HONOLULU (KHON2) — Chuck Martin has been transforming his Niu Valley front yard into a spooktacular show. He has been entertaining friends and neighbors for decades.
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“This year Superman, Spiderman, Batman and Frankenstein in the back are new because we were all quarantined,” said Martin.
But now, people are out and about. Martin hopes that folks will drop on by to check out his work.
“We’ve been living here for a couple of years and it’s a wonderful display,” said neighbor Vincent Chan. “Especially for a little Alex. It’s his first year, so happy to be able to share it with him as well.”
It turns out that little kids like little Alex are the very reason why the Iolani School teacher started decorating his yard three decades ago.
“My daughter is over 30 years old. My older son and daughter at the time, we would go trick-or-treating, or drive around and see decorations and they would say, ‘Hey dad, maybe we can do something like that in our yard,'” he recalled.
Not one to disappoint, Dad agreed to it.
“So it started with just a couple of the smaller ones, like those in front and the Headless Horseman. It just kept growing every year. We would do one or two more cartoon characters. It was just growing,” explained Martin. “If you notice, almost all of them, except for the plastic ones upfront, are all wooden. They are all handmade.”
Martin said that he’s had a little bit of help over the years, but for the most part, it’s all him cranking out the decorations from his workshop.
It’s not just for Halloween.
“The garage is my workshop and I am in there right now working on some Christmas ones,” said Martin. “That’ll be coming up in about two months.”
That’s right–Martin doesn’t just decorate for Halloween.
“I decorate for all holidays,” he explained. “Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July. So just keep working on them.”
His biggest problem is storing everything throughout the year.
“I have four sheds in my backyard–all eight by 10 by eight–all decorations and they’re all full of decorations.”
Martin said that all four of his kids are grown up and out of the house. But he said that decorating for all of the holidays has become a great hobby and he has no plans of stopping.
“A lot of my neighbors I don’t even get to see because I work, they work. The kids are young so just getting to meet my neighbors and anybody else who wants to stop by,” Martin said. “Being a teacher, that’s what it’s really all about–meeting people. So that’s really cool.”
If you’d like to check out the decorations, the display is located at 240 Panio Street in Niu Valley.
