A house in Ridgefield is drawing visitors from all over the county thanks to its numerous detailed Halloween decorations.
The Holiday House on Third is a Clark County attraction that James Kugler fashions and runs from his own front yard and house, covering it with premade and handmade Halloween decorations.
“I grew up doing Halloween. When I was really young, I’d been to a lot of the local haunted houses in my neighborhood and that really influenced me,” Kugler said.
From his childhood through his teen years, Kugler built a lot of sets and decorations, notable among them a western town he constructed in high school with his father.
“My dad and I built the whole town, jail, saloon, full graveyard. They had a pretty good-sized yard,” Kugler said. “I won a couple of awards, I was in the newspaper as a high schooler for best in Clark County neighborhood association for our house.”
This year, Kugler’s property features several special decorations, but the centerpiece is something he built himself.
“The front porch itself was a plan, an idea that I had basically since we moved in,” Kugler said. “We never really had a picturesque front door so what’s behind the facade is just the garage.”
Planning for the season typically begins in July if Kugler is building a set piece, and setup begins during the first week of September.
For Kugler, the ability to create these pieces of art and have people enjoy them is a good alternative to the job he had dreamed of getting in the future.
“I really wanted to work on either a movie set or build sets for haunted houses,” Kugler said. “Disney weighs a lot in my life and so my first memories of the haunted mansion at Disneyland when I was 5 years old, that’s all weighed in on my artistic perspective.”
For several years, Kugler lived in an apartment and was unable to do decorations like he wanted, and his dream career wasn’t showing much promise.
During this time, he met his wife, and in 2020, the couple moved to their current residence.
“She was super into it too,” Kugler said. “Halloween, Disney, all that was on the table and we knew long before we got this house that it’s something we wanted to do.”
The first year they moved into the house, they started decorating for Halloween, and since then, their inventory of decorations has grown to the point that they need a storage unit.
“There’s a lot of people that come and I know people come back every year and they’re looking for something new,” Kugler said. “You just kind of have to keep expanding. Next year we’re hoping to open up the garage and have a haunted walkway.”
As the years go on, Kugler anticipates that his kids will be able to help out more and may eventually take over the event.
“All they want to do is come help, so I’ve got them to keep me at it as well,” Kugler said.
Extra hands and extra help allow him to manage his time since Halloween isn’t the only time he puts up a lot of decorations.
“After this we tear it down, put it all in our storage unit and then Christmas comes out,” Kugler said. “I’d say it definitely consumes at least six months out of the year, physically hands-on and my brain’s always turning to new ideas.”
Though it takes a lot of dedication, Kugler finds that all the toil and trouble is worth it because it allows him to do something he loves.
“Everything I do, it’s really backed by the art side of things,” Kugler said. “I get to express my creativity and this is kind of my canvas.”
