Halloween Activities Near You
As the spooky season progresses this year, more things are opening up for people to get into the spirit of the season. And around Dix Hills, there’s a lot of ways to get unearthly.
For those who dare, haunted houses around the Dix Hills area are open and ready. Offering frights to all those brave enough to face their fears, Chambers of Hell in Hauppauge (open Thursdays through Sundays) and Schmitts Farm Haunt in Melville (Open Fridays through Sundays) are both great places for scares for teens and adults, while Restless Souls is more family-oriented, but has an escape room to figure out with your loved ones.
Artistic attractions have come about in recent years. Our recommendation is the Jack-O-Lantern Blaze in Old Bethpage. This is an exhibit where over 7,000 hand-carved pumpkins are put on display in a walk, with live demonstrations of carving. The pumpkins are intricately designed, with themes including some of your favorite shows and movies. Last year they had an entire section dedicated to the Marvel Universe, as well as huge sculptures made out of multiple pumpkins. They even had pumpkin dinosaurs last year as well. Tickets are $48 per adult and $40 for children. Another activity in Old Bethpage is the 1800s Haunted Halloween, in which you can trick-or-treat at 19th century homes, participate in a costume contest, carve pumpkins, and more!
Hills West students certainly had opinions on the best things to do at this time of year. When asked, Ian Mirowitz said that he prefers to sit in and watch Halloween movies. His and a lot of others’ favorites are Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and other more recent movies like “Hocus Pocus.”
The Long Island Aquarium is also in the season with their annual Bats, Barnacles, and Broomsticks event. This is great for teens and even better if you have younger siblings, because if they come in dressed up they get 50% off admission (12 & under). It has a safe trick or treating system for kids, face painting, 3-D printing crafts, and more. The Unearthing Atlantis Dig will be transformed into a “Pirate’s Nightmare Haunted House” for spooks with water. It is also very exciting to also announce that they will have a costume parade for their resident penguins to participate in. This is on October 29th and adults cost $27.95 per ticket while children’s tickets are $23.50 (50% off with an adult ticket).
If you’re in the mood to be artsy this year, a trend popularized last year that’s making a comeback is the ghost and pumpkin head photoshoots, under the “Oh Klahoma” sound in TikTok. This is a trend where multiple people either make ghost costumes and wear things over the sheets or carve pumpkins and wear them like a mask. It’s a highly customizable trend and perfect if you want to smell like pumpkin insides for two days.
No matter what you choose to do, just know that there are plenty of options to make this Halloween a great one!
