I’m with you on the handmade cutout characters. Nothing turns me off more than these store bought inflatable monstrosities lit with stadium lights.
We have a house down the street that puts up very cute old-fashioned cutout characters that are beautifully painted. Two widows live there — they are in their 80s and they still keep the tradition alive! They had to remove a big pine tree from their front yard, but kept the stump at 8 feet to make a roofed hobbit house with a door and windows.
the creativity of that generation is manifold.