Halloween Kids Events in DC 2010050

The DC area embraces the Halloween spirit in a big way, and we've got a frighteningly long list of holiday events and activities for kids and families! Be sure to check our calendar too, as new events are added all the time. Many shows and celebrations require advance registration - so don't wait!

First off, you'll need some pumpkins, so here are a few of the biggest and best farm festivals, all featuring pumpkins, slides, mazes, hay rides, music, and food: The Fall Pumpkin Harvest at Great Country Farms is open daily through October 31; the Annual Pumpkin Festival at Butler's Orchard runs weekends through October 31; and the Fall Festival at Cox Farms is daily through November 7.

Now on to the ticks and the treats!

10/1-10/31 - Markoff's Haunted Forest & Enchanted Forest offers two terrifying trails and a dozen other spine-tingling events for older kids and adults, plus the Enchanted Forest, a non-scary, interactive stroll through fairytale scenes for younger kids. New this year is Markoffs' Haunted Harbor, which runs from 10/8 to 10/31 at National Harbor.

10/9-10/30 - At Wheaton Regional Park, kids can take a ride on the C.P. Hauntington Haunted Train and the Creepy Carousel, tour the Hall of Jack-O'-Lanterns, and get their faces painted. Over at Cabin John Regional Park, younger ones can take a less-scary ride on the "Eye Spy" Halloween Train, plus win prizes and giveaways, watch Halloween movies, and more.

10/15-10/16 - Before heading over to Markoffs' Haunted Harbor, families can stop by the National Children's Museum for Haunted Harbor Pre-Scream, which features spooky arts and crafts, make-your-own ghostly slime, plus children under 12 can make a Pre-Scream button and take it to the Haunted Harbor to receive a special family admission price.

10/16 - The Historic All Hallows Eve at Sully Historic Site features storytelling, fortune telling, and fall foods.

10/20 - During Locust Grove Nature Center's popular Tot Time program, toddlers learn all about pumpkins.

10/22 - At the Festive Pumpkin Carving Workshop, kids create their own fabulous pumpkins with carving ideas and tips from Brookside Gardens, play some pumpkin games, plus taste a few savory pumpkin treats.

10/22-10/23 - Princesses and cowboys can get in the Halloween spirit at a spook-tacular Halloween Dress Rehearsal Party at The Disney Store promising games, fun, and a costume parade. Kids ages three and up who wear a costume receive a free gift (while supplies last).

10/22-10/24 - The classic DC event for kids ages two to 12, the National Zoo's annual Halloween romp Boo at the Zoo offers fun and treats among the animals. But tickets go early!

10/23 - The Udvar-Hazy's holiday celebration, Air & Scare, goes all out, with costume parades, Star Wars impersonators, face painting, Halloween crafts, puppet shows, karaoke, simulation games, and robotics demonstrations.

10/23 - Families at the Tudor Place Historic Halloween Spooktacular! can enjoy mask making and pumpkin painting; join costumed interpreters to create their own Halloween treats; and listen to a local storyteller share some spooky tales. Children can wear their Halloween costumes to participate in a costume parade with prizes.

10/24 - Children, pets, and strollers in costume are welcomed at the 14th Annual Del Ray Halloween Parade.

10/24 - At Hillwood Estate's Family Fun Sunday: Halloween Fun, families decorate miniature pumpkins.

10/26 - During Meadowside's storytime, The Not-So-Scary, Teeny Tiny Ghost, the Teeny Tiny Ghost finds out that Halloween can be fun and not scary. Children also meet another not-so-scary character: Moonlight, the Halloween Cat, and decorate a ghost that they can take home and hang in the window.

10/27 - Rose Park hosts its 6th Annual Fall Pumpkin Festival, which features pumpkins, cider, ghosts and goblins, and a costume parade.

10/29 - Halloween Rocks! is a Halloween party in the Kentlands featuring trick-or-treating, balloons, crafts and games, a carnival, moon bounces, a DJ and dancing, face painting, a creative costume contest, and a performance by Justin Roberts & The Not Ready For Naptime Players.

10/29 - Transformed into a haunted ship, children and parents are taken on a spook-tacular tour of the Ghost Ship Barry at the US Navy Museum.

10/29 - And at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park's Halloween Haunting, kids can sit by the open fire roasting marshmallows and listening to stories of the park's ghosts.

10/29 - Pumpkin Glow Night at Great Country Farms features a spectacular display of over 1,500 carved and lighted jack-o-lanterns, plus visitors can bring their own carved jack-o-lantern to enter in the carving competitions. There is also a bonfire and marshmallow roasting.

10/29-10/31 - Kids learn some of the star stories associated with Halloween during Halloween Star Stories, at Rock Creek Park's planetarium. Also at the park, on 10/30, kids can make bat puppets in Batty About Bats and discover the not-so-scary side of this helpful creature.

10/30 - Many Borders stores host an annual Halloween Spooktacular, where children are invited to stop by and listen to scary stories, play spooky games, do a creepy craft, and top it all off with a terrifying parade - costumes are encouraged.

10/30 - Actor David Keltz recreates Edgar Allan Poe's visit to Virginia in 1849. Poe in Alexandria, at The Lyceum, includes recitations from classic works such as The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart, and many others.

10/30 - John Henry England returns to the Avalon for his annual Halloween Costume Party, featuring rocking music, face painting, treats, and prizes.

10/30 - At the National Building Museum's Haunted Halloween program, families design and build their very own haunted houses.

10/30 - Kids can drop by the Halloween Spooktacular! at Hooray For Books! for Halloween games, festivities, a storytime, and snacks. Hooray For Books! will also donate 20% of purchases to buy books for children in need in the community.

10/30 - Following a costume parade, the members of Now This! Kids! take the children's creative suggestions and devise Halloween Costumes & Not-Very-Scary Improvs, rib-tickling musical tales of cats and moons, witches on brooms, and not-very-scary ghosties and goblins at the National Theatre.

10/30 - Magician Brian Curry entertains kids at BlackRock Center for the Arts.

10/30 - During Falloween, kids can trick or treat at the stores and restaurants of Market Common Clarendon, join a costume parade, and more.

10/30 - Glen Echo's Fall Frolic offers pumpkin painting, decorating trick-or-treat bags, trick-or-treating, a costume parade through the park, and Halloween-themed games.

10/30 - Get down to the bones of the matter at the National Museum of Health and Medicine's Halloween Family Program: Serious Fun with Skulls, where children learn all about skulls and Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

10/30 - The ever-popular Flight Fest at the College Park Aviation Museum is an evening of arts and crafts, haunted hayrides, costume contests, and spooky fun.

10/30 - The new Halloween on Ellsworth Party features costume contests, pumpkin decorating, a hay maze, trick or treating, face painting, a moon bounce, pie eating contest, and crafts - including edible ghosts and broomsticks.

10/30-10/31 - Even the Freer and Sackler Galleries get into the holiday spirit, with Tomb Guardian, Goddess, Poet, King, where kids find gallant heroes and dangerous demons in works in the collection, and then create Halloween masks inspired by one of these characters.

10/30-10/31 - The colorful Los Dias de los Muertos/Days of the Dead celebration of life includes food demonstrations, dance performances, demonstrations of papel picado (cut paper) and of the kites that accompany the Guatemalan celebration of the ancestors, and hands-on crafts.

10/31 - At the Rocknoceros Halloween Party at Jammin' Java, fans can rock to their favorite Rockno tunes and enjoy some tasty Halloween treats.

10/31 - Kids are invited to put on their costumes for Secrets of the Deep at the National Aquarium, a day filled with trick-or-treating, scavenger hunting, fossil shark tooth bobbing, recycled trick-or-treat bag making, face painting, and special raffles.

10/31 - In Silver Spring, there's a Halloween costume contest and a cool science show by Eric Energy, plus playtime at Great Kids Village.

10/31 - And finally, the NSO (in costume) performs its annual Family Concert: Spooky Sounds and Scary Tales, which features Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, John Williams's Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter, and music from other scary tales.

If we missed one of your favorite activities, feel free to add it here as a comment!