See below for events in Western Queens or continue to the next page for Halloween in Eastern and Central Queens.
Costume Shops in Queens
Not satisfied with the prepackaged monsters at the drugstore or party store? Find your dream costume at:- Rubie's Costume Company, 120-08 Jamaica Avenue, Richmond Hill, 718-846-1008
Rubie's is one of the largest costume manufacturers in the world, supplying costumes to retailers across the country. Their own retail headquarters in Richmond Hill is worth a visit for that hard to find item. It can get overrun with customers, but be patient and you'll find what you need. Rubie's also rent costumes for adults.
Halloween in Western Queens
Everybody Loves a ParadeThe Jackson Heights Halloween Parade is the second-largest Halloween parade in New York. It's all about the neighborhood kids and their costumes. And a few over-the-top grown-ups too.
- October 31, 2009, noon
- 37th Ave, starting at 89th St, ending at 76th St, Jackson Heights
- Sponsored by the Jackson Heights Beautification Group (JHBG)
The Halloween Harvest Festival is great chance to check out the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. Join the Halloween costume workshops where kids can learn from Socrates artists. Or enter your dog in the Canine Costume Contest. Plus there's face-painting and art-making, pumpkin-painting, and harvest foods from local restaurants.
The Red Door Theatre Company performs a spooky show for the crowd starting at 2 p.m..
- October 17, 2009; free; rain or shine
- Festival is 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Then performance of Red Door Theatre at 2 p.m.
- Socrates Sculpture Park, 3134 Vernon Blvd at Broadway, Long Island City, 718-956-1819
What better way to celebrate the spooky season than to visit the grave of Harry Houdini? Before his death on Halloween in 1926, the famous contortionist, it has been said, left behind a code with which friends could contact him on a future Halloween night at his grave in Machpelah Cemetery, Ridgewood. Unfortunately, there's no chance to see the escape artist's ghost escape this Halloween. The cemetery will be closed on October 31.
- Machpelah Cemetery, 82-30 Cypress Hills St, Ridgewood, NY, 718-366-5959
With a hay rides, games, live music, trivia, and a pie-eating contest, it's a fine day for the kids to run around the park. This year highlights Native American traditions, and features the RedHawk Indian Arts Council.
- October 17, 2009, noon - 3 p.m.
- Note - Highland Park is on the Queens-Brooklyn border, and more accessible from the Brooklyn side.
- Highland Park, Jamaica Ave and Elton St, Brooklyn 718-235-0815
- NYC Parks on Highland Park's Fall Harvest Festival
Ghost Night at Louis' House
The Louis Armstrong House Museum sponsors a Halloween evening for kids and families this year. There'll be face painting, collage-making, and house tours conducted by costumed tour guides. If your kids dresses up as Louis Armstrong, there's a chance to win the book A Good Night for Ghosts, a story about Louis and the jazz world.
- October 31, 2009, 4-7 p.m.
- Louis Armstrong House Museum, Corona, NY
Smash That Pumpkin!
For catapult month at the NY Hall of Science, there will be a catapult launching pumpkins to their deaths. Ah, the scientific method! This is the most original Halloween has gotten in a while.
- October 31 and November 1, 2009, 1 p.m.
- NY Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St, Corona, NY 11368, 718-699-0005
- At Flushing Meadows Park. The catapult would pair well with the nearby Boo at the Queens Zoo.
For the Halloween animal in you: bring the kids to the Queens Zoo's Boo at the Zoo, where they can enjoy face-painting, trick or treating, pumpkin-decorating, and a haunted habitat.
- October 31 and November 1, 2009, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Free with regular zoo admission ($6/$2 children), 718-271-1500
- Queens Zoo, 53-51 111th St, in Flushing Meadows Park, the Corona side
It's a honky-tonk Halloween at the local country music society's costume bash, with music by the San Antones. Prizes for the best costumes.
- October 10, 2009, 7:30 p.m. doors open, 8:00 free dance lesson, 8:30 band starts; $10/$12
- Glendale Memorial Building, Myrtle Ave and 72nd St, Glendale
- Hosted by New York Metropolitan Country Musics Association
