Jordan Beck | Daily Press Robert Tanner is pictured with his custom-made “gravestones,” on display in front of his home at the intersection of 10th Avenue South and Lake Shore Drive in Escanaba.

ESCANABA — Today is Halloween, and many area residents have gotten into the spooky spirit of the season by decorating their homes.

At the intersection of 10th Avenue South and Lake Shore Drive in Escanaba, Robert Tanner and Nanci Love have set up a display of custom-made “gravestones” — a tradition that has continued for over 15 years. Tanner said he was partially inspired by the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

“As you’re in line, they have … dark humor (and) puns on the quote-unquote ‘family tomb,'” he said.

Creating epitaphs for the gravestones is a year-round process.

“We sit around and think about puns and things all year long,” Love said.

Though approximately 40 gravestones are on display in his yard this year, Tanner has made about 113 over the years. He said people often stop to read the puns and one-liners featured on his gravestones.

“A lot of parents pause while their kids are trick-or-treating,” he said.

Jim Pepin, who lives on the 800 block of South 14th Street in Escanaba, has been decorating his home each Halloween for nearly two decades.

“We’ve been here almost 20 years, and we’ve been doing it every year,” he said.

Recently, Pepin’s display has been themed to “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

“It’s one of our family favorites — my wife, especially,” he said of the movie.

Decorations at Pepin’s home inspired by “The Nightmare Before Christmas” include jack-o’-lanterns featuring characters from the film and a large inflatable figure of Jack Skellington.

According to Pepin, his display has been well-received. “We get a lot of compliments,” he said.

At the intersection of 2nd Avenue South and Ogden Avenue in Escanaba, Krista Mattson has decorated her house for Halloween. Mattson said she is a fan of the holiday.

“It’s scary — the kids love it,” she said.

This year, Mattson — with help from her neighbor Kylie Bray — also decorated a street sign outside her house by putting about a dozen plastic pumpkins around its pole.

“I thought it would bring some color to … the neighborhood,” Mattson said.

She said the process of getting the pumpkins onto the pole was not too complicated.

“They just had to be circular-cut from the bottom,” she said.

According to Mattson’s son, Cayden Noah, the display has been well-received.

In Gladstone, Richard Juneau — who lives on 29th Street, across from Cameron Elementary School — has been decorating his home for Halloween for about 35 years.

“I do it because of the kids over at the school,” he said, noting he also decorates his home for other major holidays like Christmas and Easter.

Before Halloween, Juneau had inflatable figures, skeletons and lights on display outside his house.

“I’ve got some more (decorations) down in the basement, but I only put those up on Halloween day,” he said.

While he does not usually get many trick-or-treaters, Juneau said his display has attracted quite a bit of attention.

“We probably had this weekend … probably 50 people go by slow,” he said.