8 dated events coming up in and around Bolton, Greater Manchester. Collected from the organisations running them, not from anyone paying to appear.
Starts at 9.30am. 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.
Pick your own on the farm at the edge of the Bolton moors, six pounds a pumpkin. The farm marks that price with an asterisk and does not spell out what it covers, so read the booking page before you assume entry is included.
Half term week with the farm decorated for Halloween and a spooky sweet hunt, all included in ordinary farm admission. The Fright Night on Saturday 31 October is a separate evening ticket, £16 a head, with a spooky woodland walk.
A Halloween disco session at the trampoline and inflatable park, ninety minutes for £9.99 with grip socks extra. Fancy dress optional, long sleeves sensible.
Bonfire night with the bangs taken out: no fireworks and no loud rides, just a bonfire, hot chocolate, a magic show, balloon making and unlimited marshmallows. Run by the Wildlife Trust for younger children and anyone who hates the noise. Parking is charged.
A school fundraiser that finishes by 7pm, with a Titanium Fireworks display set to British music, food vendors, stalls and a raffle. It falls on Remembrance Sunday and there is a moment of reflection built in, worth mentioning to the children beforehand.
The Octagon's Christmas show, Sally Cookson's retelling of Cinderella rather than a traditional panto. The theatre pitches it at 5 and up, warns some scenes may frighten younger children, and does not admit babes in arms under 18 months. Relaxed, audio-described and signed performances are on the list.
Places you can turn up to whether or not anything is on.
A free town museum hiding one of Britain's best Egyptian collections, including a full recreation of Thutmose III's tomb, plus an aquarium in the basement. Genuinely free, genuinely good.
A flat circular walk round a United Utilities reservoir in the Bradshaw valley north of Bolton, with a small cafe by the car park and enough water birds to hold a four year old. Genuinely pushchair friendly.
Bolton's biggest play area sits inside a 750 acre country park at Farnworth, with three lakes, a bird hide and miles of waterside path behind it. Even the safety surfacing earns its keep, printed with the life cycle of a frog.
Bolton's big free family park: two decent playgrounds, a miniature railway, a seasonal funfair and The Hive, a Wildlife Trust nature-play garden that charges £2.50 a head and is worth it for under-sevens.
Bolton's restored Victorian park: a proper playground with a mini zip line and a sand pit with a toy digger, a cafe with public toilets in sight of it, and the River Croal running through. Free, including the Spa Road car park.
One of the oldest manor houses in the North West, free to wander, with formal gardens on the edge of the moors and a ghost story or two. Down the same lane as Smithills Open Farm, which makes it the obvious add-on.