Pumpkin Patches and Halloween Haunts

Ana Picazo - San Francisco Bay Area
October 9, 2012

Halloween night falls on a Wednesday this year, which means the weekend before Halloween is going to be packed with spooky celebrations.   Shopping centers, bookstores, libraries, parks, pumpkin patches, downtown associations, museums, and attractions all over the Bay Area are preparing creepy crafts, ghoulish games, tricks, treats, and all kinds of frightful fun. With so many things going on, you won't have to look far from home to find a Halloween celebration that's just right for your little monster's age and interests. Here's a list of Halloween happenings on October 26 to 28 worth checking out:

If your child likes animals and nature... Join the Oakland Zoo's Boo at the Zoo celebration to make treats for the animals and see how they celebrate Halloween, or head to the Slither & Squeak Halloween Event at the CuriOdyssey museum in San Mateo to meet their nocturnal animals and enjoy hands-on experiments with spooky science.  Further down south, kids will get a chance to show off their pet's Halloween costume at Sunnyvale's Howl'oween Pet Parade & Faire.

If your child like parades.... She can show off her costume at one of the many Halloween costume contests or parades happening the weekend before Halloween. Try Benicia's Halloween Costume Contest & Sidewalk Stroll, Menlo Park's Halloween Hoopla, or Capitola's Children's Halloween Parade. Other options include the Halloween Costume Contest & Party at Playland-Not-At-The-Beach and El Dia de los Muertos Parade & Carnival at Santa Cruz's Gault Elementary school.

If your child likes arts and crafts... Kids up north can decorate their very own pumpkin at the Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library—no carving necessary, while kids in the city can learn to draw and decorate the iconic Dia de los Muertos skull at San Francisco's Museum of Craft & Design. At the San Carlos Library's Halloween Storytime & Face Painting event, that ghostly complexion on your child's face won't be caused by any frightful fable—it's face paint! Even spooky stories will have a sweet ending when Barnes & Noble Hillsdale hosts their Halloween Storytime and Cupcake Decorating Party, while families at the San Jose Museum of Art can get another kind of sugar rush by decorating sugar skulls at El Dia De Los Muertos Community Day.

If your child needs some advance trick-or-treat practice before the big night... Check the events calendar at a city or shopping center near you. Downtown associations often plan advance trick-or-treating events where local businesses hand out candy to kids in costume: Walnut Creek's Downtown Trick-or-Treat, Trick or Treat on Fourth Street in San Rafael, Trick or Treat in Downtown Campbell. If your little one finds the dark evenings too scary, head to Coddington Mall in Santa Rose, Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco, Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo, Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, or the Great Mall in Milpitas. Their store-to-store trick-or-treat events take place between October 26 and 28, in air-conditioned, well-lit splendor.