By Matthew Liebenberg
Halloween enthusiasts in Swift Current who enjoy decorating their homes for the scariest night of the year stand a chance to win prizes when they enter an outdoor decorating contest.
The Swift Current Haunters is hosting the 4th annual Festival of Frights Halloween home decorating contest as well as other related activities to make Halloween a fun experience.
The Halloween home decorating contest is open to people living within the city. The deadline for entries is noon on Oct. 13. One can enter by sending a direct message on the Swift Current Haunters Facebook page with name, address and contact number. Participants must have their displays ready for judging on the nights of Oct. 14-16.
Swift Current Haunters executive members Bart Busse and Sandra Caron are looking forward to seeing the displays that contestants will create for this year’s event.
“If you have any kind of display, you should not avoid the contest because you think it’s not good enough,” Busse said. “Your idea of not good enough could be our idea of that is really good.”
The intention of the Festival of Frights decorating contest is to get homeowners into the spirit of Halloween and to create something for everyone to enjoy when they tour around the city to look at displays.
Caron mentioned they have seen Halloween displays in the city in previous years that did not enter in the contest, but had a good chance of winning if they participated.
“That’s happened in the past,” she said. “We had someone won third in one year, the next year they got second and then ended up being first place the following year.”
The contest format makes it possible for decorators to have a shot at winning prizes, because past first place winners are not allowed to enter the general contest again.
This year’s Festival of Fright includes a new contest category, the Haunters Hall of Fame. Past first place winners who decorate for 2026 will automatically be entered into the new category to compete against each other for a prize.
There are several prize categories in the general contest. In addition to prizes for the first, second and third place winners, there are prizes for honorary mentions and people’s choice. There is also a new prize category this year for best representation of a theme.
“We always like to have something we haven’t done in the past,” Busse said. “There were lots of different themes last year. There were pumpkins, knights and dragons, pirates, clowns. So we figured this year we could do a category for that and see what people come up with for a theme.”
Good sponsorship support for the Festival of Frights makes it possible to provide a variety of prizes to category winners, including credits on City utility bills.
“We have fantastic sponsor support,” he said. “There’s lots of prizes to be had. We have given away close to $10,000 in prizes over the last three years.”
The judging of displays will focus on the use of creative ideas and decorating principles to create an effect that demonstrates the spirit of Halloween. The five judging criteria are posted on the Swift Current Haunters Facebook page to assist contestants to plan their displays. They are originality of theme, layout and composition, curb appeal, sensory experience and lighting design.
Both Busse and Caron agreed that proper lighting is the most crucial design aspect that can make a display stand out and attract the attention of judges as well as anyone looking at it.
“It’s the number one thing standing between people winning a prize and not winning a prize, because if we can’t see it, we can’t judge it,” Busse said. “Darkness doesn’t equate to spooky when it comes to decorating a house for Halloween. You have to be able to see what’s spooky. To create creepy, you have to create shadows and other things. So, you need to light it.”
A charm collection game for children held last year on Halloween night was very popular and will again take place on Oct. 31.
“I was shocked at how many kids collected all 13 of the charms last year and there was probably a lot more that we didn’t know about,” Caron said. “So obviously, the collecting is something that kids enjoy doing.”
Last year’s game was known as the 13 Chilling Charms and the 2026 version is called the 13 Dastardly Ducks game.
A limited number of the 13 different duck charms will be available at participating homes around the city on Halloween. The location of the 13 homes will be posted on the Swift Current Haunters Facebook page. Families can participate in the game by going to these addresses and children can then ask to receive a duck charm.
Children can collect as many of these charms as possible and keep them. Game participants can enter a prize draw by posting photos afterwards of their collected charms on the Haunters Facebook page.
Any homeowner interested in becoming one of the 13 guardians of the dastardly ducks for the game can contact the Swift Current Haunters. They will be required to have some Halloween decorations on display and treats for children who visit their place, and to hand out the charms to any children asking for it.
It is an ideal opportunity for anyone who would like to have more trick and treaters visit their home on Halloween night, which is the reason the Swift Current Haunters began this initiative last year.
“People were saying no one comes around to my house,” Busse said. “We had someone who went from six kids in 2024 to 60 kids in 2025 because they were handing out charms. They were ecstatic, because they had lots of kids come to their door.”
The Swift Current Haunters has organized a pumpkin growing contest as a new Halloween event for 2026. Free pumpkins seeds were distributed in the spring at four different locations in the city. The contest is open to anyone in the city and surrounding area who grew pumpkins. The deadline to register for the contest is Oct. 1.
The pumpkin growing contest winners will be announced at a fun family event hosted by the Swift Current Haunters in partnership with Dairy King. It will take place at the Dairy King on Oct. 25 from 1-4 p.m. There will be free horse-drawn wagon rides, a jack-o-lantern carving contest, face painting, a photo booth, mini golf and Halloween ice-cream treats.
Check out the Swift Current Haunters Facebook page for information and updates about their Halloween activities.
