Rachel Little, senior product engineer for Decorative Holiday at The Home Depot, has what many Halloween fans would call a dream job. Rachel was on the team behind the creation of the 12-Foot Skeleton, aka Skelly, who upped the game for Halloween decorators as part of The Home Depot’s 2020 collection. “I was involved in the product development of Skelly. We really went deep into development and brainstorming innovative ideas. The idea was: why couldn’t we bring the giant décor that you see at haunted houses and theme parks to your home?”
As a committee member of UL 588, the Underwriters Laboratory standard for seasonal and holiday decorative products, Rachel uses her engineering degree from Georgia Tech to make sure products are designed with safety in mind. It doesn’t hurt that she loves Halloween and the holidays.
“I grew up in a military town with an American dad and Korean mom. I would say my love for Halloween and Holiday started very early. Both of my parents enjoy horror movies and my dad rented “The Nightmare before Christmas” for me monthly. He also used to volunteer with his squadron to put together a haunted house to raise funds for the community Christmas parties and going away events. I would of course go with him to ‘help’ build it by running around the house and putting up a spider web or two.”
The 2022 Halloween collection is sure to thrill and chill, with a variety of spooky offerings. Now that new props are arriving in stores and online, Rachel shares her top five new Halloween products.
“This is a hard one with this season but if I must choose, my top 5 Halloween products are: the Hovering Witch, the Immortal Werewolf, Dean the Deathologist, the Gold Encrusted Casket, and the new Pumpkin Twins.”
