The secret to making a good scarecrow is getting ‘‘in the zone’’ of what a child would enjoy.
That is according to Todd Holmes, who is among residents preparing for this year’s Methven Scarecrow Trail.
The trail for 2026 starts on Saturday and runs for the school holidays.
Residents are adding finishing touches to their creations; more than 30 will be on display.
The idea of the trail is for families to follow a map and fill out a form with their guesses of what character each scarecrow represents.
There are sponsored prizes for the most correct entries and for the most popular scarecrows.
Holmes has won the trail’s most popular scarecrow competition three times in a row.
Last year, Manny the mammoth from the animated film Ice Age got the most votes from trail participants, following Kevin the Minion in 2024 and Humpty Dumpty in 2023.
Holmes said his most recent constructions such as Manny and Kevin were up to 3m high.
Bigger was better when it came to attracting the awe of children.
‘‘It’s thinking about what a kid will enjoy, what they will walk up to and be like ‘This is cool’,’’ Holmes said.
As a dad-of-three with his youngest five years-old, he was ‘‘in the zone’’ of knowing what children enjoyed.
‘‘It’s quite cool doing something that a lot of little ones will get enjoyment out of,’’ he said.
He used his engineering experience to add buttons, triggering motorised and sound elements.
For example, Manny swung his head from side to side and made mammoth noises.
The theme for this year is Once Upon a Time (famous fairytale characters).
Holmes, who is general manager of one of the trail’s sponsors Jackson Holmes, lives at Highbank.
His creation for 2026 is green, and impressive, with moving parts and music.
It is set up outside the Blue Pub. Co-organiser Gillian Heald applauded the creative efforts of Holmes and fellow residents.
‘‘All around Methven there are creative people making scarecrow characters and setting them up throughout the town.
‘‘There are businesses and school groups, private individuals and preschoolers, a church group, the library, the iHub…all working to create over 30 different characters that children might be able to identify,’’ Heald said.
‘‘The trail is the perfect school holiday fun for all the family.’’
Last year was a record for the most correct answers, when 91 entries had all the answers right. The next best previous result was 61, back in 2017.
– Methven Scarecrow Trail runs from Easter Saturday to April 19. Trail maps, available at the Mount Hutt Memorial Hall, are $15 per group (up to five persons).
