From haunted parades to candlelit concerts and eerie ghost tours, Halloween in NYC 2025 is a season of transformation—strange, stylish, and unforgettable across all five boroughs.

There is a specific kind of magic to New York in late October. The air cools, twilight lingers, brownstone stoops flicker with candles and cobwebs, and even an ordinary walk feels like stepping onto a stage. Halloween here is not just a holiday. It is a performance, a ritual, a chance to briefly become someone else, or perhaps more yourself.

This is not just another roundup. It is your invitation to wander through parades, concerts, catacombs, and candlelit bars. A map to the strange, stylish, and uncanny ways New York transforms into a living story each Halloween. Welcome to the 2025 BKLS Halloween Guide.

The Elegance of Eerie: Halloween in Manhattan

Manhattan does Halloween like it does everything else—with a kind of studied grandeur. This is where the gothic meets the glamorous. Your night might begin beneath stained glass and end beneath a glittering skyline. And the beauty of it all? The options unfold like a well-tailored costume: each layer more surprising than the last.

You could spend hours wandering the corridors of a haunted museum or cathedral, wrapped in candlelight and cello notes. Or you might surrender to the chaos of costumed strangers flooding the avenues—dancing, drumming, vanishing into crowds that feel both ancient and new.

For those who crave tradition, there is one ritual that defines the borough every year.

Village Halloween Parade

📍 Location: 6th Avenue [Between King Street and West 15th] — Greenwich Village, Manhattan | 📅 Date: Friday, October 31, 2025 | 🕒 Time: 7 PM – 11 PM

On Friday, October 31, 2025, the Village Halloween Parade takes over Sixth Avenue for its 51st year, and nothing else in the city feels quite like it. At 7 PM sharp, the procession steps off at Canal Street and marches north to 16th. A river of costumed New Yorkers, live bands, and giant puppets winding through the West Village. Admission is free—just arrive in costume and you can step straight into the current.

Crowds are heavy, but that is part of the magic. The best viewing tends to be north of 10th Street after 6 PM, where the energy builds as twilight falls and the parade surges forward under the glow of streetlights.

It is chaotic, it is theatrical, and it is one of the most iconic nights in New York.

For a full insider’s breakdown—including tips on when to arrive, where to stand, and how to join the parade yourself—explore our Village Halloween Parade Guide.

Candlelight Halloween Concerts & Catacombs by Candlelight

Candlelight Halloween Concerts

📍 Location: Church of the Heavenly Rest, 1085 Fifth Avenue —Upper East Side, Manhattan | 📅 Date: Thursday, October 30, 2025, and Friday, October 31, 2025 | 🕒 Time: 6 PM – 8:30 PM [Duration: 60 minutes]

Not every Halloween night in New York is about noise and spectacle. Some are about quiet awe—the kind found in flickering candlelight and echoing stone.

On October 30 and 31, the Candlelight Halloween Concerts transform the Church of the Heavenly Rest into a stage of shadows. Picture yourself surrounded by hundreds of glowing candles as a string quartet moves from Vivaldi to spine-tingling film scores.

The effect is haunting, intimate, and unforgettable—Halloween as a mood rather than a masquerade. Tickets are available here.

Catacombs by Candlelight

📍 Location: The Chancery at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, 266 Mulberry Street — Nolita, Manhattan | 📅 Date: Thursdays to Mondays | 🕒 Time: 10:30 AM – 4:15 PM [Duration: 1 hour and 20 minutes]

If your imagination leans more historic, the Catacombs by Candlelight Tour at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral offers a journey underground. Guided by lantern light, you will step into crypts that date back centuries, where New York’s layered history feels especially alive in late October.

It is a different kind of haunting—quiet, reverent, and deeply atmospheric. Reserve your spot here before tours fill up.

Inside the City’s Darkest Rooms: Haunted Houses in NYC

Not every Halloween thrill in New York comes from parades or candlelit concerts. Some of the city’s most enduring rituals unfold behind closed doors, where immersive sets, actors in full character, and carefully staged scares turn haunted houses into something closer to theater. In Manhattan and beyond, these experiences lean less on cheap frights and more on craft—designed to unsettle, surprise, and blur the line between performance and nightmare.

Merchant’s House Museum – Candlelight Ghost Tours

📍 Location: 29 East 4th Street — NoHo, Manhattan | 📅 Date: Friday, October 10, 2025 through Thursday, October 30, 2025 | 🕒 Time: 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Tucked just east of Washington Square, the Merchant’s House Museum is one of Manhattan’s oldest surviving homes—and one of its most haunted. By candlelight, guides lead small groups through parlors and bedrooms still filled with 19th-century furnishings, where ghost stories are whispered in the flicker of shadow.

On October 17, 18, 24, 25, and 30, the museum hosts its signature Candlelight Ghost Tours—50-minute walks through this preserved domestic space that feel as eerie as they are intimate. For those craving a deeper dive, a Super Spooky Candlelight Tour with paranormal investigator Dan Sturges follows at 9:30 PM on the same dates, layering firsthand findings onto the museum’s spectral lore.

It is chilling, yes—but also deeply intimate, a glimpse of domestic life preserved and unsettled. Tickets sell out quickly each October, making it one of the city’s most sought-after Halloween experiences. Book your tour here.

BloodManor

📍 Location: 359 Broadway — SoHo, Manhattan

Blood Manor is one of New York’s most infamous haunted houses—and one of the country’s oldest. Housed on the third floor of 359 Broadway, the building itself carries a sinister backstory. It was once the photography studio of Mathew Brady, the Civil War photographer who captured both presidents and soldiers. Legend has it that the restless spirits of the fallen lingered in his images, turning the space into a site of ghostly disturbances long before it became a Halloween staple.

Today, Blood Manor transforms that eerie legacy into a high-voltage experience. Visitors navigate dark corridors packed with grotesque characters, immersive sets, and heart-pounding jump scares. It is theatrical, relentless, and designed to test your limits—making it a must for thrill-seekers each October.

Hours & Opening Date:

• 7 PM – 11 PM | October 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 23rd, 29th, 30th, November 7th & 8th  
• 6 PM – 10 PM | October 12th, 19th, 26th, November 2nd 
• 7:00 PM – 12 AM | October 24th + 25th, November 1st  
• October 28th | 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
• October 31st | 6:00 PM – 12 AM

Halloween House Long Island

📍 Location: Broadway Commons, 358 North Broadway — Hicksville, Nassau County

Brand new for 2025, Halloween House Long Island opens September 26 at Broadway Commons with a fully reimagined immersive experience. Rather than jump scares or gore, this attraction focuses on visual wonder. Every room has its own themed world, from glow-in-the-dark tunnels to carnival spectacle, “Trick or Treat” rooms, and a “Nightmare Before Christmas” inspired setting.

It is designed for Halloween lovers of all ages. Families who want photo moments and creative décor, and fans who prefer an immersive Halloween atmosphere without the fright overload.

Hours & Opening Date:

• 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM | September 26th, 29th, 30th, October 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th  
• 11:00 AM – 7:30 PM | September 27th, October 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th, November 1st
• Noon – 6:30 PM | September 28th, October 5th,19th, 26th, November 2nd 
• October 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st | 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
• October 12th | 12:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Multiple Themed Rooms

• The “Spiderweb Light Tunnel”

• The Glow-Room

• The “Trick or Treat” Room

• The Horror Hotel Room

• The Haunted Carnival & more

BrainXcape

📍 Location: 160 Broadway, [3rd Floor] — Financial District, Manhattan

Renowned set designers, experienced in creating haunted houses and Broadway productions across New York, have crafted these games to deliver an atmosphere rich in mystery, suspense, and horror.

Participants are locked in with just 60 minutes to escape. Along the way, they must solve puzzles, unravel clues, and race against the clock. Many have attempted—both first-timers and seasoned escape room enthusiasts—but not all have succeeded.

The question remains: who will escape before the countdown reaches zero? Guests are invited to book their adventure and experience an unforgettable hour of tension, thrills, and fun.

Hours & Opening Date:

• Rikers 1932, The Haunted Hotel, The Bloody Circus, The Pirates Heart | 2 – 10
  People / 60 minutes
• Elevator to Hell | 2 – 5 people / 60minutes
• Open already until December 1, 2025
  • Monday to Friday: 11 AM – 10:30 PM
  • Saturday to Sunday: 10:45 AM – 10:50 PM

The Uncanny After Dark: From Drag Suppers to Rooftop Rituals

Halloween in NYC isn’t only about haunted mansions or costumed parades—it’s also about the city’s nightlife slipping into costume. From drag queens turning dinner into theater to rooftop bars staging their own after-hours rituals, these experiences prove that sometimes the most haunting thing about October is how alive the night feels.

Arlo Hotels Introduces Arlo After Dark

📍 Location: Arlo Williamsburg, 96 Wythe Avenue — Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Arlo After Dark is the nightlife engine of Arlo Hotels, and for Fall 2025, it is bringing vibrant rooftop energy to Williamsburg. With The Water Tower as one of its prime stages, Arlo delivers late-night rooftop parties, high-energy DJ sets, seasonal celebrations, and one standout Halloween night: AS ABOVE SO BELOW, a Halloween party slated for October 31.

Whether you want city-glow skyline views, cocktails after dusk, or a dance floor under the stars, Arlo After Dark keeps things stylish and alive. It is ideal if your Halloween plans include nights that pulse long after the streets quiet.

• Friday, September 12th — Arlo After Dark Presents: Laz & Friends NYFW Edition Presented by Tequila Rosaluz
• Saturday, September 13th — AAD x We Are Eclipse
• Friday, September 19th — AAD Presents: NAACH x Sonance
• Saturday, September 20th — AAD X Amoura Presents: Nico De Andrea
• Friday, October 31st — As above so below

View lineup & tickets here.

Drag Me To Joanne’s

📍 Location: Joanne Trattoria, 70 West 68th Street — Upper West Side, Manhattan | 🕒 Time: Wednesdays, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Every Wednesday night, the Upper West Side gets a little louder, brighter, and infinitely more fabulous. Drag Me To Joanne’s transforms Lady Gaga’s family restaurant into a stage where glamour and Italian comfort food collide. Hosted by the unstoppable @JupiterGenesis, the evening is equal parts dinner party and drag show, where sequins meet spaghetti and every toast is punctuated with laughter.

The menu leans classic Italian—rich pastas, hearty mains, and cocktails [or mocktails] designed to keep spirits high. Between bites, performers glide through the room in feathers, lace, and rhinestones, pulling the audience into a world where showmanship and sparkle are non-negotiable.

While it runs all year, the October shows have their own seasonal edge: costumes lean a little spookier, makeup gets darker and more dramatic, and the camp of Halloween pairs perfectly with the glam of drag. If you want your Halloween to feel more chic cabaret than haunted house, this is where to spend your evening.

See schedule & reserve your table here.

Brooklyn After Dusk: Where Halloween Becomes a Poem

You have already seen Brooklyn in its costumed glory at the Parade’s edge. But the borough does not wait until October 31 to cast its spell. From candlelit bars to street-style fashion shows, this is where Halloween meets creativity and never loses its edge. Brooklyn does not just celebrate Halloween—it transforms it.

Here, it is less about tricks and more about transformation. Less about jump scares, more about intention. The borough offers something theatrical, yes—but also sacred, strange, and deeply beautiful. Whether it is a slow cinematic burn in a Bushwick theater or a night-long masquerade party inside a reimagined factory, Brooklyn dares you to lean in—to explore, to become.

This is where you trade cheap thrills for real sensory immersion. Where costume is not a disguise but a declaration. Where music, movement, and mystery become the medium.

City of Gods

📍 Location: Industry City — Sunset Park, Brooklyn | 📅 Date: Friday, October 24 through Saturday, October 25, 2025 | 🕒 Time: 9 PM – 5 AM

Brooklyn’s most theatrical Halloween gathering returns in 2025 with City of Gods at Industry City. On Friday, October 24, and Saturday, October 25, the sprawling complex transforms into something closer to a dreamscape than a venue.

Each night unfolds as a living installation: dancers, designers, and musicians turning entire warehouses into portals of light and shadow. Costumed guests drift between stages where sonic rituals and visual vignettes blur the line between performance and party. It is part nightclub, part immersive art piece, and entirely unforgettable.

The crowd itself becomes part of the spectacle—creatives, performers, and revelers whose costumes often rival the installations in ambition. Think feathered masks, sculptural gowns, or futuristic armor glowing under industrial beams.

Tickets start at $203 for Friday, $165 for Saturday. Or $449 for two-night access. → Reserve tickets.

House of Yes + Green-Wood After Dark

House of Yes

📍 Location: 2 Wyckoff Avenue [Entrance at 408 Jefferson Street] — Bushwick, Brooklyn

If Manhattan has the parade, Brooklyn has House of Yes—a Bushwick institution where Halloween becomes performance art. Its legendary weekend parties blur the line between nightclub and stage. Aerialists twisting overhead, drag queens casting spells from the DJ booth, and dancers in costumes so elaborate they feel like moving installations. Here, dressing up is not optional—it is the price of admission.

For 2025, highlights include the return of City of Gods, a sprawling multi-sensory Halloween festival. And the cheekily macabre Zombie Prom on October 25. A night where camp, chaos, and costume collide. Check the House of Yes calendar for the full lineup of this year’s events.

Green-Wood After Dark

📍 Location: Green-Wood Cemetery, 500 25th Street — Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn| 📅 Date: Thursday, October 16 through Friday, October 17, 2025 [Nightfall] | Saturday, October 4, 2025 through Sunday, October 26, 2025 [After Hours]

A few miles south, Brooklyn’s historic cemetery shifts into a stage of shadows and stillness. Nightfall [October 16–17, 2025] transforms Green-Wood into an immersive blend of music, circus, and storytelling beneath Gothic arches and candlelit paths.

After Hours [October 4–26, 2025] opens the grounds after dark, guiding visitors by lantern light through winding trails and into the catacombs for an experience equal parts eerie and intimate. Throughout October, Green-Wood also layers in moonlit tours, meditative walks, and site-specific performances that merge history with atmosphere. Explore the full schedule on the Green-Wood events calendar.

Together, these two spaces reveal Brooklyn’s dual Halloween nature. One wild and surreal, the other reverent and uncanny. However you lean—toward the dance floor or toward the quiet glow of candlelight—Brooklyn ensures the season is unforgettable.

On Film, On Foot, On Fire

For the cinematic souls, Halloween in NYC means watching horror the way it was meant to be seen. On the big screen, in creaky old theaters, with strangers who gasp and laugh in unison.

Brooklyn Horror Film Festival

📍 Location: Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg, 136 Metropolitan Avenue — Williamsburg, Brooklyn | 📅 Date: Thursday, October 16, 2025 through Saturday, October 25, 2025

Brooklyn hosts the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival [October 16–25, 2025]. A weeklong showcase of international slow-burns, slashers, and genre-bending shorts across indie cinemas in Bushwick and Williamsburg. It is as much about the audience as the films. Collective shivers in the dark, followed by conversations that spill out onto graffiti-lined streets. Explore the full program here.

For something more whimsical, stroll through Park Slope or Fort Greene, where brownstones dress in gauze, stoops glow with carved pumpkins, and whole blocks feel like curated stage sets. These neighborhoods remind you that Halloween in Brooklyn is as much about community as spectacle.

These are the quieter joys of the season: the crunch of leaves underfoot, the glow of candlelit windows, and the knowing nod between well-dressed strangers who understand the line between costume and character.

Elsewhere Halloween Weekend

📍 Location: 599 Johnson Avenue — Bushwick, Brooklyn | 📅 Date: Friday, October 31, 2025

Part rave, part ritual, Halloween at Elsewhere transforms the Bushwick venue into a multi-floor techno-haunted house. Across sprawling rooms and rooftops, DJs spin into the early hours while installations bend the line between eerie and avant-garde.

Costumes here are more than festive—they are conceptual, artistic, sometimes downright surreal. It is the kind of party where creativity matters as much as stamina. Still, the vibe remains inclusive: whether you arrive in a sculptural mask or a thrifted cape, there is space to join the spectacle.

For 2025, Elsewhere will host two nights of Halloween celebrations on October 31. One room brings DJ sets from Loukeman, Somewhere Special, and Kassie Krut. While the full-venue takeover showcases a heavier lineup featuring Ben UFO, CiCi, Drifting, Ma Sha, and SISSIES OF MERCY.

Each floor feels like a different dimension: one pulsing with pure DJ energy, the other a layered performance space where sound, light, and costume fuse into a world all its own.

Tickets sell out quickly—explore the Elsewhere Halloween 2025 calendar to secure your spot.

From Brooklyn to Manhattan, the ritual continues. Costumes and cocktails become as much a part of Halloween in New York as parades and processions — a reminder that the city itself is always in character.

Dressing the Part, Drinking the Spell

Halloween in New York is not just about where you go. It is about how you arrive. At BKLS, we believe the city deserves more than flimsy polyester capes. Choose fabrics with weight and history: velvet, lace, silk, structured wool. Think Victorian necklines, feathered masks, or a blood-red lip that speaks before you do. Vintage havens like Beacon’s Closet and 10 ft Single brim with treasures this time of year, where a single find can define your entire look.

And when the night needs a drink to match the mood, let the bar do the costuming. Maison Premiere in Williamsburg pours absinthe beneath flickering candlelight. Bar Goto Niban in Park Slope serves Japanese-inspired riffs on the old-fashioned. Meanwhile, on the Lower East Side, Loreley Beer Garden taps entire pumpkin kegs through Halloween weekend—playful, theatrical, and very New York.

Because here, the magic is not only in the costume. It is in the way you carry it—every glance, every step, every toast becoming part of the performance. On Halloween in New York, the ritual begins the moment you step out your door. And just as style defines the night, place defines the experience.

Dining in Disguise: Restaurants That Transform for Halloween

Halloween in NYC is not confined to parades or parties—it seeps into dining rooms, too. A few restaurants across the city lean all the way in, turning dinner into a performance of its own. From Gothic elegance to year-round haunt, here are a few tables that blur the line between meal and masquerade.

BeetleHouse NYC

📍 Location: 308 East 6th Street — East Village, Manhattan | 📞 Phone: [646] 510-4786 | 🌐 Website: BeetleHouse NYC

Here, every night is Halloween. Inspired by the films of Tim Burton and the Gothic canon, BeetleHouse is less a restaurant than an immersive set piece. Expect eerie props, portraits that seem to follow you, and cocktails with names like This is Halloween.

The food leans playful—burgers dyed black, bubbling cocktails crowned with dry ice—but the atmosphere is what lingers. It is a dining room where costume feels optional but welcome, and where every table is in on the performance.

Hours:

Monday

Closed

Tuesday

Closed

Wednesday

Closed

Thursday

4:00 pm – 12:00 am

Friday

4:00 pm – 12:00 am

Saturday

4:00 pm – 12:00 am

Sunday

4:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Reserve a table here →

Lillie’s Victorian Establishment

📍 Location: 249 West 49th Street — Times Square, Manhattan | 📞 Phone: [212] 957-4530 | 🌐 Website: Lillie’s Victorian Establishment |📍 Location: 13 East 17th Street — Union Square, Manhattan | 📞 Phone: [212] 337-1970

Few restaurants in Manhattan commit to holiday décor the way Lillie’s does. The already ornate Victorian interior—heavy wood, oil paintings, chandeliers—becomes a theatrical set when Halloween arrives. Cobwebs, skeletons, and jack-o’-lanterns spill across the space until it feels like a haunted manor dressed for a grand party.

Whether you slip in for a cocktail or settle in for dinner, Lillie’s offers an atmosphere that is less kitsch and more Gothic glamour.

Hours: Times Square

Monday

11:00 am – 12:00 am

Tuesday

11:00 am – 12:00 am

Wednesday

11:00 am – 12:00 am

Thursday

11:00 am – 12:00 am

Friday

11:00 am – 1:00 am

Saturday

10:30 am – 1:00 am

Sunday

10:30 am – 12:00 am

Hours: Union Square

Monday

2:00 pm – 1:00 am

Tuesday

2:00 pm – 1:00 am

Wednesday

2:00 pm – 1:00 am

Thursday

2:00 pm – 2:00 am

Friday

11:00 am – 2:00 am

Saturday

11:00 am – 2:00 am

Sunday

11:00 am – 1:00 am

Reserve a table here →

Oscar Wilde

📍 Location: 45 West 27th Street — NoMad, Manhattan | 📞 Phone: [212] 213-3066 | 🌐 Website: Oscar Wilde

If Lillie’s leans Gothic, Oscar Wilde leans decadent. This bar and restaurant already thrives on maximalism—Victorian antiques, marble fireplaces, stained glass. And for Halloween, it goes further still. Elaborate displays, candlelit nooks, and costumed bartenders create the impression that you have stumbled into a secret society’s masquerade.

Pair that with their extensive cocktail list and late-night energy, and it is easy to see why locals return each October.

Hours:

Monday

2:00 pm – 1:00 am

Tuesday

2:00 pm – 1:00 am

Wednesday

2:00 pm – 1:00 am

Thursday

2:00 pm – 2:00 am

Friday

2:00 pm – 2:00 am

Saturday

11:00 am – 2:00 am

Sunday

11:00 am – 1:00 am

Reserve a table here →

Beyond Manhattan + Brooklyn: A Borough-by-Borough Spellbook

Halloween in New York does not stop at the West Village’s edge. It spills across rivers and avenues, gathering new energy in every borough. From haunted mansions to quiet museum halls, each corner of the city holds its own kind of magic—waiting for those willing to wander.

Queens: Where Halloween Blooms with Culture and Quiet Awe

Queens might not be the first borough that comes to mind when you think of Halloween—but that is exactly why it deserves a detour. The celebrations here feel quieter, more communal, more rooted in story than spectacle. It is a kind of understated revelry, where music and memory linger longer than a scream.

Socrates Sculpture Park Halloween Harvest Festival

📍 Location: Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Boulevard — Long Island City, Queens | 📅 Date: Saturday, October 25, 2025 | 🕒 Time: 12 PM – 5 PM

On Saturday, October 25, 2025, Socrates Sculpture Park transforms into a seasonal stage where art and autumn meet. Pumpkin patches dot the waterfront lawn, sculptures frame the skyline, and live music drifts across the East River.

Local vendors bring cider, snacks, and small-batch treats, giving the festival a warmth that feels distinctly Queens—creative, accessible, and grounded in community. Families spread blankets, kids weave between installations, and the city feels softened by harvest light. Free RSVP is recommended.

Queens County Farm Museum: Halloween on the Farm

📍 Location: Queens County Farm Museum, 73-50 Little Neck Parkway — Floral Park, Queens | 📅 Date: Saturday, October 25, 2025 through Sunday, October 26, 2025 | Time: 11 AM – 4 PM

Halloween meets harvest season at Queens County Farm, one of New York City’s most historic working farms. Families can wander through the 3-acre Amazing Maize Maze, hop on Halloween hayrides, and pick pumpkins that make autumn portraits especially memorable.

Kids will love trick-or-treating at nine candy stations and dancing at the Monster Mash in the barn, while adults can browse seasonal bites, local vendors, and craft stalls. Do not miss the Pumpkin Patch or the “Spooky Ecology” station, where composting with worms takes on a Halloween twist. With cider and donuts in hand, this festival captures the essence of fall in Queens.

The Bronx: Proud, Loud, and Just a Little Bit Haunted

In the Bronx, Halloween pulses with local pride, bold rhythms, and street-level storytelling. It is less about curated pageantry and more about communities that conjure their own celebrations. Where ghosts might drift by, but so does neighborhood joy in fur coats and hand-crafted costumes.

Bronx Zoo’s Boo at the Zoo

📍 Location: Bronx Zoo, 2300 Southern Boulevard — Fordham, Bronx | 📅 Date: Saturdays & Sundays, September 27, 2025 through October 26, 2025 | 🕒 Time: 10 AM – 5 PM

This autumn, the Bronx Zoo doubles down on enchantment. Boo at the Zoo returns on weekends from September 27 through October 26, plus Monday, October 13. Drawing families for costume parades, puppet dance parties, oversized pumpkin sculptures, expanded candy trails, and a playful Dinosaur Safari with animatronic creatures.

Once night falls, the park shifts into Harvest Glow—a lantern-lit, animal-themed jack-o’-lantern trail [Thursday to Sunday evenings, September 25–October 31] with live pumpkin carving, glowing lawn games, and dinosaur surprises.

New York Botanical Garden: Moments of Magic & Memory

📍 Location: New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx | 📅 Date: Thursday, September 25 through Saturday, November 30, 2025

Nestled in the Bronx’s lush heart, the Garden becomes a spellbinding autumn sanctuary each October.

This year, Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail returns from September 25 through November 30. Wander 8,300 square feet of glowing installations featuring Jack, Sally, and Zero, alongside new musical moments and whimsical “BOOths” serving seasonal treats and keepsakes.

On October 19, NYBG hosts Pumpkin Carving with Adam Bierton, where the acclaimed sculptor brings gourds to life in real time. The celebration continues October 23 through 26 with Giant Pumpkin Carving, his dramatic finale featuring colossal pumpkins transformed into larger-than-life sculptures that remain on display throughout the Garden.

Staten Island: Stillness, Shadows, and Old-World Halloween

There is a different kind of October that whispers across Staten Island. Fog-draped harbors, creaking historic homes, and forest trails where silence speaks. For those craving ghost stories by candlelight or mist-veiled ferry rides, this is your borough.

Historic Richmond Town: Haunted Staten Island Tours

📍 Location: Historic Richmond Town, 441 Clarke Avenue — Richmondtown, Staten Island | 📅 Date: Fridays & Saturdays, September 19, 2025 through October 31, 2025

Step into a colonial Halloween at Historic Richmond Town, New York’s oldest surviving village and one of Staten Island’s most atmospheric settings. The preserved homes and cobblestone paths, already steeped in history, take on an entirely different character once October arrives.

On crisp fall evenings, the Village Ghost Tours guide you by candlelight through creaking doorways and dimly lit rooms, where interpreters weave tales of Staten Island’s haunted past. The effect is less about fright and more about atmosphere—the kind of chill that comes from being in a place where stories feel embedded in the walls.

Staten Island Zoo: Spooktacular 2025

📍 Location: Staten Island Zoo, 614 Broadway — West Brighton, Staten Island | 📅 Date: Saturday, October 18, 2025 through Sunday, October 19, 2025 | 🕒 Time: 2:30 PM – 7:30 PM

This autumn, the Staten Island Zoo transforms into a festive playground with Spooktacular 2025—its signature Halloween celebration. Families will find a mix of trick-or-treat stations, costumed characters, themed crafts, and live entertainment woven throughout the grounds. Kids can meet their favorite animals while dressed in costume themselves, adding a layer of playful magic to the experience.

The zoo’s paths glow with seasonal décor, creating a gentle Halloween mood that feels more enchanting than frightening. It is an event designed with children in mind—full of color, activity, and imagination—ensuring that scares stay sweet and brief. Parents, meanwhile, will appreciate the balance of entertainment and education, as zookeepers add animal encounters to the seasonal fun.

Whether it is your child’s first trick-or-treat or your family’s annual October ritual, Spooktacular offers an accessible and spirited way to celebrate Halloween in Staten Island.

When the Night Becomes the City: Halloween in NYC

Halloween in New York will always be a little extra, a little enchanted, a little untamed. But it is also something more. The city does not just stage Halloween. It inhales it, reshaping itself into a place where shadows and sequins coexist. Where strangers nod knowingly beneath masks, and where every stoop, stage, and side street conspires in the ritual.

From the Village Parade’s chaos of costumes to the hush of a candlelit concert. From children skipping through pumpkin patches in Queens to revelers filling warehouses in Brooklyn, the experiences are as varied as the boroughs themselves. What ties them together is transformation: of people, of places, of the city itself.

This is not a city that celebrates Halloween. It becomes. And if you let it, so will you—slipping, if only for a night, into a magic that lingers long after the candles burn out.