MELBOURNE VILLAGE, Fla. – With more than a half-dozen tents and dozens of animatronics, one family’s Halloween tradition has become a multi-generational effort to entertain their community at no cost to neighbors.
“They come back every year,” Bill Cady said.
Cady and his wife said it all started three decades ago with one decoration on the roof of Cady’s mother’s Dayton Boulevard home before it grew to dozens more across the front yard.
Cady said the effort is done for families like theirs in Brevard County’s smallest municipality.
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Even as costs rise, the trail is still free.
“My mom worked two jobs and had children to take care of by herself,” Cady said. “I think she started doing this stuff in her own yard because she couldn’t afford to take her kids out to go see everything, so she made the adventure at home for her kids and everyone else.”
Cady said the trail gets bigger every year with new designs and new decorations.
The trail starts with a children’s themed tent as displays gradually get scarier.
And when Halloween is over, the family said it transforms the trail again to a giant Christmas display.
“This is like a warmup for Christmas,” Barbara Cady said.
The trail is open every night through Halloween from 7 - 9:30 p.m.
While entering is free, the family also accepts donations from those who wish to support Brevard County’s spay and neuter clinic in Palm Bay.
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