Now in its fifth year, the South New Street Nightmare has gained a reputation as one of Champaign-Urbana’s top destinations for Halloween decorations.
This is no ordinary experience. The location, 1110 S. New St., Champaign, offers a delightful array of scary themes that will amaze even hardcore fans of Halloween.
According to Jen Orchard, who along with Travis Reece and Hailey and Allison Orchard are responsible for the project, “South New Street nightmare is a full walkthrough. The majority of our props are homemade and some cannot be seen from the street. This year we have written a story to give an additional dimension to the display. Please feel free to park and walk through the front yard on the marked path. Please do not touch the props and be respectful to the neighbors and their yards.”
We asked Jen a few questions about their efforts:
Q: What was the impetus for doing it?
Halloween has always been our favorite holiday. We started building decorations because we wanted something different than what was in the stores. We really do it as a creative outlet; we are all creative people and enjoy being able to work together on a project. The kids have learned some great design and building skills. We design and build new props as a family and start building around the beginning of June.
Q: Do you have a memorable comment or other piece of feedback from onlookers?
The amount of people that come by and thank us is just humbling. We appreciate everyone being so kind.
Q: Do you have a favorite house elsewhere in Champaign-Urbana that you think is really cool for Halloween?
There are quite a few cool houses in the C-U area. We love everyone who decorates from a single pumpkin to a full display. However I would have to give a shout out to a fellow Chicago haunt builders home. Trick or treat of doom on Springfield and Chicago. He does a lot of work to make it scary.
Q: Do you also decorate for any other holidays?
We decorate some for Christmas but after getting everything packed up from Halloween we are just tired, LOL.
You can find out more about South New Street Nightmare on Facebook and TikTok at @snsnightmare. The accompanying story is here.