2026 South Jersey Halloween House Map

Halloween Came First! 🎃

Believe it or not, I've been creating these seasonal directories and maps since 2020!

And while I always remembered how my Christmas Lights Map started, I completely forgot that Halloween actually came FIRST! 😂

Back in 2020, during a Halloween season that looked very different because of the pandemic, I started sharing decorated houses around South Jersey.

I originally called it The Haunted House Directory.

The idea was pretty simple: help local families find awesome Halloween displays and enjoy a little spooky fun together.

That same year, my family and I also spent the Halloween season hand-delivering BOO Bags to 150 local families so kids could still have some Halloween fun during a really weird year.

And yes, I actually found my original Facebook post from 2020! Apparently my memory isn't what it used to be, but thankfully Facebook keeps the receipts. 😂

Then Came Christmas! 🎄

After Halloween, I decided to do something similar for Christmas.

That December, my family and I were back in the car, this time hand-delivering holiday baskets to 150 local families.

While driving all over South Jersey, I kept noticing some amazing Christmas light displays.

Naturally, I started taking pictures. 😂

I'd snap a photo, write down the address and share the houses I found on Facebook so other families could go see them too.

And those posts took off!

It was the middle of the pandemic, and families were looking for exactly that — something fun and festive they could safely do together.

They could pile into the car, turn on some Christmas music and go look at lights.

Before I knew it, families were asking for more houses and an easier way to find them.

What started with me literally writing down addresses while delivering holiday baskets continued growing into my South Jersey Christmas Lights Map.

From Directories to Maps 🗺️

As more families discovered the decorated houses I was sharing, the requests kept coming.

People wanted an easier way to find displays, plan their drives and visit multiple houses.

And... voilà!

I kept building on what I'd started in 2020, turning those original collections of decorated homes into more organized, family-friendly maps.

Over the years, the maps have changed, improved and gained new features.

But the reason I create them has never changed: helping South Jersey families discover fun things to do together.

Then It Got A LOT Bigger ✨

In 2025, I was asked to help maintain and monitor a huge New Jersey Holiday Lights community with 70,000+ members.

That community's Christmas Lights Map has been operating for an incredible 15 years!

Today, my Halloween Map focuses specifically on South Jersey, while the Christmas Lights Map covers displays throughout the entire state of New Jersey.

Still A Mom-Run Map 💚

Even though the map has grown quite a bit since The Haunted House Directory in 2020, there's something important I want people to know: