Halloween is a magical time for children, they’re back at school, the leaves are changing and for one fantastic evening they can be whatever or whoever they want to be while collecting pounds of candy to boot. The Seattle area is a beautiful place for children to spend their fall season and with dozens of events happening all over the city and beyond, there’s so much more to Halloween than trick or treating.
Come along to these events where your kids can run for a cause, learn while having fun during a goopy, glowing science lesson, take an old-fashioned train ride next to a waterfall, hear storytellers spin spooky tails and watch fish and zoo animals play with pumpkins. With so many opportunities your kids can enjoy Halloween all month long and maybe will even forget about the candy.
*Don’t forget to check the websites ahead of time for fees and registration.
Seattle
- Pumpkin Bash at Woodland Park Zoo, October 27 & 28 from 9-3:00 All the zoo animals are given pumpkins to do with as they please. They can roll it around, smash it, eat it or slash it for the amusement of beasts and children. Beware of flying pumpkin guts.
- Run Scarred Benefit for Leukemia and Lymphoma, Located in Seward Park October 28 Opening at 7:30 Come out dressed in costume for a 5k or 10k run or mosey on a 4k walk with prizes, photos, games and crafts after the race.
- Aquarium Halloween, October 26, 27 & 28 Come watch the fish enjoy master pumpkin carving on land and in the underwater tanks. Divers will create jack o’-lanterns in the water, it’s the fish’s favorite day of the year.
- Monster Bash Benefit for Seattle Children’s Hospital, Located in Seattle just North of Laurelhurst October 21 from 3-7:00 Come out for a carnival style event with games, snacks, crafts and ponies.
Bellevue
- Kids Quest Children’s Museum – Halloween Spooktacular, October 28, from 10-5:00 bring your kids in costume to explore science while creating glow in the dark slime, play with dry ice bubbles and other spooky scientific fun. Also at the Kids Quest Museum; Family Adventures in Spooky Kooky Concoctions, October 24 & 25 from 6-7:30 Bring the little ones out to experience science experiments create goop and other fun concoctions under the black light.
- Pigs and Pumpkins on Kelsey Creek Farm, October 27 from 10-11:30 Kids can come out and watch pigs eat pumpkins, go on a scavenger hunt, make pumpkin snacks and take a pumpkin home.
- Kelsey Creek Farm Fair, October 6 from 11-4:00 Find and decorate a pumpkin while enjoying bounce houses and tractor rides. Come prepared with cash, no cards are accepted.
- Pumpkin Pals at the Northwest Arts Center, October 27 from 10-11:30 Bring your preschoolers from ages 2-5 out for adorable pumpkin relays, art, music and a new pumpkin to bring home.
- The Secret World of Bats at the Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center October 26 from 5-6:00 This is a free movie event all about the wonders of bats and what they do for our ecosystem. Dress your kids up as bats for a fun experience and free popcorn!
Redmond
- Halloween Story Telling Train, October 20-21 & 27-28 from 11-4:00 Take a colorful drive out of town to Snoqualmie Falls for a unique experience your kids will always remember. Take a scenic train ride with a stop for warm apple cider. A professional storyteller will entertain your little ones with spooky railroad stories from the past.
Redmond
- Halloween Tricks and Treats, October 31 from 4-7:00 If you prefer trick or treating through stores instead of front doors Redmond will be hosting a merchant candy give a way. Free of charge with face painters, photos and trampolines to burn off sugar rushes before bed.
- Thrill the World, October 27 from 12-4:00 For ten years in a row participants have learned the thriller dance for this event while raising money for charities. Open to dancers age 8 and up, participants attend 4 weeks of practice classes to leading up to the performance. On dance day zombies dress the part in make-up and torn clothing and perform the dance in front of hundreds of onlookers. Come early and stay after for live music.
- Serres Farm finally, a pumpkin patch without entrance fees, come visit a laid-back family farm growing a wide variety of colorful pumpkins to choose from. Kids can ride on a tractor with trailers painted like animals, have rubber duck races by pumping old water pumps to move their ducks faster and of course a corn maze complete with scary skeletons at dead ends.
Renton
- Wild Waves Theme and Water Park – Fright Fest, Located about 25 minutes South of Renton, every weekend from September 28-October 28 The water is turned off and the park is transformed into a Halloween nightmare. There are a huge variety of events, rides in the dark, games and attractions available for kids and adults. Several haunted houses, a haunted pathway, a 3D fun house, sideshows and a magician. Most of the events aren’t appropriate for young children, but an area called Booville is set aside, gore free for kids under 12 with a carnival, games, crafts and dancing.
- Truck-or-Treating at the Renton Community Center October 19 from 6-7:30 Sign up early, this event is only for kids under 10. Children not only get candy at this event they also get to see old fire trucks, buses, cement mixers and ambulances up close.
- Tales that go bump in the Night at the Renton History Museum October 27 from 11-12:00 Professional storytellers will tell spooky, family friendly Halloween stories riveting young audiences and creating lasting memories off screen. After they hear the tales head down to the next event.
- Olde Fashioned Halloween Party and Downtown Trick or Treat Event in Downtown Renton October 27 from 1-4:00 bring the kids out for trick or treating in merchant doorways. Don’t forget to dress up your dogs, there will be a doggie costume contest as well as cider, art, face painting, a cakewalk and a merchant scarecrow competition.
- Carpinito Brothers Pumpkin Patch Located just South of Renton, these brothers have succeeded in creating a beautiful farm with dozens of things to do. Your kids will never forget this place. They can take hay rides, get lost in the corn maze, play in their fun yard with dozens of animals, rubber duck races, feed goats, dig through a room of dried corn, slide down slides into loose hay and even practice roping wooden cows. Find your pumpkin in 20 acres of colorful plants to choose from.
Sammamish
- Trick or Treating at City Hall in Sammamish Commons October 31 from 3-4:30 Come out for a safe, dry trick or treating through city hall.
Don’t forget to get outside, bring the family and some friends and enjoy October in Seattle!