Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, which is good news for parades and bad news for anyone hoping for a quiet bench. Here is what is on across the five boroughs, checked against the organizers' own pages on October 5, 2026.
Halloween 2026 is Saturday, October 31. The Village Halloween Parade steps off at 7pm on Sixth Avenue (free and very crowded), Park Slope's family parade lines up at 6pm on Seventh Avenue, and the Bronx Zoo's Boo at the Zoo runs weekends through November 1 with a costume parade, included with zoo admission. For calmer and cheaper, try Wave Hill-O-Ween on Thursday, October 29 (free) or the free Pumpkin Point patch on Governors Island on October 24 and 25.
Checked October 5, 2026. Dates and prices move, so the organizer's link on each listing is the one to trust.
Halloween in NYC with kids comes down to one question: do you want the big noisy thing or the small friendly thing? New York does both, and this year the calendar helps. October 31 is a Saturday, so nobody has to leave work early to squeeze a seven-year-old into a costume that will be a crumpled heap on the floor by 6:45pm. Below are the parades, the zoo and garden days, two free pumpkin patches and the one quiet evening I'd pick if I could only pick one. Plenty of Halloween listings in this city are for grown-ups (a serial killer experience, pop-up bars, a rooftop cinema). I've left them out.
The pattern: the free, gentle things happen the weekend before Halloween, and everything loud is crammed into the 31st. Do your costume run on the 24th and 25th and you'll meet fewer elbows.
Saturday, October 31, 2026, 7pm, rain or shine (the homepage adds "OR WIND"). The 2026 theme is "Body & Soul", with Joey Arias as Grand Marshal and a new puppet piece, Firehorse, by Basil Twist. It's also live on Spectrum News NY1 at 8pm, which matters because the best view with a small child may be your sofa.
The parade's Watch page says it runs straight up Sixth Avenue from King Street to West 15th, with the thickest crowd between Bleecker and 14th. Its advice: don't bring a car, and meet your group somewhere away from the line-up before walking to a viewing spot together. Free to watch, with paid VIP viewing if you'd rather pay than push. My view: with under-8s, pick the quiet ends of the route and treat anything after 8pm as a bonus.
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The kids' one. NYC Tourism's listing says the Park Slope Civic Council runs it, it has been a Brooklyn tradition since 1986, and on Saturday, October 31 it lines up from 6pm and kicks off at 6:30pm along Seventh Avenue from 14th to 3rd Street. Trick-or-treating at the shops is on Seventh and Fifth Avenues.
It's a good size for small children: short, local, and nobody expects you to behave like a New Yorker. Bring a flashlight or glow stick, because 6:30pm on October 31 is dark.
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Run by the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, which says it happens every year on Halloween and welcomes "children of all ages, from toddlers in strollers to older kids". There's a costume contest with prizes from local businesses, and last year's volunteers prepared 3,000 trick-or-treat goodie bags.
The 2026 time and route were not announced when we checked on October 5, 2026, so I can't tell you where to stand. It's here because the big lists skip it: a neighborhood parade where the toddler in the stroller is the target audience, not an obstacle. Check the group's page the week before.
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A parade through Tribeca on Sunday, October 25, led, says the park, by "the most fun marching band in NYC". The calendar gives the date but no time, so confirm that first. The park is at Greenwich and Duane Streets. The detour is the point: it's a Sunday, a week ahead of everyone else's Halloween, and a fraction of the size of the Village.
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This is where Halloween goes if your child loves costumes and distrusts dark streets. All of it is daytime or early evening, and most is included in an admission ticket you may already be buying.
Saturdays and Sundays from September 26 to November 1, plus Monday, October 12. The zoo says it's free with a Bronx Zoo ticket or membership, with activities closing at 4pm and some weather permitting. The list: Animal Chats, a hay maze and challenge trail, carnival games, magic shows, face painting, a candy trail (11am to 2pm), crafts, and a costume parade at 12pm, 1pm, 2pm and 3:15pm.
The zoo is huge and your six-year-old won't see all of it, so choose a parade time first and plan around it.
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Every weekend in October, free with zoo admission. On the list: the tombstones of extinct animals in Sea Lion Court, a Spooky Trail about the park's nocturnal wildlife, hands-on activities, live entertainment and costume-friendly photo spots. The zoo warns that many dates sell out, so buy ahead.
This is the small-child Halloween: a four-year-old can see the lot and still be home for a nap.
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If I could pick one evening on this list, it's this one. Thursday, October 29, 3:30pm to 6:30pm, at Wave Hill, a public garden above the Hudson. It's free (grounds admission is free on Thursdays), with a garden scavenger hunt, a "monster mash" on the lawn, drop-in Halloween art and a photo spot at the "gourdgeous" view. Treats are "while supplies last", and the organizers promise "plenty of tricks".
The rules are sensible: all children must be with an adult, costumes should be friendly (no fake weapons, gore or face-covering masks), and severe weather moves it indoors. Advance registration is encouraged online or on 718.549.3200 x251; day-of registration depends on space. A Thursday is a gift if your weekend is already full.
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Saturday, October 31, 12pm to 5pm. The garden promises a costume show-off, a trick-or-treat trail, crafts, spooky plants, storytelling and live performances, with harvest beers and ciders for the grown-ups. A trick-or-treat trail means nobody has to be marched round a shopping street in the dark.
The calendar didn't say whether there's a separate ticket. Garden admission is $6 for adults and $2 for children 4 to 12, with 3 and under free, so check which applies on the day.
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Not Halloween, strictly, but it sits next to it on the calendar and suits a child who finds skeletons more interesting than ghosts. October 3 to November 2, with a marigold-filled community ofrenda, music, crafts and bilingual sing-alongs, plus a procession on Sunday, November 1 at 2pm. It's included in the All-Garden Pass. The Children's Garden has programming Tuesday to Friday, 1:30pm to 5pm. The page didn't give prices.
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A working farm inside the city limits. Per its October calendar, the pumpkin patch runs October 1 to 31 with free admission, the Amazing Maize Maze (a 3-acre corn maze) is $10 to $17 on its set days from 11am to 4pm, and Halloween on the Farm on October 31 runs 10am to 5pm at $15 to $25. Online tickets are required for the ticketed events. Parking is free on Little Neck Parkway, with the on-site lot open during special events.
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Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25, 10am to 5pm, free. Governors Island calls it a free family pumpkin patch in Nolan Park, with pumpkin picking and painting, trick-or-treating, ghost tours, fall foliage walks, a reading nook, live folk music and food vendors. Leftover pumpkins are composted on site.
The ferry is the point: a boat to a patch of grass with the skyline stuck on the end, and nobody has to drive to Westchester with a tired child in the back. The ferry from the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street is $5 for adults, free for children 12 and under, and free for everyone on weekends before 11am.
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New York isn't a ring-the-doorbell city. Most people live in buildings, so trick-or-treating happens on shopping streets and in lobbies. The city helps with NYC DOT's Trick-or-Streets, now in its fifth year, which turns Open Streets, plazas and other corridors into car-free harvest and Halloween spaces across all five boroughs. Partner events run October 3 to 31, signature events October 22 to 31, and Halloween itself is the busiest day. DOT says some will include kid-friendly play run with Street Lab and NYC schools. The page didn't list individual streets when we checked, so look for the one near you.
Two practical points. A black costume at night needs a glow stick or reflective tape so drivers can see it, and hold hands near the curb: a Saturday night with thousands of children out is also a Saturday night with cars.
My trick-or-treat rule: the child chooses the costume, the parent chooses the shoes. Nobody has ever regretted comfortable shoes at the end of a Halloween block.
Thousands of lit jack o'lanterns at Van Cortlandt Manor, running through November 8, per Historic Hudson Valley. It's a ticketed evening event roughly an hour north of the city. Tickets are on tickets.hudsonvalley.org, and we couldn't read the 2026 prices, so check before you set your heart on it. It's here because people ask, and it's the one to book now if you want a weekend date.
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See also The New York Almanac lists this week's family events, with the lesser-known ones marked. →
See also Next on the calendar: Thanksgiving Day, and where to stand with kids. →
4 places. The map loads only when you ask for it, from OpenStreetMap.
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Halloween is Saturday, October 31, 2026. The Village Halloween Parade starts at 7pm and the Park Slope Halloween Parade at 6:30pm; most other free events sit on the weekend of October 24 and 25.
It's free and everyone in costume is welcome, but the crowd between Bleecker and 14th Street is the thickest and the parade runs from 7pm to about 11pm. With under-8s, stand near the quieter ends of the route or watch the NY1 broadcast at 8pm.
Wave Hill-O-Ween (Thursday, October 29, 3:30pm to 6:30pm), Pumpkin Point on Governors Island (October 24 and 25), the Queens County Farm Museum pumpkin patch (free admission in October) and the Park Slope and Village parades. Register ahead for Wave Hill.
Mostly on shopping streets and Open Streets rather than at doors. NYC DOT's Trick-or-Streets runs from October 3 to 31 across the five boroughs, and Park Slope's parade includes trick-or-treating on Seventh and Fifth Avenues.
Yes. Queens County Farm Museum has a free pumpkin patch all October, and Governors Island's Pumpkin Point is free on October 24 and 25. Historic Richmond Town's Decker Farm on Staten Island also runs pumpkin picking on October weekends.
Yes, it's free with a Bronx Zoo ticket or membership. It runs weekends from September 26 to November 1 plus Monday, October 12, with activities closing at 4pm.
Parades and most outdoor events go ahead in rain, and Wave Hill-O-Ween moves indoors in severe weather. The Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden both have indoor spaces to duck into.
Facts checked against 25 pages on Monday, October 5, 2026. Opening times and prices change, so confirm with the venue.
