Thunder & lightning
Branching bolts that light up the darkness. Rare, occasional or frequent.
Free WordPress plugin · v1.0.0
Your website, after midnight.
Lightning, rain, fog, ghosts, bats, and pumpkins your visitors can grab and throw. Free WordPress plugin. No theme edits.
- Free & open source
- No theme edits
- Zero cost when off
- Privacy-friendly
Before / After
Same site. One switch.
This is the shop page of my demo WooCommerce store, captured at the same scroll position. On the right, Halloween WT is running with the Normal preset. Drag the pumpkin handle.
Before
After
Same site. Same content. Zero theme edits. Menus, filters and the cart icon still work under the effects.
Watch it live in 38 seconds
A screen recording of the plugin on a real WordPress store: the homepage, the shop grid, and what happens when you switch it on.
The fun part
Go ahead, grab a pumpkin.
Most Halloween plugins are something you look at. This one you can play with. Mouse, touch and stylus all work.
Throw a pumpkinIt falls with gravity, bounces and rolls.
Drag the ghostIt glides, then floats gently back up.
Pull the spiderIt swings like a pendulum on its silk.
Tap a batIt gets scared and flees.
Hollow Oak BakeryBreadsPiesVisitCart (0)
Pumpkin bread, baked every morning.
A sample website, sitting under the effect layer. Everything on it is clickable.
Button clicked: 0 timesSee? The button still works. The layer only reacts in the small grab zone in the middle of a few objects.
Features
Fourteen effects. Each one has its own switch.
Turn any of them on or off, then tune quantity, size, speed, opacity, intensity or color where it makes sense. Hover a card to see it move.
Atmosphere
7 effectsDarkness vignette
Darkens the edges. The reading area stays light.
Rain
Slanted storm rain.
Storm clouds
Drift along the top edge.
Fog
Low mist that never covers the middle. Custom color and height.
Eyes in the dark
Open near the edges, blink, and vanish.
Particles
Tiny glowing embers rising slowly.
Creatures & decoration
7 effects
Pumpkins
Glowing jack-o'-lanterns. Your visitors can grab and throw them.
Bats
Fly on wavy paths. Tap one and it flees.
Ghosts
Friendly, translucent. Drift, then fade.
Spiders
Lower themselves on silk threads.
Spider webs
Sit quietly in the top corners.
Skulls
Tumble slowly through the night.
Autumn leaves
Maple, oak and elm.
Presets
Four moods, one click.
Normal default
The full stormy night, balanced.
Pick a preset, then fine-tune anything you like.
Hollow Oak BakeryBreadsPiesVisitCart (0)
Open late on Halloween night.
Your content stays exactly where it is. The effects sit on a layer above it.
The promise
Your website always comes first.
Your visitors will smile, play, and remember your site, and you didn't touch a single line of your theme.
Never blocks clicks
Menus, buttons, forms, sliders and checkout keep working. Only the tiny grab zone in the middle of a few objects reacts to the pointer.
Zero cost when off
Disabled, scheduled for later, or excluded on the current page? Then nothing loads at all.
Self-healing
If anything ever goes wrong in the animation, the layer quietly removes itself. The page keeps working.
Cart & checkout protected
Cart, checkout and account pages are effect-free by default, so your sales are never disturbed.
Live preview & control
See every change before you save it.
- Live previewDesktop and mobile toggle, pause button. Every slider updates the preview instantly. Admins can also preview on the real site before going live.
- Schedule with yearly repeatRun whenever enabled, or between two dates. Tick "Repeat every year" (say Oct 20 to Nov 1) and it comes back every Halloween. Uses your site's timezone, no cron jobs.
- TargetingEntire site, homepage only, or selected pages and posts. WooCommerce shop and product pages. Exclude anything.
- Mobile controlsSeparate toggles for effects and interaction on mobile, plus Low, Medium or High density. Phones always use reduced limits to protect battery and scrolling.
Halloween WT
Live on your siteHollow OakBreadsPiesVisit
Pumpkin bread, baked daily.
Preview of your homepage.
An HTML recreation of the settings screen, so you can try the controls here. The real screen has the same eight tabs.
Performance · Accessibility · Privacy
The fine print, in numbers.
Performance
0files loaded when off
1canvas for every effect
~15fps for slow layers like fog
- Scripts load deferred, after your page has finished loading.
- Artwork is rasterised once and reused every frame.
- Pauses in hidden tabs. Frame rate capped on 120/144 Hz screens.
- Lowers detail automatically on slow devices.
Accessibility
2flashes max per strike
8 sminimum between strikes
0keyboard focus stops
- Respects "reduce motion" (on by default): only calm, static decoration.
- Never three or more flashes in a second.
- Hidden from screen readers.
- Hidden when printing and in high-contrast mode.
Privacy
0cookies
0external requests
0tracking
- Collects, stores and sends no visitor data.
- No third-party services or libraries.
- All artwork is original and bundled with the plugin.
Compatibility
Works with what you already use.
Effects hide automatically inside page builder editors, so they never get in the way while you edit.
WordPressWooCommerceElementorDiviBeaver BuilderBricksBlock themesClassic themesMultisite
// Hide the effects from logged-in users
add_filter( 'halloween_wt_should_load', function ( $load, $settings ) {
return is_user_logged_in() ? false : $load;
}, 10, 2 );Zero dependencies, zero build step, one option (halloween_wt_settings), translation ready.
Install
Live in about a minute.
Download the ZIP
Open the GitHub repository and choose Code → Download ZIP.
Upload and activate
In WordPress go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the ZIP, then click Activate.
Enjoy the storm
Effects start right away with the Normal preset. Customise everything in Settings → Halloween WT.
Requirements: WordPress 6.3+ · PHP 7.4+
FAQ
Questions before you install.
Will it slow my site?
Effects load only after your page has finished loading, are drawn on a single canvas, pause in background tabs and lower their detail automatically on slow devices. When effects are off, nothing loads at all.
Will it block my menus, buttons or checkout?
No. The effect layer ignores the mouse everywhere except the small grab zone in the middle of a few interactive objects. Cart, checkout and account pages are effect-free by default.
Does it work with my theme or page builder?
It works with block and classic themes, and with Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder and Bricks. Effects hide automatically inside page builder editors. WooCommerce and multisite are supported too.
I use a caching plugin. What should I know?
Clear your page cache after you change settings, so visitors get the new version. When a schedule ends, cached pages stop showing the effects by themselves.
Can I disable it on one page?
Yes. Exclude any page or post under Where to show effects. Developers can also use the
halloween_wt_should_load filter.What happens when I uninstall?
Deactivate it and your site is exactly as it was. Delete it and it removes its single settings option. Nothing else.
Is it really free?
Yes. Free and open source under GPLv2 or later, forever. If it made your October more fun, a coffee is always welcome.
Free, and it always will be.
Halloween WT is free and always will be. If it made your site a little more fun this October, buy me a coffee. It keeps the updates (and the pumpkins) coming.