{"id":507528,"date":"2026-10-25T14:08:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T14:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/507528\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T14:08:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T14:08:49","slug":"rich-archbold-theres-halloween-magic-at-the-habermans-long-beach-house-press-telegram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/507528\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich Archbold: There\u2019s Halloween magic at the Habermans\u2019 Long Beach house \u2013 Press Telegram"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re looking for spooky and fun Halloween magic, you should go to a haunted house in East Long Beach before the ghosts and goblins disappear.<\/p>\n

In the front yard of that house, you will see a stunning light display featuring singing pumpkins, videos of movie villains, a bubble machine, a fog-and-smoke machine, and dozens of skeletons, witches, smoke-breathing dragons and other creepy characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like everything here, especially the man without a head,\u201d said 6-year-old Carter Matte, who was visiting the home last week with his father, Corey Matte, and his 8-year-old sister,Olivia. Carter was referring to the Headless Horseman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is fantastic,\u201d said his dad. \u201cIt\u2019s great for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ann<\/p>\n

Ann and Jeff Haberman welcome visitors to their elaborately decorated house for Halloween on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Crowds<\/p>\n

Crowds flock to see Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s elaborately decorated Halloween house in Long Beach on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Ann<\/p>\n

Ann and Jeff Haberman welcome visitors to their elaborately decorated house for Halloween on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s house in Long Beach takes Halloween decorations to another level on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/p>\n

Adam LaFreniere of Seal Beach holds his daughter, Stevie, 2, as they view Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s elaborately decorated Halloween house in Long Beach on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Crowds<\/p>\n

Crowds flock to see Jeff and Ann Haberman\u2019s elaborately decorated Halloween house in Long Beach on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 20<\/p>\n

Ann and Jeff Haberman welcome visitors to their elaborately decorated house for Halloween on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Thousands of visitors have enjoyed the show since it started 14 years ago at 3343 Chatwin Ave., which is at the corner of Chatwin and Wardlow Road, near St. Cornelius Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

The Halloween show starts at 6:45 p.m. and ends at 9:15 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday, the show ends at 10 p.m.<\/p>\n

Among the crowds last week was the Hofland family, with parents Andrea and John Hofland, and their children, Lukas, 5, and Sophia, 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur kids just love this show,\u201d Andrea said. \u201cWe come every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hoflands are neighbors \u2014 so they can walk to the Halloween house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the skeleton bones,\u201d Lukas said.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of those to see.<\/p>\n

Emily and Will Sisto were also there with their children, Liam, 4, and Ellis, 2.<\/p>\n

One of Liam\u2019s favorite things to see and hear, he said, was the song, \u201cThis Is Halloween,\u201d from \u201cThe Nightmare Before Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing from the big screen on the front of the house was that song with the lyrics, \u201cBoys and girls, want to see something strange? Come with us and you will see our town of Halloween. I am the one hiding under your stairs. Life\u2019s no fun without a good scare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other crowd favorites included Zero, the dog from \u201cNight Before Christmas\u201d flying around the house chimney, and skeletons for characters such as Snow White, Pocahontas, Tinker Bell and Rapunzel, as well as Harry Potter villains.<\/p>\n

The Halloween show, as well as a soon-to-come Christmas show, is the brainchild of Jeff Haberman, a retired controls engineer at McDonnell Douglas and Boeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off slow 13 years ago, and the shows just grew and grew, and got better each year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe keep working to improve the shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cwe\u201d in that sentence includes Haberman\u2019s wife, Ann, who has retired after working for 45 years at Disneyland\u2019s Blue Bayou Restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis takes a lot of work,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it really is a labor of love for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shows bring us a tremendous amount of joy,\u201d Jeff added, \u201cseeing the happiness it brings to children and adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

The house displays are technical marvels, using 28 computers to control thousands of twinkling lights, moving spotlights, film clips, music and smoke.<\/p>\n

Located on a corner, the Habermans have also decorated the side of their home facing Wardlow Road. On that side are several posing props people can use for taking photos.<\/p>\n

They used to put up more traditional house decorations, Jeff said, but they decided they wanted to use technology to be more creative.<\/p>\n

By using lights, images, music and special effects, he added, he can enhance emotions and give viewers a sense of awe and joy.<\/p>\n

During his career, Jeff has received many awards for his work in energy conservations, including energy manager of the year from the Association of Energy Engineers.<\/p>\n

He also is a musician, singing and playing low brass and bagpipes across the country, including a stint at Disneyland. He also performs with the Civil War Brass Band.<\/p>\n

Early in his career, he recorded, edited and mixed sound for radio commercials and film. He has always been interested in theatrical lighting and film editing, Jeff said, and wanted to put those skills to use with his holiday house shows.<\/p>\n

Both Jeff and Ann are Long Beach natives. He was born at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center, while she was born at Dignity Health \u2014 St. Mary Medical Center. He graduated from Millikan High School, where he was a drum major in the school\u2019s marching band. She graduated from Wilson High.<\/p>\n

When the Halloween show ends Oct. 31, the Habermans will prepare the front of their house for another extravaganza, a monthlong Christmas show, which starts Dec. 1. Every year, they like to add a few new features and displays to their remarkable collection.<\/p>\n

Watching the show and decoration display is free.<\/p>\n

But the Habermans do have a GoFundMe account that supports \u201cFor the Child,\u201d a nonprofit that provides mental health services for children. The link is gofund.me\/d1a6c3972.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re looking for spooky and fun Halloween magic, you should go to a haunted house in East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,23,131,133,132,137,741],"class_list":["post-507528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-local-news","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-rich-archbold-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}