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A sign that fall is officially here is reflected in yard and porch displays of mums, scarecrows, gourds and tied clusters of dried corn stalks around the area.

It would appear to be a growing seasonal trend, judging from retail sales and other reports, and just by the sheer number of homeowners now decking their properties out with autumnal fare.

According to a Unity Marketing research report in 2003, seasonal decorating was already on the rise with more than 60 percent of consumers polled buying Christmas or seasonal decorations in 2002, up from 50 percent of households in the United States in 2000.

The report's author, Pam Danziger, said that following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, people learned "how powerful decorations can be in communicating personal values and feelings."

"Today, more and more households are creating new decorating traditions." Growing category

While Christmas accounted for nearly two-thirds of consumer spending in 2002, harvest-home and Thanksgiving decorations were noted as the fastest growing categories in seasonal decorations.

Internet shopping was also a new source for decorations, according to Danziger's report.

A National Retail Trade Federation report last month indicated that people are trying to fill that hole between summer and winter, squeezing in seasonal decorations before Halloween which is considered the second-biggest decorating holiday of the year after Christmas.

Locally, some displays reflect a simple statement of the season; others are more ornate.

Neighbors have borrowed decorating tips from neighbors; others from their mothers.

Sun Chronicle photographers captured just a smattering of displays in the area indicating fall is in the air, including Carol and Ronald Menard's highly-visible corner at Route 152 (North Main Street) and Dewey Avenue.

She plans, he plants and most of the focus is centered on the large wagon which is decorated seasonally and for every holiday - except St. Patrick's Day. "We're not Irish," Carol Menard laughs.

Of them all, fall is her favorite, she said. "It's the colors."

"The fall is just the best." The area around the wagon is landscaped and includes purple asters. The wagon itself is outfitted with pumpkins, yellow mums and corn stalks on each side of the front wheels. A woven basket with fall berries and sunflowers sits in the wagon seat.

Off to the side is a white double rocker with gourds in a basket with autumn foliage. On her front doors are autumn wreaths.

While she reuses many of the decorations every each, she also creates and adds something new each time. This year, a trio of wooden pumpkins was added near the home's entrance.

Menard said some people probably think that she rushes the season. "I do it right after Labor Day," she said of decorating for fall.

She'll add a witch for Halloween. Then there will be Christmas, Valentine's Day "and then we go into Easter," she said, checking off the mental list of holidays she decorates.

Menard believes more people are decorating for the season and not just a particular holiday. "You drive around and you see more people trying to fix their yards up," she said. It provides a feeling of pride.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks also influenced her decorating. The parents of Lynn Goodchild, who died in one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center towers and who lived in her neighborhood, had distributed small trees in her memory. Menard planted hers in her yard and it has grown, hopefully enough to decorate with Christmas lights this year, she said.

"We call that Lynn's tree," Menard said.

Her overall decorating hasn't gone unnoticed as many neighbors seem to appreciate it, she said. Many have had their children's holiday pictures taken on or near the wagon, though this winter, neighbors and motorists might notice the familier wagon missing from the site on which its been situated for about a decade. It needs to be brought in from the elements to be repaired, Menard said.

Her decorating has also impressed her daughter, Michelle Walsh, who now decorates her own front porch on Lincoln Avenue in Attleboro for the season, as well as for the holidays.

"I have a wagon with mums," among the fall display, "but not like her wagon," Walsh said.

She also has Indian corn and a scarecrow, along with a wooden sign emblazoned with "Bittersweet" in her fall display.

Menard jokes that her daughter takes a look at her displays, then goes home, does something different "and it looks better than mine."

Patti Elson of North Attleboro, on the other hand, decorates for her daughter -- or at least her Mansfield office, as well as decking out her home for the holidays.

Elson, however, prefers faux foliage and bright orange bows and electric candles with lights in the season's color -- for the fall, it's orange.

"Anything that I don't have to water," she said, pointing to the silk autumnal arrangements around her yard at 509 Kelley Boulevard, at the corner of William Tanner Drive. There's faux leaf garlands along all of her fences as well as orange silk flowers in the window boxes.

There are little plastic jack-o-lanterns. There are some real pumpkins as well, which the Elsons grew this year.

"If I take down the summer stuff, the fall stuff goes right up," since otherwise it would require another trip to the attic, she said.

"I come from the restaurant business where I always decorated," Elson said. "People said that's how they knew what holiday it was."

"We really have fun" decorating the yard and her home, Elson said. And it's contagious. "Now my neighbor's doing it," she smiled.

Susan LaHoud can be reached at 508-236-0398 or slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.