A labour of love, and spooky things! The High River Dollhouse is ready for Trick or Treaters again!

You've probably seen it in passing or made a concerted effort to stop by and take in the infamous Halloween display belonging to Chris Doll and his wife.

They are competing in the Light Up High River Halloween Contest under the name the Dollhouse, and are located right next to the High River Fire Department, at 600 10th Ave SE.

Chris Doll says this year they have multiple sections with different themes.

"We have a witch section, a skeleton section and we started a pumpkin section this year with our 12ft pumpkin guy, not to mention the pirates, and spiders and stuff like that."

It all started when he was a kid trick-or-treating and came across a well-decorated home.

"There was a person who had built a jacobs ladder that was going up their driveway, it was just like you see in Frankenstein movies where electricity jumps back and forth from two wires, and when I was a kid I saw this and it inspired me." He says "I knew I wanted to be that house on Halloween where all the kids want to go to and make it really fun and exciting."

The Doll's started decorating in 2010 and over the years he says he's probably spent roughly $10,000 - $15,000 on decorations.

"Some things I buy, some I create, like I once bought a pirate ship and that sat in my pirate section for a couple of years, but this year I had to build a dock for it that all of my extra pirate skeletons could sit on." He adds "It used to be that On November 1st my wife and I would go 'boxing day shopping' but that doesn't often happen anymore.

While that can sound like a major investment, Doll says it's also a display honouring his marriage.

"It's my wife and I's anniversary on Halloween so that's part of the reason that I'm allowed to do what I do on Halloween since it's also celebrating our anniversary."

This will be the couple's 12th anniversary, and Doll says he instead of anniversary presents, they buy things for the house.

"We buy a decoration every year as an anniversary present. Like our T-Rex skeleton, she bought me that for our anniversary and this year we got our 12-foot pumpkin man!"

Doll says he's very impressed by quite a few of the other houses that have gone all out this year, but his favourites seem to be the ones where you can tell kids have joined in on the decorating.

He says his family sees over 500 trick-or-treaters a year, and they're looking forward to seeing them all out again this year!