Just a few miles north of Disneyland Resort, where Mickey’s Halloween Party allows families the opportunity to visit the Happiest Place on Earth in costume throughout the Halloween season, Knott’s Berry Farm is seeking to attract a similar crowd.
While Knott’s has already mastered the art of drawing the adult haunt-fan audience with their massively-popular annual Scary Farm rebranding, the younger set tends to prefer the Disney parks. That’s where Knott’s Spooky Farm comes in.
Knott’s Spooky Farm is a family-friendly daytime Halloween-themed event that takes place every weekend this October, and includes six new attractions specifically aimed at children. Of course nothing in the park during this time of day is too scary for the tykes, and they’re sure to be kept entertained by the activities available before the park shuts down in the early evening to undergo it’s “Scary Farm” transformation.
The first stop families will want to make upon entering the park is the Ghost Town, where kids can line up to have their picture taken at “treat stops,” with all manner of friendly ghouls who will then of course provide them with small pieces of candy to store in their complimentary trick-or-treat bags.
One of the main draws of Spooky Farm is the Spooky Hollow Maze, located in Fiesta Plaza. It’s an extremely toned-down version of a Scary Farm maze featuring a few Jack O’Lantern scarecrows and some other fun photo ops, but it’s not completely without its frights: the maniacal laughter coming from the dizzying spinning tunnel is genuinely bone-chilling, so be prepared for young ones to get at least a little upset.
Just around the corner from that area is a small indoor activity center called the Monster Masquerade Ball, where kids can join in on the fun by making personalized masks and singing karaoke with a goofy mad scientist. Yes, “Let It Go” was a song option, and we saw it chosen more than a few times in the brief time we visited the Ball, much to the host’s chagrin.
Working to Knott’s advantage, the company already has access to the eternally-popular “Peanuts” characters, who are destined to become even more of a draw as the release date of the brand-new animated feature approaches.
Spooky Farm makes use of this franchise by incorporating the live stage show “The Monsters Are Coming, Charlie Brown” several times a day.
Don’t worry, the title of this show makes it sound much scarier than it actually is: it’s mostly just Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Snoopy dancing and singing along to classic Halloween-esque pop songs with the help of a live face performer. Younger kids should get a kick out of it, and we saw more than a few get up to dance along with the gang.
Also available is the Creepy Crawler Cabin, where kids can get up close and personal with some slithery, slimy, real-life animal friends. Knott’s park naturalist is of course on hand to pass on information about all the creatures.
On top of all that, there’s also a daily dance party and costume contest with Snoopy, where kids can show off their fanciful duds and strut their stuff with their furry beagle pal.
Overall, Knott’s Spooky Farm makes for a fun, affordable way to spend a weekend day with your children, especially if you’ve already got a Knott’s Annual Pass, as the party is included with your regular admission. And the entire remainder of the park is accessible for the rest of the family to enjoy as well.
Bear in mind that the target demographic for the Spooky Farm activities is kids ages 3-11, and everybody should have a ghostly good time.