Milk Jug Skeletons — Free, Recycled, And Your Kids Will Love Them

A couple years ago, I made a milk jug skeleton for the kids for a Halloween decoration.

There are a bunch of versions online and on Pinterest — here is one that is pretty good.

It took about an hour and a half to make, and the kids loved it.

I don’t know if I accidentally threw it away and recycled it or what happened to it, but the kids have been begging me to make another one for a couple weeks.

In a nutshell, you need:

• about 8 milk jugs
• a hot glue gun
• an exacto knife or a big pair of sharp scissors
• a hole punch
• paper clips (the directions above use string to connect the parts — I found paper clips to be easier and stronger, too)

We go through about a gallon of milk a day, so it didn’t take long for me to save up the milk jugs.

I’ll be honest. I’ve been pretty busy.

So I outsourced this project to my retired and awesome parents.

And I had enough milk jugs for them to make two.

The finished product looks like this:

But I  wanted to show you what they look like when they are hanging.

When the wind blows, they look really cool.

And when it gets dark and cars drive by our house, the headlights light them up and they look like they are glowing. (Some people also paint them with glow in the dark paint).

They look like they are floating and dancing  when the wind blows.

My kids genuinely love them.

Every day when they get off the bus and walk up the front walkway they say hello to Skell and Skelly.

It’s a bonus that they are free and made from recycled materials and we can store them away after Halloween and hang them up again next year.

So save up those milk jugs.

Your kids will love these, too!

*** October 2018 update: we hung these up in the basement to store them, and we took them out yesterday. They are in great shape and we have one hanging on our porch and one in the same tree as last year. We will make a few more this year with our recycled milk jugs to add to our collection. The kids still LOVE them!!! ***

***October 2024 update: I’m divorced and moved into a new place in 2021 and one of the skeletons is still with us!