Bob

http://boston.com/community/moms/blo..._oct_31_1.html

For the folks in the Boston and metro area, quite a few things.

The Roger Williams Zoo event is pretty cool and the one at the Ecotarium is supposed to be decent in Worcester and you can get discounts at most libraries on the entrance.

Drumlin Farm, in Lincoln do a great event.

Salem is just horrid. It's got to be done the once for the experience, but it really is a nightmare. Parking is shit, getting there is a nightmare and then you spend a small fortune on all the crap that's around to do anything. Nice visit a couple weeks early before it gets to mental I'd say.

So anything cool happening else where in the country?

Rete

RPS and my daughter live in Sleepy Hollow, NY and they have the best Halloweens anywhere. I love the parade with the headless horseman and last weekend at Patriot Park they made scarecrows that are used as street decorations on lamp posts around town. Van Cortlandt Manor has a show or two for the event and Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson has the Jack-O-Latern display. It is widely celebrated wholesomely in our river towns.

https://www.hudsonvalley.org/

WEBlue

Well, like many US towns, ours has a little parade organized for Halloween. I think it's set up mostly for the younger children and their parents. They can walk or ride bikes down the Main Street at 2 in the afternoon, then disperse to Trick-or-Treat at the shops.

We also have scarecrows all over town--I think there's some scarecrow competition going on because I've never seen so many in one place! Each store has amazing decorations, and some of the neighbourhood houses are all tricked out with scarecrows, spiderwebs, ghosts, etc. I've got three pumpkins out front of our house (two plastic, one real) and I feel rather pathetically under-decorated.

Is it my imagination, or is much of this Halloween fuss driven by the local merchants?

Rete

I don't believe so. Halloween has always been a big holiday in the US for kids. The decorated shop fronts, homes and the many planned activities are all part and parcel of celebrating Halloween. It has been that way since I was a child in the early 1950's. If anything it is the town government driving the fuss at the request of the residents.

Smaller towns seem to decorate more than larger towns and cities. Sleepy Hallow is home of the Headless Horseman and the Old Dutch Church and Cemetery so not surprizing that they do it up big.

I love it because in these small towns, the residents are the ones who are involved in these activities. Such as making of scarecrows for the lamp posts. The town provides the materials for the most part and the kids and parents provide the labor.

Giantaxe

Not quite Halloween but the Day of the Dead celebration in San Francisco is pretty amazing.

Bob

Definitely big business around here, but it's a lot of fun.

Though did just notice someone skip Halloween entirely and went straight for Christmas decorations already

Woods.usa

Our little town is having a Zombie night tomorrow...

http://www.fountaininn.org/events

There's usually something going on on Main Street for trick or treaters on Halloween evening, but we're too busy giving out candy to go!

Bob

http://www.fruitlands.org/beertasting

Not quite Halloween, not quite Guy Fawkes, but it's 2nd Nov in Harvard, MA. Beer festival and bonfire.

Cracking place this and a lovely little town.

Poppy girl

Its a state holiday for us!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Day I knew there was another reason we moved here

We will be 20mins up the road in Carson City where there is more than enough to keep us going for days

http://renotahoe.about.com/od/events...elebration.htm

Nutek

WEBlue

We don't know what to expect in the way of trick-or-treaters knocking on our door. In fact, even though we moved to the States over two years ago, we have yet to experience a "normal" Halloween. The first year we were here, the freak Halloween snowstorm meant only few kids came to the door. Then last year we had Hurricane Sandy cause such chaos that most parents didn't want their youngsters to trick-or-treat at all.

My neighbour tells me "a few" children will come, so I bought one modest bag of sweets. We'll see how it goes.

joto

Get more sweets. At least some that you know you like, incase there are some left over and you can scoff them. At our last place there were a few kids that lived in the street, but there were a lot that got shipped in by parents, as it was a fairly quiet street and the kids could walk around safely.

WEBlue

Haha! This is what we were trying to avoid--having lots of left-over sweets in the house to tempt us....

Interesting. This is a quiet safe neighbourhood too, with many older folks. Hmmm, so maybe I'll pick up another bag of sweets, just in case.

Bob

It's been a bit weird. Where we are, it's a small off road block and we got about two people last year from up the street, but I think mostly because we're off the main road, most people just head up the road as there are more families with cool stuff down either way and it gets a little mental.

Town trick or treat on Thursday, so we're doing that...

Bob

That happened a lot in the last town we lived in, people driving over from other towns, as the area had quiet side streets and was a bit more posh. Folks driving from 40 mins away to hit the town and neighbouring towns were taking the piss a bit though.