Meet the Woman Crowned 'Queen of Halloween' Online, a Title That Costs Her Over $100,000 Every Season (Exclusive)

Before she became the Internet-dubbed Queen of Halloween, Macy Blackwell was a stay-at-home mom with a knack for holiday decorating, especially when it came to the creepier time of year. Back then, she really didn’t celebrate Halloween differently than she does now, she prepared various recipes on the theme and decorated her home with skeletons, pumpkins, bats and other symbols of autumn festivities.

However, a few things have really changed since Blackwell, 30, started posting about her Halloween spirit on Instagram and TikTok in 2019. First of all, she no longer decorates and creates just for her husband Cory and daughters Lux, 11, and Theu , 7. The Texas mom now has over 4 million followers on major social media platforms, an audience she’s built by making big impressions, but not too big that viewers can’t recreate her work.

Blackwell tells PEOPLE that she “felt a little silly” when she first started sharing videos and photos of her DIY decorations and culinary creations. Then she saw the potential in the simplicity of her content.

Macy Blackwell.

JROMOPHOTOGRAPHY/INSTAGRAM

Viral Tradwife Loves Halloween But Faces Backlash From ‘Highly Sensitive’ Community Over Spooky Content (Exclusive)

“People wanted simple things that anyone could do,” she muses. “Obviously, I’m not a chef and I don’t have any degree in interior design or anything. I just like to make things fun. I like food, I like decorating, and I think it went so well because there were things that really anyone could do.”

Another thing that’s changed since Blackwell came online? Her vacation budget. Although perhaps that aspect has not so much changed as disappeared.

“Halloween — there’s no budget. It is what it is. It’s going to cost what it’s going to cost,” the influencer admits. Between decorations and her annual Halloween party, Blackwell estimates her seasonal expenses are high: “We’re probably in six figures for Halloween,” she says, noting that she usually starts planning for the candy-filled fall holidays around June.

The costs don’t stop when the season rolls around, because Blackwell can’t store everything at home, even though she deliberately bought a house with plenty of attic space earlier this year. She uses a service dedicated to storing larger holiday decorations, like “big skeletons and giant Christmas trees.” Seasonal storage costs about $10,000, but she justifies it as a business expense: “It made perfect sense,” says Blackwell.

Macy Blackwell.

JROMOPHOTOGRAPHY/INSTAGRAM

Inside Alix Earle’s star-studded ‘Mad Forest’ Halloween party, a dark sighting Alice in Wonderland (Exclusive)

The holiday guru adds: “We don’t skimp on the holidays, but it definitely was in the beginning.”

In 2021, Blackwell invested her money and time in building a pumpkin arch above her front porch, and the DIY project ushered in a new era of success and financial considerations. Blackwell says the shot of her pumpkin-clad home “sparked” her career as a content creator, bringing new perspective and engagement to her pages.

In retrospect, making the original pumpkin bow was a simple idea, but in 2021, Blackwell says it seemed like the ultimate risk.

“I remember my mom and people really talked me out of it because it would cost me $800 in supplies for it,” she tells PEOPLE. “At the time, that was more than we had in a week.”

Harry Daniels went viral singing ‘Badly’ to A-Listers on TikTok. Now his videos are going viral in the SNL Sketch (exclusive)

But Blackwell was confident in his ideas and, of course, it paid off. Before her success in social media, Blackwell’s husband worked as a firefighter. He is now a full-time collaborator in creating content that supports their family.

In the beginning, most of her cash flow came from affiliate links and that was enough income for Cory to quit her job. But since hiring a manager and a full team, Blackwell says “at least 90%” of her revenue comes from branded business. It’s not just about Halloween and the next holiday season. Blackwell found a way to turn a profit all year round.

“We’ve gotten to the point where all the months are pretty good,” she says, adding, “I think we know we’ve always hit hard at the Super Bowl.”

However, the internet sensation still has no intention of shaking the attainable quality that has drawn her audience, even with monetized content that has upped her game considerably. She says there’s still a significant budget aspect to her recipes and decorating tutorials, like the “Dollar Tree DIY” videos she continues to make.

“That’s where I started: I started at Dollar Tree. I started with just being able to spend a few hundred dollars every season, so that’s definitely the root of this,” she says. She is very aware of her audience and is guided by her vision of the person on the other side of the content.

Macy Blackwell.

JROMOPHOTOGRAPHY/INSTAGRAM

Rebecca Zamolo Says Opening Up About Her Miscarriage Online Helped Younger Viewers Understand Their Mothers’ Losses (Exclusive)

“It’s someone who’s busy, someone who has kids, but it’s someone who wants to make the holidays and really every day special and memorable for their family and their kids, and they want to do the most without blowing the budget, without having to spend too much time,” describes Blackwell. “So I’m always mindful of my audience, their time and budget, and I always want to make sure I’m creating content for everyone.”

Before the Dollar Tree was found and long before she broke the budget, Blackwell’s Halloween spirit was formed during childhood when she and her sister watched their mom go all out for the spooky holiday.

“She would do all the decorations, all the songs, all the recipes. She would make everything so cute,” Blackwell recalls. “I knew after that childhood I wanted to do the same for my kids. I couldn’t wait to make it special for them.”

Blackwell had her first daughter when she was 19, and in many ways she feels that’s what made her such a zealous homemaker when it comes to the holidays.

Macy Blackwell.

JROMOPHOTOGRAPHY/INSTAGRAM

Ballerina Farm’s Hannah Neeleman and her 8 kids have an unexpected Halloween tradition far from their Utah home (Exclusive)

“Having a daughter so young, I feel like I had to mature a lot faster than most of my friends when I was 19. They were rushing into sororities and had to do all these fun things, go out, and I was a mom,” she explains.

“You definitely have FOMO at that age. I went through that time where I was, I cried when I saw all my years graduating from college and all their pictures. I was like, ‘Man, that should have been me,'” Blackwell continues. “I quickly got serious and said, ‘I want to be a good mom to my daughter,’ and jumped right in.”

She remembers her first Christmas as a mom, when her ability to decorate was still limited by a tight budget and an audience limited to her immediate family. Blackwell says her first tree was “miserable” — “I couldn’t even afford a tree skirt, it was just a stand,” she notes — but it symbolizes something that can’t be conveyed in the tall pine tree she’s since upgraded to. .

“I was so proud of that little tree and I always put that picture back into my story every year just to remind myself how far I’ve come,” says Blackwell. “And luckily, I love what I do, so it’s kept me going. I’d be doing what I’m doing now for free.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education