Meet the winners of Carol Stream's Halloween decorating contest

IT project manager Jim Slanker knows, years from now, he won't remember emails and conference calls.

He'd much rather wax nostalgic over that time he scared your pants off.

"There's going to be a lot of kids who remember that weird family with that spooky house down the street," he says.

Slanker has been called the Clark Griswold of Halloween. With his wife, Dawn, they transform their Carol Stream front yard into a foggy graveyard and pumpkin patch that rival professional haunted houses and won the "judges favorite" award in the village's inaugural holiday decorating contest.

"We both believe holidays should have magic for kids," he said. "It's our way to try to do that."

And when you're busy managing crowd control and handing out full-size candy bars - the Slankers have bought 1,200 - there's no time to dress up.

The couple has such a devoted following that party buses and grown adults show up to their home at 371 Canyon Trail.

Dare to tour their yard and you'll find a ghost with red eyes hovering in a mausoleum. A pumpkin king rising from 7 to 12 feet tall. A witch leaping out from her hut with a familiar voice: "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog, too."

"One thing leads to another," Slanker says.

It's a production that's a year in the making. They keep some 40 props - many animated through controllers - in a storage unit. They attend Chicago Frights and other Haunted House conventions. They invest about 150 hours setting up.

"We stay away from the gore and the blood. We're Baby Boomers," Slanker said. "This is Halloween as we remember it. It's the graveyard spooky more than gore."

OK, so what's the budget?

"That is one thing I've carefully avoided tracking," he said. "No good can come of it."

Out of 23 total entries, Carol Stream judges picked their favorites in three categories: Vince and Jenni Engstrom won the "big pumpkin" title and Richard and Lisa Bryjowski teamed up with their neighbors, Rick and Denise Norton, to claim the "family fun" title.

"I was very impressed with the creativity and the originality of all the displays," said Trustee Rick Gieser, who organized the contest. "I think everybody should be very proud of what they did."

Tune into the village's website for details on a Christmas version of the competition, Gieser said. And there's already a heavyweight.

Take a wild guess.

"The house becomes a giant gingerbread house," Slanker said.