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Next, Halloween is on a Saturday. Which means it lasts 3 days.
Oh, and it’s going to rain. Plan accordingly. Here’s your guide.
First, for the parents of trick or treaters
Here’s where you’re going to go, assuming you can find parking.
16th and Georgina, North of Montana
The crowd gets thicker every block you walk north up 16th until you hit the haunted house at the corner, where the wait can be as long as an hour. Enough people show up that a residential street feels like a small city took it over for the night. 15th goes hard too, if you want the same thing with elbow room. Do not plan on the street being closed to cars. Some years it is and some years it isn’t, and nobody tells you in advance. Go if: your kids are eight and up and want to be scared. Skip if: you have a stroller and a soul.
Gillette’s Regents Square, Santa Monica
Between 17th Street and 21st Place. Big decorated yards, houses close together, about a third of the walking.
Montana Avenue
The shops between 6th and 17th hand out candy in the afternoon, which means the under-fives can be done and in the bath by the time it gets dark. This year’s Halloween Walk runs 2 to 5, per Montana Avenue’s own events page. That is not the 3-to-6 it ran before, so if you show up at three with a plan, you are already an hour late to the good candy. And then when the sun goes down, the whole street just turns north. Every block from Montana up to San Vicente is decorated, and you can walk the numbered streets one after another until somebody cries. Bonus: you get to trick-or-treat at the same stores you already have a charge account at.
A few blocks away is Absolutely Halloween! at the Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 4th Street, Saturday at 2 p.m. Interactive family musical, twentieth anniversary, under an hour, ages 2 and up. $15 for children 12 and under, $17.50 for adults. Kids come in costume, with post-show photo ops. And it is indoors, which, given the forecast, is not a small thing. This is your rain backup with actual entertainment attached.
Brentwood Glen
West of the 405, south of Sunset, between Church Lane and Beloit. Flat, small, close-together houses, not much traffic. This is toddler Halloween. Go at five, be home by seven, feel smug about it.
Crescenda, Brentwood Heights
The block of Crescenda north of Sunset is where Brentwood stops being tasteful, and thank god. Start at the Country Mart if you need a coffee first. (You do.)
The Brentwood Country Mart’s Halloween Spectacular runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the costume contest at 11 at the Pumpkin Patch and trick-or-treating around the Mart after.
Mar Vista: Stanwood, and Boo on Purdue
Mar Vista’s answer, and the one the guides always miss. Stanwood is the big one, the stretch west of Centinela running along the Santa Monica Airport, right where Bundy turns into Centinela. Ask anyone who lives within two miles and they’ll tell you Stanwood is famous for Halloween, and then they’ll tell you where they park.
Then go east into Westdale for Purdue. Every year the neighbors on Purdue between Stanwood and Kingsland close the block to cars and throw what they call Boo on Purdue: trick-or-treating, a haunted house, a popcorn stand, cotton candy and zombie carolers, which I need you to take a second and picture. The Westdale homeowners association helped get the street closure, because of course it did. The notice going around has it Saturday from five to eight on the 3200 block, with live entertainment. I am trusting the notice on this one. Check it before you commit the stroller, because block-party hours move. These parents take Halloween as seriously as they take the school boundary.
And a few minutes south, the Holiday House on McLaughlin has been doing full animatronics and a light show for more than a decade. It runs September 27 through October 31, 6 to 10 p.m., at 3547 McLaughlin Ave. Free, donations appreciated.
Cheviot Hills
Motor Avenue. Every Halloween, Rancho Park and Beverlywood empty out and walk over to Cheviot, and there’s one house on Motor that draws a crowd every single year. Some of it’s hilly. Wear sneakers, not the boots.
Culver City
Two camps. The streets around Veterans Park and Culver High, and then across Ballona Creek around Lindberg Park, where the neighbors will tell you they own Halloween. Start on Elenda Street, right off the bike path, so the kids can scooter in. Carlson Park is good too. Stroller-friendly across the board.
Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in Culver City is open on Halloween day, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 10100 Jefferson Blvd. Timed tickets run $10 to $25 depending on the day and time, and kids under 3 are free. Petting zoo, straw maze, face painting, the whole production. Book ahead.
Venice: the Silver Triangle and the Canals
The Silver Triangle goes hard. You know these houses, the ones that started as a twelve-hundred-square-foot bungalow and are now a glass box with a hot tub. Turns out the people who spend five years on an architectural collaboration also spend October on the front yard, and it shows. Then walk four blocks to the Canals and come in on Dell. Walk the bridges. The houses decorate the boats too. Parking is a nightmare.
About a mile northeast, Penmar Recreation Center in Venice does Wickedly Wonderful Halloween at 1341 Lake Street, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., free, ages 0 to 12. Wizard of Oz-themed, games and prizes, treats and snacks, bounce houses, and costume contests by age: 11:00 for ages 0 to 3, 11:30 for 4 to 6, 12:15 for 7 to 8, and 12:45 for 9 to 12. Set a phone alarm for your kid’s slot. Nobody wants to explain to a four-year-old why the contest already happened.
The Beverly Hills flats
Sunset to Santa Monica Boulevard, Whittier to Doheny. The Witch’s House on Walden, at 516 Walden Drive, is a real house that looks like that all year, which tells you everything about Beverly Hills. The full-size bars and envelopes of cash are mostly a legend. Mostly.
The Palisades
The Alphabet Streets north of Sunset used to be the answer to this whole question. Flat, walkable, alphabetical, so the kids could count down to the car. This year a lot of those lots are still framing and slabs, so the Palisades is doing Halloween in the daytime.
The Rustic Canyon and Palisades rec centers are co-hosting a carnival from ten to two. Palisades Village does trick-or-treating at the shops from eleven to five, with crafts, face painting, and live entertainment in the Park. And the American Legion on La Cruz is running its first-ever haunted house from noon to four, for ages five to fifteen, with timed entries. Families are asked for a $10 donation per household when they reserve, and the money goes to rebuild the YMCA. Reserve a time slot before you go. Capacity is capped.
If you have a friend who’s back, go with her. Bring extra candy.
Second, for the grown ups
The Victorian
The biggest event, of course, is at the Victorian in Santa Monica. Its the last night as a party destination, so it’s throwing itself a funeral, and it’s maybe the most self-aware thing a nightclub has ever done. Saturday from eight to two in the morning, the whole house on Main turns into a haunted house, with DJs on every floor until the very end. Tickets are required and limited. Their tagline is “Til death do us party,” which is also what most of us said at our weddings at that exact venue. Go. Dance in the basement one more time. In mid-2028, it’s a lap pool.
The Santa Monica bar crawls
There are competing Halloween bar crawls in Santa Monica on Saturday night, which feels like a lot of competition for the same bars. Do not buy two. They all start in the same two places and end at the same after-party.
One crawl runs 4 to 10 p.m. across five bars, $25 in advance and $40 at the door, with check-in at Cabo Cantina, a mid-party at Barney’s Beanery, and the after-party at Jameson’s. Another runs 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., with registration at Barney’s Beanery or Jameson’s from 6 to 10, 21 and up, and drink specials as low as $4.99 drafts, two-for-one mixed drinks, and $5 shots. A third, Trick or Drink, runs 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. from Holey Moley on the Promenade, 21 and up. Pick one, check the link, and do not drive. This is for the dad who still has it in him. He does not.
Crawloween, Downtown Culver City
Culver City is calling its bar crawl “trick-or-treating for adults,” which is the most Culver City sentence ever written. Saturday, starting at four, 21 and up, and costumes are required, so no, you can’t just wear the cat ears from 2019. Yes you can. The crawl itself runs about a mile around Downtown Culver City, with a wristband, specialty drinks including non-alcoholic options, and an optional second leg after the wrap-up. RSVP for the wristband.
Charis and The Groove, Hermosa Beach
Disco and funk, daytime party, at The Lighthouse Cafe, 30 Pier Ave., 4 to 7 p.m., 21 and up, $10. This is the bridge. Dance for three hours while it is still light out, eat something real, and then decide whether you are a second-party person or a couch person. Both answers are correct. One of them is more honest.
Tequila and Mezcal, then Misfits Paradise, Marina del Rey
Start at four at Baja Cantina, 311 Washington Blvd., for the Tequila and Mezcal Pop-Up Fest, and stay in the same building for Misfits Paradise Halloween, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., 21 and up, costumes required, $36 to $70 in listings, presented by The Venice Social Club. That is a full evening in one address, which is the only kind of bar-hopping a parent with a sitter clock should attempt.
HaLouLouween, LouLou Santa Monica
Halloween goes rooftop at LouLou, dinner into late-night DJs and dancing, costumes encouraged. I did not verify a time or a price for this one, so reserve and check the listing before you commit to the rooftop in a costume that cannot sit down. Reservations are highly recommended, which is the restaurant’s polite way of saying do not just show up.
HaLouLouween at LouLou Santa Monica: reserve and check the listing.
Halloween at Perry’s Beach Club, Saturday. Back at Perry’s, 930 Pacific Coast Hwy., Santa Monica Beach, 3 to 10 p.m. House and dance music, cabanas and daybeds. Friday was the warm-up. Saturday is the long version, with sand in your costume and no regrets until Sunday.
Spookapalooza, Venice Beach
At Nalu Vida, 1 Washington Blvd., Venice, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., no cover, 21 and up, live band Sully, Rico and Friends, and a costume contest. No cover is the most Venice sentence in this whole newsletter, right after “the houses decorate the boats too.” Go. Tip the band.
Nights of the Jack, Calabasas
If you want to bring the kids and also drink, the jack-o’-lantern trail at King Gillette Ranch has a bar for the adults. It’s called the Spookeasy, for 21 and up, with themed cocktails, craft beer, and wine. The trail runs select nights September 25 through November 1, 5:30 to 10 p.m., with a new carnival area this year. Tickets are timed and must be bought in advance, starting at $29.35 including fees depending on the date, and parking passes are sold in advance too. You’re welcome.
Nights of the Jack, King Gillette Ranch, through November 1. Tickets, by date and entry time.
Sidebar: WeHo shuts down Saturday
If you were thinking about driving east for any reason, don’t. West Hollywood’s Halloween Carnaval runs six to eleven Saturday night, free, on Santa Monica Boulevard between Doheny and La Cienega. The boulevard starts closing at ten in the morning and has to be totally clear of cars between La Cienega and Doheny by noon. Last year the sheriff’s estimate was 100,000 to 150,000 people. Only clear plastic bags are allowed. No alcohol on the street. Kids and pets are strongly discouraged, which is the city’s polite way of saying leave them home. Stay on our side of the 405. Eat your candy.
Go get rained on, eat the good candy first, and have a great time. The DMs are open for story recs, corrections, and the house I should have included but didn’t.
And if you want the short version, with maps built for screenshots: @everyoneknowsinla on Instagram. Happy Halloween!
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