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A spooky time: Barbosas channel their inner Halloween fiend in Palmerton

Sure, Halloween is a popular holiday for kids and adults alike. Who doesn’t like the costumes, the decorations, the scares and especially the candy?

But don’t even try to compete with the Barbosa household when it comes to showing how much of a Halloween fiend you can be.

Jeremy and Robyn Barbosa have been decking their house out with spine-tingling spectacles for years, and they’ve clearly passed the passion on to their son Joseph, 7, who lives and breathes Halloween.

“It starts around September, when he asks ‘Can we put our Halloween stuff out yet?’” Robyn said.

While taking a stroll down Lafayette Avenue, it’s hard to miss the Barbosas’ display, featuring the likes of Michael Myers, killer clowns, a spooky cemetery on the front lawn, and plenty of bats, ghouls, zombies and more. Throw in some atmospheric fog and lighting, and you’ve got yourself a veritable horror house.

“It takes about three full days to get everything up, and we do it in stages,” Jeremy said about the daunting setup, pointing out that Joseph put in his fair share of work this year.

Joseph’s favorite part of the display is the cemetery, featuring a yard chock full of gravestones and ghouls that just can’t be contained.

“I like that we added the archway, and the guardian of the graveyard,” he said.

As for a favorite decoration, he follows in his father’s footsteps.

“Michael Myers! Michael Myers! Michael Myers!” he said enthusiastically when asked what he would pick if he was limited to one Halloween item.

The exciting display starting coming together in 2005 with the purchase of the life-size animatronic Michael Myers, and was built up from there.

The Barbosas always have an eye out for new Halloween decorations, and you can count on them taking multiple trips to Spirit Halloween throughout the fall in order to stock up.

Joseph is such a fanatic that he begins laying the groundwork for each year’s display before the fall even rolls around.

“He starts getting emails in August showing what’s new,” Jeremy said. “He buys so much from them (Spirit) that he’s a VIP member, and he gets to see stuff early, so he starts picking what he wants. He asks Santa Claus for these things. Even in the summertime he’ll ask if we can bring some of the stuff up to play with it once in a while.”

And that enthusiasm extends to the ever-changing theme of the setup, as Joseph does not permit anything cute in the family’s display. It’s terror-inducing or it’s nothing.

And while that fits perfectly well for most trick or treaters and neighbors, some might say that Joseph is a little too good at his job.

“We get kids that don’t want to come up to the door because they’re scared,” Robyn said with a laugh. “But, we come out to the street to give them their candy.”

ABOVE: Robyn, Jeremy, and Joseph Barbosa are Palmerton’s resident Halloween fiends. Each year, they deck out their Lafayette Avenue home with an assortment of spooky spectacles that make it the most terrifying place in Palmerton.
LEFT: Halloween aficionado Joseph Barbosa, seen here with a killer clown and Michael Myers, often has the final say when it comes to Halloween decorations.BRIAN W. MYSZKOWSKI/TIMES NEWS
ABOVE: Jeremy, Joseph and Robyn Barbosa take Halloween seriously, as their decked-out porch and lawn clearly shows.
New to the Barbosa display this year is the Hazmat zombie.
LEFT: The terror leads right up to the doorstep at the Barbosa house.