- Louellen Berger has always loved decorating her house for Halloween
- Around 20 years ago the New Orleans local started to decorate her front lawn with skeletons
- Over the years, Berger has continued to expand her collection. Her house has become known as Skeleton House NOLA, attracting thousands of visitors eager to see the decorations
- This year, she chose a Taylor Swift theme called “Terror Swift,” inspired by her 11 grandchildren, who are ages 3 to 12, and it has since gone viral
For the past 10 years, Louellen Berger’s garage on the corner of St. Charles and State Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, has stored not her car, but two-dozen skeletons. She jokingly says that if someone were to break in or hop the fence, they’d probably get a jump scare.
The skeletons remain in the garage year-round — except for Halloween. In late August, Berger, now in her 70s, takes the skeletons out and dedicates two consecutive days to decorating the home she shares with husband Darryl for the spooky holiday. She also enlists an assistant to help with the setup and install electricity. This beloved tradition began more than 20 years ago when she noticed a fallen branch from an oak tree in her yard and decided to place a skeleton on it.
“I did it, and later that afternoon, I surveyed it and thought, ‘He looks a little lonely,’ ” Berger, who has a background in fashion and marketing, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “So I added three more, all in playful poses: one doing a backbend, another with a hula hoop, and a third in a cartwheel.”
“Eventually, our local newspaper named the skeleton in the tree ‘Lazy Bones,’ which inspired me to give the rest of the skeletons punny names that matched their poses,” she adds.
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Over the years, Berger has continued to expand her collection. Her house has become known as Skeleton House NOLA, attracting thousands of visitors eager to see the decorations. Her son Ryan even created an Instagram account, @skeletonhousenola, to share photos of the displays with the wider community.
To add to the fun, Berger develops different themes for her house and encourages community input by inviting people to leave suggestions in her mailbox. A few years ago, one suggestion she received was “Saturday Night Femur.” This year, she chose a Taylor Swift theme called “Terror Swift,” inspired by her 11 grandchildren, who are ages 3 to 12, and it has since gone viral.
“Skeleton house ate this year,” one TikTok user captioned a video they posted of the house.
“All decked out for my girl @Taylor Swift,” another person wrote in a TikTok video.
“Who’s Afraid? The new installation at the Skeleton House NOLA did not disappoint! Just in time for the Eras tour next weekend!” someone else said on TikTok, noting the Eras Tour stop in the city from Oct. 25 to 27.
“When Taylor announced that New Orleans was added to the extension of her tour, we all went crazy,” Berger says. “I knew her name, but I had no idea my 2-year-old granddaughter knew the lyrics to most of her songs! It was surreal.”
“My 12-year-old granddaughter even sat down and drew her vision of what she thought Taylor should look like to represent each album,” Berger adds. “She gave me 10 sketches all on one big sheet. When Taylor announced in February or March last year that she was adding the Tortured Poets segment, my granddaughter, who doesn’t live in New Orleans, sent me the last sketch. I used that as my yardstick, my blueprint, my pattern to follow for all the skeletons.”
Berger loves working with her hands, so most of the costumes she created for the skeletons she made out of old gymnastics outfits or clothing belonging to her children or family members. The process of creating all the outfits took her about six weeks.
One skeleton’s outfit features a nod to Swift’s boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, while another mimics Swift’s Reputation leotard from her Eras Tour. Additionally, there’s a costume representing Swift’s Red album, complete with a signature 22 hat to top it off.
While her grandchildren are still a bit too young to help with the nitty gritty details, this year she says they created the friendship bracelets for the skeletons to wear.
“It was a lot of fun — I really enjoyed the whole process!” she says. “After all the research, my granddaughter told me to watch Miss Americana together. We watched the Taylor Swift documentary, and now I’m pretty much a Swiftie,”
“I know about 13 songs and all these expressions that ladies my age usually don’t know anything about,” she continues, adding how she’s excited to attend the Eras Tour concert next week with her family.
On Halloween night, Berger adds that never hands out candy. Instead, she orders 4,000 light-up necklaces featuring a caricature of her house. Every year, she usually runs out and has to lock the door around 10 p.m. This year, she knew she needed to prepare ahead, so she ordered a large supply of Halloween friendship bracelets as well, which only add to the Swift theme.
“About five years ago, tour buses started stopping to let out tourists, and around the same time, small vans from retirement and nursing homes began visiting,” she continues. “It always brings tears to my eyes. Those who are mobile hobble out, and seeing the joy on their faces as they look at the skeletons is just mind-blowing for me.”
Berger recalls how she’s always been one of those people who decorated her door and front porch. For a while, she remembers how everyone thought she was the “crazy woman” who lived in New Orleans because of her passion for decorating.
“I’ve always adored Halloween,” she says. “I loved the freedom it gave us as kids. Our parents would stay at the door handing out candy while my older sister and I ran off with just a reminder to be back by 8 o’clock. We had the whole neighborhood to explore, and it was fabulous — always fun, never any issues. Fast forward, and I’ve been a Halloween fan since the beginning. I’ve always loved costumes, even during those years when people weren’t really into it. Guess what? I still did!”
“While my mom brings back many of the skeletons year after year, she always likes adding new ones that are reflective of what’s current and fun,” her son Ryan tells PEOPLE. “Hardly anything is as current and fun as Taylor Swift descending on New Orleans the weekend before Halloween, so suffice it to say, she went all out with the skeleton display!”
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