CANFIELD — Every year on Labor Day, Nick and Ashlea Miller drag bodies from their backyard and dredge boxes of bones from the basement.

Out of the darkness, they heave it all to the front of their picture-perfect, Cape Cod-style Canfield home, scattering the remains across the sun-soaked lawn. For the next eight hours, in full view of their 42nd Street neighbors, the pair meticulously turn their plot on the quiet looped street into a display of the macabre.

By day’s end, the transformation is complete, distinguishing their property from the rest. Two 12-foot-tall skeletons flank a pop-up graveyard of nameless tombstones. Two witches wait by the front door. At one end of the porch sits an electric chair; at the other stands a coffin.

“It grows every year,” Ashlea said, speaking about the size of their Halloween display.

“We literally had to buy a shed that only holds Halloween decorations,” Nick, a digital marketing director, continued. “There’s no more room in the house.”

Their shared passion for the spooky stems from childhood, though neither grew up in a Halloween-obsessed household.

Ashlea’s mom wasn’t a fan of the holiday, while Nick’s dad ignited his early fascination with Stephen King movies. Despite their parents’ differing views, both were drawn to the scary side of life from a young age.

“My mom hated Halloween, but we always loved it,” Ashlea, an IT professional, said. “I just grew to love it even more once I got older.”

“I was 7 years old watching ‘Christine’ and ‘The Shining’ and all that stuff,” Nick said.

Like most people who bond over a shared interest, the Millers’ bond and interest intensified throughout the years.

“When we got together, this was the obvious evolution of something we both love,” Nick said.

The couple’s relationship seems to revolve around Halloween.

Tattooed on Nick’s arm, along with images of Frankenstein and Gene Wilder, is the painted face of a woman, Day of the Dead style. Her skin is the color of bone. Her eyes, with bright blue irises, are blackened to resemble a skull. Blue rings encircle the simulated sockets. Her nose is painted black. Her lips, too. Stitch lines run along her cheeks to the corners of her mouth. Her hair swoops to one side of her face. A spiderweb stretches across her forehead. It’s Ashlea.

“Years ago, we had our first kiss at a Halloween party, and this is the picture from that night,” Nick recalled.

The Halloween backdrop of their first kiss was the same as their wedding kiss. The couple exchanged vows Oct. 31, 2020, at the B&O Station banquet hall.

“The wedding inside looked like a half-haunted house, half-themed attraction,” Nick said. “It was really, really cool.”

Halloween saw their love deepen and their display grow. The holiday had given them so much. Now it was time to give back. One of the newest additions to their exhibit allows them to do just that.

It’s easy to overlook at first. The eyes are easily drawn to the oversized skeletons, limbs protruding from the ground and bright orange of the jack-o-lanterns.

This new addition isn’t any of those things. Yet, like all things that radiate hope in a world full of horrors, it stands out for seeming out of place.

It’s a rectangular, white sign placed at the front left corner of their display. In the middle stands the picture of a boy named Clayton, next to a QR code. Printed beneath are the words, “Skeletons for St. Jude.”

Ashlea and Nick discovered the charitable cause through an organization of Halloween vendors called the Cleveland Haunt Club. The pair learned that some of the club’s proceeds were going toward Skeletons for St. Jude and decided to get involved as well.

“We love Halloween, so this was a good way to build onto that,” Ashlea said.

According to its website, Skeletons for St. Jude originated with Jeff Robertson from Holly Springs, North Carolina, in 2020. Since then, it has expanded to include Halloween enthusiasts from around the country on a mission “to raise over $100,000 dollars for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital during the 2024 Halloween and Holiday seasons, with the ultimate goal of breaking a million dollars by 2025.”

This is the couple’s second year participating in the fundraiser. Ashlea said the process is easy for anyone wanting to get involved.

“You just join their Facebook group, message the guy who runs the group and he’ll send you all the information to get started,” she said.

At the time of writing, Skeletons for St. Jude has raised $69,289 this season, and $707,442 total.

To donate to the cause and admire what the Millers have set up in their yard, visit their house on 42 Street off Kirk Road, in Canfield.