South Jordan • Jamie Tucker said it was Liz Teran, who lives a few doors down from her house on The Island in the Daybreak community, who had the idea that has transformed their neighborhood.
“There’s only one person to be for Halloween, and that’s Barbie,” Tucker recalled Teran saying, after a group of them went to see this summer’s “Barbie” movie.
Tucker’s daughter, Maile, responded, “We need to make Barbieland happen.”
So this month, ahead of Halloween, the neighbors on Port Royal Lane and adjacent streets on The Island have transformed the outside of 18 houses into their version of Barbieland. The neighbors are expecting to attract thousands of visitors this October, thanks in part to a pair of TikTok posts that have each been viewed 2 million times.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Deidra Smith, left, talks with her neighbor Jamie Tucker, center, about additional home decorations in a section of Daybreak that has collectively created a Barbieland-themed community for Halloween on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.
Tucker’s house represents “classic Barbie,” with pink lantern strings and vinyl-and-plastic pink covers on the house’s columns, pink Adirondack chairs on the porch, and matching human-sized pink toy boxes labeled “Ken” and “Barbie.”
Tucker sometimes greets visitors to the neighborhood in the iconic hot-pink cowgirl Barbie outfit, similar to the one star Margot Robbie wears in the movie. Maile Tucker is dressed in the gold disco Barbie outfit; one sister has a cheerleader Barbie costume, and another sister has been dressed as “original” Barbie.
“It feels really great to have a house that is part of Barbieland,” Maile Tucker said. “I love it.”
The other houses on Tucker’s street continue the theme. There’s Camping Barbie, with skeletons in wigs sitting in a pink raft on the porch. Disco Barbie has a d.j. station, a mirror ball, and a neon pink sign with one of the movie Barbie’s iconic quotes: “You guys ever think about dying?”
One house features Weird Barbie — based on a version of the doll, portrayed in the movie by Kate McKinnon, that gets played with too hard — in all of its neon glory, taking a more architectural approach to decorating with metal swirls and designs.
There’s also Pool Party Barbie, Barbie Pet Shop, Haunted Barbie, Barbie Bedtime and — for fans of more traditional seasonal colors — Halloween Star Barbie, which features purple, orange and black, with hints of pink.
At the Haunted Barbie house, the lawn has been turned into a graveyard, with headstones for Ruth Handler (the creator of Barbie) and Sugar Daddy Ken (a short-lived collector’s edition), as well as one that reads “R.I.P. the Patriarchy.” The headstones, along with the toy boxes on Tucker’s porch and several other items on the street, were created by Alicia Holm, who runs a prop rental business, MadefromHolm.
Drawing a crowd
“Everybody really likes Halloween around here,” Tucker said, adding that Daybreak doesn’t have a formal Halloween decorating contest.
One street behind Barbieland is “Hogwarts on the Island,” a home by Oquirrh Lake that is decorated fully to a “Harry Potter” theme, including Dementors, an ode to Quidditch and a replica of The Burrow, the cluttered home of the Weasley family. Last year, thousands of visitors came to see it, according to some of the neighbors.
“It was just kind of mayhem on Halloween,” said one neighbor, Amy Williams.
People parked on the bridge that leads to The Island, Williams said, blocking off the road — to the point where her kids had to park a distance away and walk into the neighborhood. Even on Sunday, they couldn’t get in to get their backpacks.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) A home is decorated in a “Classic Barbie” theme from the movie “Barbie” in a section of Daybreak that has collectively created a Barbieland-themed community for Halloween on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.
Williams said that this year, “it’s like, ‘Well, if everybody’s coming anyway, why don’t we?’ You let more people get in on the fun.”
So Williams took on the Barbieland role of Midge, Barbie’s pregnant friend. Williams, who has three kids, wears an inflatable toy under her dress to simulate a baby bump.
Williams is an actor at Hale Center Theatre and “a huge Barbie fan,” she said, adding that she owns her mother’s original Midge doll from the 1960s. (The pregnant Midge doll was canceled shortly after it was introduced in 2003.)
A pink banner in front of Midge’s Dream House reads “Midge and Allen are expecting a girl.” There’s also a figure Williams brought previously of Jack the Pumpkin King, from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” dressed as Alan, Ken’s drab friend (played by Michael Cera in the movie). Williams said she has convinced her husband to dress on Halloween as Alan — who, in the toy line’s original canon, was Midge’s husband.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Amy Williams, dressed as “Midge” from the movie “Barbie,” stands outside her decorated home in a section of Daybreak that has collectively created a Barbieland-themed community for Halloween on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.
A ‘mojo dojo casa house’
The Kens in the neighborhood are also getting into the act.
Dave Mantyla rocks the Day-Glo outfit worn by the movie’s Ken, Ryan Gosling, when he and Barbie arrive in the real world. The house he shares with his fiancee, Terra Spencer, features quotes from the movie and replicas of the set, including a sign made by Spencer pointing the way from Barbieland to the real world.
“My fiancee was the instigator,” Mantyla said. “She got added to the group message and kind of got us all involved.”
On the other end of the street from Tucker’s house, Teran and her husband, Justin Gallegos, are now living in Barbie’s Dream House — with pink shag carpet, a pink mirror, vanity table, chair and wardrobe, which holds pink shoes, clothes and accessories. (The wardrobe, Gallegos said, was designed by Kenzie Bates, who runs the event planning business Kenzie’s Events. Bates also made the signs, in the Barbie style, that identify each of the houses.)
“She’s the mastermind. … She thought of it all,” Gallegos said of Teran. Gallegos, who wears a white Ken jumpsuit as he points out the house’s decorations, joked that Teran “let me spend the night.” (If you saw the movie, you get it.)
A few doors down from the Teran/Gallegos house, the Paladini family has created a “mojo dojo casa house” — a reference to Ken’s masculine makeover of Barbie’s Dream House — with a flaming purple banner, images of Gosling’s Ken, as well as a Coors beer sign, an inflatable motorcycle, a full-size horse mannequin (wearing a pink boa), and a saloon-style door.
Gallegos said the owner sometimes comes out with a guitar, strumming a Matchbox Twenty song. (Again, if you saw the movie, you get it.)
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Justin Gallegos, dressed as “Ken” from the movie “Barbie,” answers questions outside his home in a section of Daybreak that has collectively created a Barbieland-themed community for Halloween on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023.
A community united in pink
Nearby is Lorie Rimington’s house, which is dedicated to Barn Barbie. Rimington, who used to ride horses, also wears the cowgirl outfit from the movie. She said she saw her neighbors doing it, and jumped at the chance to get involved.
“The first thing I knew is we had to have pink, pink, pink,” Rimington said. She bought cans of spray paint and painted some pumpkins. Then she bought some hay bales and went from there. Her porch now includes an inflatable cow, a vinyl sticker of a pink barn door, pink cowboy boots, and a lit sign in the window of a cowgirl silhouette.
Rimington said she has 3,000 pieces of pink candy to pass out to trick-or-treaters — as well as pink toys, necklaces and Barbie slap bracelets.
The movie, she said, was entertaining and funny, and she loved its big message.
“You can be empowered to do anything you want to do, especially women. And who doesn’t want to be in pink?” Rimington said.
The fun of decorating her house has also deepened her sense of community, she said.
“When we started, I only knew a few neighbors,” Rimington said. “It has gotten all the neighbors together, and we know each other really well. It built that camaraderie and community together.”
Diedra Smith, who moved to the neighborhood with her husband two months ago, also found that sense of community through Barbieland. Her character is Astronaut Barbie, and she built a rocket out of metal trash cans and a tomato cage in her front yard.
“We didn’t know a soul,” Smith said. “After collectively coming together with this. I know everybody now. …
“Anyone can do this: Get together with their neighbors [and] come out with a plan,” Smith said. “Do it for a cause. Do it for a purpose. Bringing joy to people’s lives is really important, clearly to all of us in Barbieland.”
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