Your guide to family-friendly Halloween adventures in and around OC.
There are a lot of different ways families can celebrate the Halloween season and not give themselves nightmares.
Theme parks, home haunts, dinner theaters and museums provide something for every kind of family in October, as long as you know where to go — and when.
Theme Parks
Disneyland Resort
Halloween Time technically kicked off in August at Disneyland Resort, but that’s probably not early enough for the kids and adults who really dig the season. Fortunately, the party will also be running all the way through Nov. 2, including elements of Dia de los Muertos, and featuring the annual transformation of the Haunted Mansion into a celebration of A Nightmare Before Christmas at Disneyland, as well as Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween, Mater’s Graveyard JamBOOree and Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters After Dark at Disney California Adventure.
Plaza de la Familia returns to DCA with live entertainment and Mexican-inspired cuisine of Dia de los Muertos, such as the Nuez Gelatina Cake. Collectibles include the Vampire Mickey Mouse popcorn bucket and Coco Lantern sipper.
“During Halloween Time at Disneyland Resort, our team is always looking to craft a variety of options for families to explore new tastes and can be shared,” according to a spokesperson. “A few I recommend include the Buffalo Chicken Ranch Pull-Apart Bread, the Arroz Con Leche Donuts from Lamplight Lounge or the BBQ Pork Muenster Grill Cheese from Pym Test Kitchen.”
During the day, Mickey’s Trick and Treat will be quite a show for kids at DCA and Halloween Screams with fireworks will light up the night at Disneyland.
Knott’s Berry Farm
The Knott’s long-running annual Scary Farm is strictly for adults and big kids (who have an adult with them), but that doesn’t mean families have to avoid the park the entire month of October. Spooky Farm is the daytime family-friendly event that features Ghost Town and is included in the price of admission.
“For families who aren’t ready to graduate to Scary Farm, we do have Spooky Farm,” says Gus Krueger, entertainment art director. “It’s a great place to come and bring the kids so they can come for trick-or-treating, and they’ll be able to come in costume. We have treat stops throughout Ghost Town, so they can trick or treat through Ghost Town and get a little bit of candy. We have a costume contest where everybody who participates gets to parade around Calico Mine. There’s a wonderful show presented by Bob Baker’s Marionettes doing their Halloween show at the Bird Cage Theatre, and there’s other various things kids can do like pumpkin decorating.”
“There’s a lot of fun at Spooky Farm and you still get an entire Knott’s Berry Farm experience,” Krueger says. “It’s a great way to celebrate Halloween and see all the decorations throughout the park and be able to enjoy it with the whole family.”
SeaWorld San Diego
A pirate-themed Halloween with interactive activities can be had at SeaWorld during day hours. The Baby Shark Halloween Show features Pinkfong and the Baby Shark family singing and dancing to Halloween songs that families can join in on. There’s also dance parties with Spookley the Square Pumpkin, a pumpkin patch and trick-or-treat stations all around the park.
Sesame Place San Diego
The fan-favorite Count’s Halloween Spooktacular returns on weekends at Sesame Place San Diego for families to celebrate Halloween with Sesame Street characters. Kids can enjoy a Halloween-themed parade, trick-or-treating and scavenger hunting in the park, as well as all the rides and water slides. Kids can show their best spooky looks at a costume parade and contest, Dine with Elmo — and The Count or play the interactive Monster Mayhem Game Show, including games like Monster Pumpkin Toss and the Monster Matching Game.
Dinner Theater
Vampirates
Imagine vampires taking over a pirate ship while you sit back and enjoy a three-course meal. Yeah, that’s the kind of experience you only get in October at Pirates Dinner Adventure in Buena Park. Putting a seasonal twist on their typically swashbuckling, musical, nightly performance, the “vampirates” offer a good night out for the whole family.
The Speakeasy Murder
Upstairs, literally upstairs from Vampirates is The Speakeasy Murder, an ongoing event that allows an audience to step into a 1920s New York-style nightclub to rub shoulders with bootleggers, gangsters and flappers with live music performed around you while you try to solve a murder … and enjoy your three-course meal.
Theater
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is the classic late 1960s zombie movie that was the beginning of the modern zombie movie genre. But Fullerton’s Maverick Theater has brought the dead to life on stage with their own production of the story every fall for 20 years. Now an Orange County tradition, bring your slightly older kids for a good time, but beware, tickets sell out fast.
Macbeth
It’s debatable which is more scary: zombies or Lady Macbeth. At Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens in San Clemente, Shakespeare fans or those simply curious for a night amongst the classics, will find themselves immersed, literally, in a mixed performance of Verdi’s score and Shakespeare’s classic play that features Italian opera with English narration and dialogue. Boil, boil, toil and trouble, indeed.
Frankenstein: Resurrection
Mary Shelley’s classic tale is given a new musical sequel and presented in the round at The Nocturne Theatre in Glendale.
In this tale, Victor Frankenstein is the one brought back from the dead. Awakened in a secret laboratory in Paris by Dr. Pretorius, Victor is guided by the Monster through Hell and forced to confront the fact that he himself might be the greatest monster he ever created.
Home Haunts/Yard Displays
Stanley Haus
The return of one of the most famous Halloween yard displays in the country is a welcome sight for locals. In the Aliso Viejo cul-de-sac, visitors have seen giant depictions of Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion play out over the years — featuring an RV-sized pirate ship and a two-story facade of Disneyland’s mansion. This year’s theme is Universal Monsters.
Haunted Mansion Haunt
Speaking of the Haunted Mansion, in Trabuco Canyon, one of the OC’s most famous home haunts features a detailed, but abbreviated rendition of Disneyland’s famous ride. It features lots of both high tech and hand-made items, ushering people through its passages.
Other home haunts include Irvine’s Kim Haunted House, a family affair and locally popular for once producing a Barbie-themed maze. A father-and-son team have turned their Garden Grove driveway into the Ferris Haunt every fall since son Oliver was in elementary school.
Other Attractions
Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns
More than 10,000 hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns will set South Coast Botanic Garden aglow at the Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns in Palos Verdes.
As you make your way along the mile-long walking trail, the garden’s pathways glow with the light from jack-o-lantern and larger-than-life scenes. This year’s trail will feature a circus scene, a Dia de los Muertos tribute and a journey under the sea. Every 30 minutes, there is also a synchronized pumpkin light show. Guests can even enhance their walk with 3D glasses, or just keep it simple and make s’mores around the fire. Other food and drinks are available around the event.
And in the fun zone, kids can bounce in the giant pumpkin-shaped bounce house or take a ride down one of the giant pumpkin-themed slides.
OC Fright Nights
A couple of enterprising UC Irvine students created OC Fright Nights, building it up more each year and this year’s adult event is paired with a family-friendly Halloween-themed mini golf and arcade that runs daily through October.
Laguna Niguel Haunted Trails
Laguna Niguel isn’t the only city with a haunted trails event, but it is one of the longest running events of its family-friendly kind in Orange County. Staffed mostly by volunteers, the money raised goes back to the city’s parks and recreation department.
The Horror Show at the Academy Museum
The long and colorful history of horror movies will be on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. The major exhibit takes visitors on a journey through six thematic chambers full of props, costumes, production materials, interactive displays as well as film screenings, including a restored version of Hammer Films’ classic Horror of Dracula.
Parental guidance is encouraged in some of the exhibit, however the museum also features a family-friendly exhibition, Zombies!, an interactive educational space that explores how movie zombies are made and where their origins come from.
The Monster Mash is an all-ages daytime event featuring special-effects makeup demonstrations appearances by (friendly) monsters, film screenings and various activities about movie vampires. Films include Blade and Hotel Transylvania.
Dia de los Muertos
The Mexican dance company Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de Carlos Moreno presents a Dia de los Muertos celebration at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts with music, dance, pageantry and tradition that stretches back to the Pre-Hispanic era.
By Shawn Price
