Halloween events in Los Angeles for kids

Carved at Descanso Gardens

Descanso Gardens lights a mile of its woodland loop with hand-carved and illuminated pumpkins every October, and it is the jack-o'-lantern walk most Los Angeles families name first. The pull is the artistry rather than the fright: giant carved gourds, an illuminated railroad display, wood spirits tucked into the oaks, and new commissioned sculptures each season. Because it runs nightly for a full month it is the easiest of the big trails to slot into a schedule, and 2026 is the first year the gardens open on Halloween night itself for trick-or-treating. Plan on a mile of walking on garden paths, and book a dated ticket early: weekend slots sell out.

Night of the Jack

Night of the Jack spreads a one-mile trail of carved and projected pumpkins across King Gillette Ranch, a Santa Monica Mountains parkland that gives the show a wide-open setting the garden trails cannot match. It leans theatrical: projection mapping on the ranch buildings, larger-than-life lantern sculptures, food trucks, and a bar for the adults. For 2026 the organizers added Jack's Carnival, roughly a dozen kid-sized rides and midway games, which makes it more of an evening out than a walk-through. It opens earliest in the season of any big LA pumpkin trail, and timed tickets are required for every guest.

Magic of the Jack O'Lanterns

This travelling pumpkin show settled at South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, which makes it the South Bay's answer to the jack-o'-lantern trails up in the foothills. More than ten thousand carved pumpkins line a mile of garden path, built into set pieces like pirate ships, dinosaurs and dragons, with a pumpkin light show set to music repeating through the night. Two things separate it from the other trails for families with young kids: bounce pads and slides in a dedicated fun zone, and s'mores stations along the way. It opens the earliest of the three big LA pumpkin walks, in mid-September.

Boo at the L.A. Zoo

The zoo's Halloween weekends are the default answer for LA parents with kids too young for anything after dark. Nothing extra is charged at the gate: trick-or-treat stations, keeper talks, themed photo ops and live performances are all folded into a normal day at the zoo, and the animals get pumpkins of their own to tear apart, which is usually the part kids talk about afterwards. It is a daytime event over two late-October weekends, so it competes with nap schedules rather than bedtimes. Costumes are expected, and the zoo is large enough that crowds spread out.

Scarium Family Night at the Aquarium of the Pacific

The Long Beach aquarium hands over one Friday night in October to costumed families, and the after-hours framing is the appeal: the galleries stay open late, lit for Halloween, with a self-guided scavenger hunt threaded through them. Trick-or-treating comes with a provided goodie bag, and the entertainment runs to a vampire magician, a DJ, photo booths and a costume contest rather than anything designed to frighten. It is a single evening, so it needs to go on the calendar rather than be treated as a drop-in. Full-face masks and toy weapons are not allowed, which is worth knowing before a costume is chosen.

Sea Scare at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium

San Pedro's city-run aquarium builds a new story around its Halloween night each year, and 2026's is Monsters of Myth. Kids work a mystery by hunting clues through the galleries, which include a Skull Alley, a mad scientist's lab and a small haunted house, then collect candy on a trick-or-treat trail and a trunk-or-treat. Carnival games, craft tables and a glow zone fill out the evening. It is the most narrative of the LA aquarium Halloween nights and the one most likely to tip into genuinely spooky for a sensitive preschooler, though it is still built for families. Aquarium members get free early entry an hour ahead.

Tricks and Treats at Six Flags Magic Mountain

Magic Mountain runs two Halloween events on the same calendar, and this is the one for children: a daytime fall festival that packs up before Fright Fest's mazes and roaming monsters take the park after dark. Kids twelve and under trick-or-treat along a trail through Looney Tunes Land, and 2026 adds a pumpkin-decorating stand, a Looney Tunes costume dance party and a low-key trail built for the smallest visitors. The family rides stay open throughout, so it doubles as an ordinary theme-park day. The hard constraint is timing: arrive late and you are in the park as it flips over to the scary version.

Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch

A Westside institution since 1987, Mr. Bones is an urban pumpkin patch built for families who are not going to drive to a farm. It has moved around Los Angeles over the decades and now sits in Culver City, drawing from Santa Monica to Manhattan Beach. Admission buys entry to the patch and its photo sets; the rides, games, slides and face painting run on separately purchased activity tickets, which is the thing most first-timers get wrong when budgeting. Weekday admission is cheap and the hours run late, so an after-school visit is realistic. Weekend mornings and the run-up to Halloween are when it gets crowded.

Cal Poly Pomona PumpkinFest at Kellogg Ranch

The university's teaching farm opens to the public on October weekends, and one admission covers nearly everything: corn and sunflower mazes, a hay wagon ride, a cow train, a petting farm and agriculture demonstrations run by students. That bundling is what sets it apart from commercial patches, where each ride is a separate ticket. Each weekend carries its own theme, so a second visit is not a repeat. Pumpkins are bought separately from the patch, and the site is a working farm, which means dust, sun and a long walk. It reliably sells out, so tickets are worth buying before you drive out to Pomona.

Halloween at Kidspace Children's Museum

Kidspace runs the gentlest Halloween on this list, and the one aimed squarely at preschoolers. The season stretches across six weeks rather than a weekend, and the Halloween programming is layered onto a museum kids already know: costume parades three times a day, a trike ride through a spooky house, a potion-mixing witch's kitchen and Halloween bowling. Everything is included with normal admission, so there is no separate event ticket to plan around. The three-and-a-half-acre campus is mostly outdoors, which helps with young children who need to move. It is Pasadena, so parking near the Rose Bowl can be affected by other events.

Enchanted Halloween at Discovery Cube Los Angeles

The Sylmar science museum dresses its exhibits for Halloween across a long autumn run and folds the whole thing into general admission, which makes it one of the cheaper multi-week options in the north Valley. Past years have mixed spooky-science demonstrations, trick-or-treat stations, hay bale mazes, carnival games and costume contests with the museum's permanent hands-on galleries, so a visit works even if the Halloween layer runs thin for older kids. For 2026 it runs during regular daytime hours rather than as the evening event it has been in some past seasons. It is the only entry here in the far north San Fernando Valley.

DTLA Halloween Festival for Kids

Downtown's answer to a residential street on Halloween night: the Downtown LA Alliance builds a trick-or-treat trail of real doors to knock on inside Grand Hope Park, so kids who live in apartment towers get the door-to-door ritual anyway. Around it are character meet-and-greets, a DJ dance party, craft tables and puppet and magic shows on a half-hour rotation. The organizers pitch it at ages two to eight, and it lands on Halloween itself in the early evening, which makes it a substitute for trick-or-treating rather than an addition to it. Last entry is well before the close, and it has run for well over a decade.