Home Depot's 12-Foot Skeleton Sells Out Before Halloween Every Year Since 2020

Retailers have long learned that Americans buy decorations to mark the seasons, but one Halloween prop introduced during the 2020 pandemic has become a recurring fixture on lawns from California to New Jersey.

Home Depot began selling Skelly, a 12-foot skeleton weighing 90 pounds, in 2020 for $299. The product has sold out before Halloween every year since it launched. Homeowners began keeping the figures on display after October, dressing them for Christmas, the Fourth of July, and summer.

Aubrey Horowitz, merchant of Decorative Holiday at Home Depot, called it "the ultimate American decoration." Horowitz said customers respond to "this sense of nostalgia and having some form of connection with our communities and the people that live around us," adding, "a lot of times bigger is better."

The product line has expanded since the original release. Home Depot added glowing LCD eyeballs to Skelly in 2024. The 2026 version includes a Bluetooth connection that allows owners to record audio or speak through the figure live. The company also sells a companion skeleton dog, a skeleton cat, and a smaller stand that measures 6½ feet for buyers who do not want the full-size model.

Yard decorations of this scale are a familiar sight in the United States, where elaborate displays for Halloween and Christmas are common. The United States did not originate Halloween, but the scale of its observance, from candy collections to costumes for adults, children, and pets, is a domestic tradition. Skelly stands 12 feet tall; a standard decorative skeleton measures 5 feet 8 inches.

This article is part of the recurring series "American Objects," marking the 250th anniversary of the United States.