At the conventions, they take classes on prop "corpsifisication" and makeup. 

The Horndasches are hoping to bring in a larger donation next year.