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Ben Hillyer/The Natchez Democrat — Molly Manning loves to decorate for Halloween, and she loves decorating on a dime.

Ben Hillyer/The Natchez Democrat — Molly Manning loves to decorate for Halloween, and she loves decorating on a dime. Throughout the year she buys a variety of holiday-inspired items from local dollar stores to transform her house into a place that is frightfully fun. The dining room is one of the spaces where Manning goes all out for the holiday.

Guests are greeted by a Halloween arrangement and oversized spider web.

A cake plate filled with fake spider-covered cupcakes and a orange and black Halloween wreath add to the dining room experience.

NATCHEZ — Halloween must be in Molly Manning’s DNA.

As the season of orange and black approaches, Manning gets the urge to decorate. The Natchez baker doesn’t just love the holiday, she lives it.

As much as she likes to share the holiday with guests to her Cemetery Road house, Manning’s biggest Halloween thrills come at the local dollar store. A collection of glittery plastic skulls or a bag of googly eyes in the store bin may be the beginning of another set of decorations for her home.

“Most everything I get is for a dollar,” Manning said.

Fake spider webs, plastic spiders, bowls, plates, bloodshot eyes and fabric for tablecloths and runners are collected throughout the year to bring out as soon as September rolls around.

If she can’t find exactly what she wants, Manning will make it herself from simple craft materials. To make a piece of artwork to hang over her dining room mantel, Manning glued a felt cutout of a skull to a thick piece of black poster board. She cut the board to fit snuggly into the framed painting that was already hanging on the wall.

With a cheap string of orange lights, Manning transformed a simple pumpkin decoration in glowing centerpiece for her mantel.

Manning learned many of her crafty ways from her mother and grandmother. Both were enthusiastic about the holiday and would start putting up decorations as early as the day after Labor Day.

“I may have taken it to another level, Manning said.

She has a walk-in closet that is devoted to the storage of her Halloween decorations.

Manning said she will sometimes splurge for something she knows will make an impact. The spooky, black tree that she put in the center of her table was bought at a home store for less than $40.

To add a little color and glitter to the table, Manning found glittery skulls to hang from the tree and set in the bowl of her orange and black place settings.

Like her mother and grandmother, Manning loves decorations that are glitzy and glittery.

“We don’t do gorey,” Manning said of her family. “We do cutesy and glitzy.”

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