Utahs Daybreak neighborhood went full-on Barbie for Halloween

This Halloween, forget the pumpkins, fake blood and cackling wicked witches. Say adios to skeletons — that is, unless they are zipping down a hot-pink slide into a neighborhood fully decked out in celebration of Barbie.

That’s the scene in Daybreak, a residential area in South Jordan, Utah — some 25 miles south of Salt Lake City — that got absolutely Barbie-fied for spooky season.

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Walking across the neighborhood of some 40,000 residents is like entering the Barbie Land that director Greta Gerwig concocted for her billion-dollar box office hit this summer. It’s aglow with strings of LED lights that shine bright pink and facades plastered in rosy pastels. It’s decorated with neon signs and disco balls, a giant fake horse and a graveyard for both the patriarchy and Sugar Daddy Ken.

And, much like in the film, every house has a theme.

There’s one for Classic Barbie, Disco Barbie, Camping Barbie, Graveyard Barbie, Haunted Barbie, Beach Barbie, Pool Party Barbie, Astronaut Barbie, Barn Barbie, Pet Shop Barbie, Western Barbie, Bedtime Barbie, Real World Barbie — and, naturally, the Barbie Dreamhouse. There’s also a house for Weird Barbie, the oft-mishandled and scribbled-over doll of many childhoods. And, of course, a Mojo Dojo Casa House, a nod to the Ken-ification of Barbie Land, where horses, fur coats and motorcycles abound.

How did about 20 households come together to remake Barbie’s bubblegum-pink world? With a group of women — dressed in pink, naturally — having a lightbulb moment after watching the movie in late July.

“As we were walking out of the ‘Barbie’ movie, we were like, ‘Oh, there’s only one Halloween costume this year, and it has to be Barbie,’” said Liz Teran, whose home has been transformed into the Barbie Dreamhouse. “Our neighbor’s daughter who was with us says, ‘We should all be Barbies, and we should make our neighborhood Barbie, too.’ And so as us women all came back, we told our husbands, ‘Here’s the deal: We’re doing Barbie this year.’”

Some of the women returned to the movie theater the next day to watch “Barbie” with their husbands. “They were way into it and all on board,” Teran said.

The idea was floated around in a group chat, where it stalled until September. But once pumpkin spice flavors started rolling out and leaves began to change, the neighbors realized it was time to set their plan into motion.

What started with eight houses suddenly turned into the entire street buying pink spray paint, lights and decorations. Daybreak “already goes crazy for Halloween,” said Jamie Paladini, whose husband, Tom, will channel his best “Kenergy” with an ab shirt, a blond wig and a fur coat. “We had a ‘Stranger Things’ house, a Harry Potter house and an ‘Encanto’ house last year, so Halloween was already a big deal. But what’s kind of unique to our situation is a whole street agreeing on a theme and executing it.”

In their group chat, the neighbors shared links for pink flower pots and lights. They ordered signs declaring each house’s theme. Fake palm trees were planted for the Pool Party Barbie home. Paladini rented a gigantic horse from a theater prop distributor for the Mojo Dojo Casa House.

But there was also a lot of DIY. The kooky shapes that adorn Weird Barbie’s home were built from scratch. Space Barbie fashioned two trash cans together to build a rocket. At Natalie Shafer’s Disco Barbie house, a neon sign from Etsy that reads, “You guys ever think about dying?” — a quote from the key moment in the movie that kicks off Barbie’s existential crisis — hangs from a wall next to a DJ booth she made out of foam.

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“We wanted a few elements that would tie the whole neighborhood together, but then the rest was up to each individual person,” Shafer said. “People got crafty. We went to the dollar store and Home Depot like 500 times. And though the budgets were different for each family, everyone kind of put their own little fingerprint on it, which was really fun.”

Barbie-fying Daybreak has also brought dozens of neighbors together.

“We were all friendly and pretty close, but it’s even more so now,” said Katie Harward, a.k.a. Haunted Barbie. “Now it’s like a party. Every night we all come out, turn our lights on, chat, get drinks and just say, ‘Hi, Barbie!’ to each other and hang out. It’s so much fun, and I hope this experience inspires people to get to know their neighbors.”

Daybreak’s residents aren’t alone in celebrating the iconic doll. Retailers have been prepping for a “Barbieween” ever since the release of Gerwig’s film. According to the National Retail Federation, Barbie is expected to be the third-most popular costume for adults this year and featured among the top 10 for children.

The signs of a hot-pink takeover are already beginning to show. Spirit Halloween’s adult Barbie roller-skating costume was sold out by September. TikTok features hundreds of videos with tips and tricks for achieving the Barbie look — and clips of Daybreak’s “Barbie Street” have gone viral on the platform, too.

That’s how Alyssa May, 39, found out about the hot-pink utopia that was brought to life in her state.

On Saturday, May made the 35-minute drive from her home in Orem with her 10-year-old son, Austin, and his friends. They were among the hundreds of people strolling past the houses covered in fuchsia, sparkles and glitter. Around her, some dressed for the occasion with Barbie-inspired outfits — and, of course, greeted each other with “Hi, Barbie!”

“It was like stepping into the movie,” May said.

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Despite all the pink, Austin said “it was pretty fun,” especially Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House. May couldn’t quite pick a favorite — but perhaps that’s the point.

“The magic of Barbie is that anyone can be Barbie — that’s why the movie resonated with so many people,” May said. “For Halloween, it’s just so fun and so different because it’s not black, orange, creepy and bloody. It’s this bright, happy, cheery thing that can also be funny and also introspective.”

Plus, she added, “seeing a gravestone that says ‘RIP Patriarchy’ is also pretty great.”

Natalie Behring contributed to this report.

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