50 things to do with children across the North West from 24 October to 1 November, which starts in 37 days. Term dates are set council by council and school by school, so those are the usual North West dates rather than necessarily your own.
Holiday clubs, library sessions and park activities that cost nothing. Several councils also run free holiday clubs with a hot meal for children on free school meals, and those are worth asking your own council about directly.
Join our playful sessions and meet new friends, explore the library spaces, learn new rhymes and songs and enjoy some sensory play in our Bounce and Rhyme Sessions.
Join us at our weekly bounce and rhyme event.
Runs on 18 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
This is a FREE drop-in session with no booking required.
Come and join the fun at Failsworth Library’s Lego Club.
Join us at our weekly bounce and rhyme event.
Perfect for 0, 4’s explore songs, rhymes, stories and sensory play in our Bounce and Rhyme sessions.
At baby clinic, families can discuss any health issues and have their child weighed and measured.
Join our playful sessions and meet new friends, explore the library spaces, learn new rhymes and songs and enjoy some sensory play in our Bounce and Rhyme Sessions.
Come and join the fun at Limehurst Library’s Lego Club.
Come and join the fun at Northmoor Library’s Lego Club.
This is a FREE drop-in session with no booking required.
Parents, carers and children under 5 are invited to join us for a free play session (term-time only) Oldham Libraries
Runs on 16 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Six miles of lights along the prom from the big switch-on night to early January. Drive it, walk it, or catch a heritage tram through the middle of it, which is the version kids remember.
Join us in October half term for a fungi foray, Halloween crafts and a bat walk.
This is a FREE drop-in session with no booking required.
Little Reads is a fun, interactive workshop using songs and stories to explore children’s picture books.
Join us on Fleetwood Beach to explore the strandline and pick up litter and plastic off the beach in a bid to help nature thrive!
Starts at 10am to 12pm. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
A wolf-pack sculpture trail around the wonkiest Tudor house in England. Cross the moat, count the wolves, and let the hall's crooked floors do the entertaining.
Walk through a pair of giant lungs, meet a supersize brain and follow the digestive system to its logical conclusion. New gallery, runs to December.
Runs on 39 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Join our playful sessions and meet new friends, explore the library spaces, learn new rhymes and songs and enjoy some sensory play in our Bounce and Rhyme Sessions.
Join us at our weekly bounce and rhyme event.
Runs on 18 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
This is a FREE drop-in session with no booking required.
Come and join the fun at Failsworth Library’s Lego Club.
Join us at our weekly bounce and rhyme event.
Perfect for 0, 4’s explore songs, rhymes, stories and sensory play in our Bounce and Rhyme sessions.
Join us at our weekly bounce and rhyme event.
At baby clinic, families can discuss any health issues and have their child weighed and measured.
Join us at our weekly bounce and rhyme event.
Join our playful sessions and meet new friends, explore the library spaces, learn new rhymes and songs and enjoy some sensory play in our Bounce and Rhyme Sessions.
Come and join the fun at Limehurst Library’s Lego Club.
Come and join the fun at Northmoor Library’s Lego Club.
Join us at our weekly bounce and rhyme event.
This is a FREE drop-in session with no booking required.
Come and join the fun at Fitton Hill Library’s Lego Club.
Parents, carers and children under 5 are invited to join us for a free play session (term-time only) Oldham Libraries
Runs on 16 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Six miles of lights along the prom from the big switch-on night to early January. Drive it, walk it, or catch a heritage tram through the middle of it, which is the version kids remember.
Runs on 14 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Runs on 12 dates, with a relaxed or autism-friendly session. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Runs on 10 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Runs on 12 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Runs on 10 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Three weeks of Halloween on a working farm on Stockport's edge: a pumpkin patch, a Halloween village and the animals and play areas that are there the rest of the year. Small children get more out of this than they do out of anything with a jump scare in it.
Pick your own out of the field at the farm, four pounds a pumpkin on top of normal entry. You choose it yourself rather than lifting one off a pallet, so expect muddy hands.
Runs on 5 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Runs on 4 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Runs on 4 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Take part in a joyful day of stories, theatre, music, dancing, crafts and family fun.
New Event for the Ribble Steam Railway Calendar, Brick Show 2026 Kick off the half term break with a trip to the museum to see a varied display of Lego model display by AFOLs from across the UK.
Runs on 2 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Runs on 3 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Jack Skellington's Halloween Town takes over the park for half term: a 25-minute live show six times a day, a pumpkin parade twice daily, and the go-karts, soft play and adventure golf included. Marshmallow toasting, Trick or Treat Street and the VR ride cost extra.
Half term at the safari park done in Halloween dress, with the drive-through reserve and the shows running as usual underneath it. The car is the ride, which suits children who have had enough of queuing.
A Halloween trail the children drive themselves, in mini Land Rovers. Tatton claim it is the only drivable Halloween trail in the country, and whether or not that holds, a five-year-old at the wheel is the part that gets talked about.
Tatton's half term Halloween trail through the gardens, pitched at families rather than teenagers. It runs the length of the break and shuts on Mondays, which catches people out every year.
Join us in October half term for a fungi foray, Halloween crafts and a bat walk.
Runs on 7 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
This is a FREE drop-in session with no booking required.
Little Reads is a fun, interactive workshop using songs and stories to explore children’s picture books.
Starts at 1pm. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Bring the whole family along and enjoy some shared story time and guided reading activities.
Join us on Fleetwood Beach to explore the strandline and pick up litter and plastic off the beach in a bid to help nature thrive!
Starts at 12pm. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Steam trains along Preston Riverside with ghostly goings on aboard, both days of the Halloween weekend. A train that is going somewhere beats a queue for a photo with a witch.
Starts at 10am to 12pm. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Every town with something dated coming up, busiest first.
Each upcoming holiday has its own page that fills up as venues publish their programmes: October half term 2026, the Christmas holidays 2026 and February half term 2027.
Councils and libraries publish their holiday programmes late, often only two or three weeks ahead, so this page grows as the break gets closer. It rebuilds every time we collect, and every listing says who it came from.