Gadzooks.
The golden season is here, bringing with it gourds of bone-jangling fun and the promise of a spooktacular hobnob with ghosties, goblins and other fanciful critters whose pleasure — nay, duty — it is to get your mojo movin’ and your goosebumps poppin’ as THAT DAY approaches. Diabolical revels lie around every bend on the island where there are plenty of phant-astic opportunities for the whole family to get its ghoul on — from unearthly strolls to boo-erific musicals to screech-yer-lungs-out Halloween howl-fests.
HAUNTED HOUSES
• What’s Halloween without a good ol’ shriek spree? Screaming-mimmies ONLY need apply to this graveyard-full of Halloween emporiums, aptly hosted by the Brrr-vest and guaranteed to scare your pants off. Get ready to shiver with the hordes when the Valley Stream Fire Department opens the creaky doors to its Haunted House — not for the faint-hearted but very kid-friendly and boasting all manner of spine-tingling sounds and sights.
Valley Stream Fire Department haunted house [100 Brooklyn Ave. (516) 561-1777]. Oct. 1-31, Fridays-Saturdays from 7–11 pm; $10 ($5 for children under 12).
• Trek at your own risk — but leave the small kiddies home with the sitter — when the North Patchogue Fire Department provides three thrill-filled floors of frightful shenanigans.
North Patchogue Fire Department haunted house [33 Davison Ave. (631) 475-1788 X 137]. Oct. 9-31, Fridays and Sundays. Tickets are $10 ($6 for children under 10). Call for times.
• Come dressed to thrill for safe ‘n’ spooky frolics at the Ghostly Gala at Long Island Children’s Museum where magical, memorable fun awaits mom, dad and the kids. Not-too-scary thrills include getting your face painted (courtesy of an artist), plus a chance to show off your glad rags, so come in costume and press flesh with other wraithy revelers.
Ghostly Gala [11 Davis Ave. (516) 224-5800]. Oct. 30 from 6-9 pm. Tickets are $9 ($7 for members). Fore more info, visit www.licm.org.
MUSICALS
• Music always makes it boo-tiful. Prep for the BIG day by taking your blood for a curdle at Theater Three, where Bram Stoker’s Victorian novel, “Dracula the Musical,” beckons adult thrill-seekers ONLY with its time-honored tale of the creepy count and his gory escapades. View it through the month, but show times are varied with matinee and evening performances.
“Dracula the Musical” at Theater Three [412 Main St. (631) 928-9100]. Oct. 2-3; 8-10; 13; 15-16; 21; 23-24; 28-30. Tickets are $15-28. Adults only.
• If you’re hoping to make your red stuff boil over, take a tremulous trek to the Bay Way Arts Center, and take in — if you’re brave enough — a performance of “Phantom,” October 9-24, featuring matinee and evening shows.
“Phantom” at Bay Way Arts Center [265 E. Main St. (631) 581-2700]. Oct. 2-24. Tickets $18 ($16 for seniors and students, and $14 for children 12 and under). For more info, visit [email protected]; www.broadhollow.org.
HOWL-FEST
Looking to shriek your insides out? The Bayville Scream Park should do the trick for intrepid treaters. Tread with care — if you dare — inside the Bloodworth Haunted Mansion, Uncle Needle’s Fun House of Fear, Temple of Terror, Zombie Pirates and Evil in the Woods, where witches, wizards and all manner of other frightful folk are awaiting with a nerve-popping welcome, weekdays and weekends from Oct. 29 through Nov. 7.
Bayville Scream Park [8 Bayville Ave. (516) 62-GHOST]. Oct. 29 through Nov. 7, Sundays through Thursdays 6-10 pm, Fridays and Saturdays 6 pm -midnight.
ORANGE BEAUTIES
• Creative types can ply their gourd-geous craft on orange jewels to bedeck and take home at one of the many free pumpkin-carving events being hosted by emerald empires: Hicks Nursery invites one and all to spawn a spooktastic jack o’lantern amid other family-friendly fun, including a 3-D demo by artist Andrew Gertler.
Pumpking carving at Hicks Nursery [100 Jericho Turnpike (516) 334-0066]. Oct. 9, 10, 16 and 17 from 9 am – 5 pm. For more info, visit www.hicksnurseries.com.
• Have your pick of more goofy gourds and pretty pumpkins at Caleb Smith State Park Preserve, on Oct. 16.
Pumpkin carving at Caleb Smith State Park Preserve [Route 25, W. Jericho Turnpike (631) 265–1054]. Oct. 16 from 10-11:30 am. Tickets are $4, $3 for the wee ones.
• Rides, trick-and-treating and other glorious jollities are there for the pickin’ at the Pumpkin Park inside Adventureland Amusement Park from Oct. 30-31.
Pumpkin Park inside Adventureland Amusement Park [2245 Route 10 (631) 694-6868]. Oct. 30-31 from 11 am – 6 pm. Admission is $21 and includes rides.
• If being scared witless is too much for your wobbly wee one, head to the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum for a gentler, calmer — and free — afternoon of festive frolics, complete with a petting zoo, face-painting and prizes on Oct. 31.
Sag Harbor Whaling Museum [200 Main St. (631) 725-0770]. Oct. 31 from noon – 3 pm. Free. For more info, visit [email protected].
HAYRIDE
Fall frolics are hardly any fun at all without a good ol’ fashioned, down-home-style hayride, and the Northport Chamber of Commerce is waiting to oblige with a free stack o’ thrilling jaunts at Village Park, designed to channel your inner scarecrow, Oct. 24.
Northport Chamber of Commerce’s hayride [Village Park (631) 754-3905]. Oct. 24 from 1-4 pm.
SPOOKY TALES
Make no mistake, soul-numbing yarns are key to creating Halloween havoc — and to get your skin crawling! Intrepid merrymakers are in for a wacky word journey at Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center, where raconteurs will twist their tongues around a bewitching bill of horror stories designed to make you look behind your shoulder with each quavering turn of the page. Children six through 12 can even explore the origins of some of those time-cherished myths. Be there — or be square — on Oct. 30
Halloween myths unraveled at Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center [Jones Beach State Park (516) 679-7254]. Oct. 30 from 10:30 am – noon. Tickets are $4 and free for children under 3. Call to pre-register.
