South Guelph's big skeleton with an even bigger heart

Christina Vazquez’s love for Halloween turned into a passion project after getting a 12-foot tall skeleton for her birthday.

Vazquez's birthday falls on Oct. 12. Three years ago fiancé Kevin Dickson thought setting up a huge skeleton on the front lawn of their Guelph home would be a fun birthday gift.

The skeleton, who they have since named Little Johnny, held a sign wishing Vazquez and her twin sister Gloria a happy birthday. 

While Vazquez was a bit shocked to see a massive skeleton on her Edinburgh Road South front lawn, it's something she's come to love.

Dickson wanted to keep the skeleton up all year from the moment he bought it. Vazquez wasn’t so sure about the idea but three years later they’ve committed to keeping it up all year this year.

It wasn’t easy for Dickson to track down the skeleton. Home Depot was consistently sold out, so this meant he had to look elsewhere. 

“Unfortunately, when people realized it was popular, people would stock up on them,” said Dickson.

He frequently checked Facebook Marketplace to find one second-hand.

A skeleton in Kitchener popped up and he picked it up for $500. The retail price at the time was $450.

The giant skeletons became popular because of memes that were circulating the internet, Dickson said. There is a Facebook group for 12-foot skeleton owners and Vazquez gets some of her decorating inspiration from it. People in the group also dress up their skeletons for different holidays.

“The house is as decorated inside as outside for Halloween. The outside is just an extension of more space for me to decorate,” said Vazquez.

This year Little Johnny won’t stop after Halloween. The plan is to have her set up all year dressed up to celebrate other holidays too.

The skeleton was set up for Christmas. Today she is holding a rose and candy heart. She also has a big shiny heart placed right where her heart would be if skeletons had hearts.

Vazquez and Dickson are getting married this year and to celebrate the big day in May they want to dress the skeleton up as a bride. 

The month after she wants to have the skeleton holding a pride flag. “The skeleton could do some good in that way,” said Vazquez.

They decided to keep Little Johnny up because last year when they kept her up for Christmas they felt a bit sad after taking her down.

The skeleton has become a landmark for friends, family and delivery drivers. 

Their home has become a bit of a destination. It’s in a neighbourhood with predominantly student renters so when Halloween comes around they usually only get about 10 trick-or-treaters.

This last Halloween there were significantly more trick-or-treaters and they noticed it was mostly people driving to the house who weren’t from the neighbourhood.

“It's been exciting to occasionally come across someone that we know that separately knows the skeleton and then when they find out it's us it's like extra exciting,” said Dickson.

Luckily, the skeleton hasn’t fallen down even after some heavy wind storms. They did find the skeleton’s arm on the driveway once.

To keep the decorations and costume pieces secure they use zip ties.

Vasquez thinks a lot of millennials feel like “big kids sometimes and it's because we do stuff like this.”