12 dated events coming up in and around Liverpool, Merseyside. Collected from the organisations running them, not from anyone paying to appear.
Fancy dress, a dance floor and party music a fortnight before the main event, with the usual park rides included. The warm-up for Ottersghoul later in the month.
The toddler-sized Halloween week: a ghost train, a craft workshop and a not-too-scary show with Jack and Sally, pitched at children still too small for the main event.
Liverpool's free light art trail along the waterfront, running right through October half term. Not fireworks, but a better fit for children who find bangs too much. Nightly times were not published when we checked, so look before you set off.
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.
An opportunity for 16-24 year olds to plan, create, produce and organise events and activities
Dancing toys, festive characters and Santa himself parade through Liverpool ONE, made with Walk The Plank. It is free and early enough in November that the shops are still bearable afterwards. Get a spot on the route in good time if you want a small child on your shoulders at the front.
The Everyman's actor-musician panto, loud, local and played live like a rock gig, this year doing Beauty and the Beast. It opens mid-November and runs to 16 January, so a November weekday or a January date is easier to get than a December Saturday matinee, several of which are already marked selling fast.
Forty-five days of rides, games, a light walk and the city's only covered ice rink, in front of the Three Graces. The covered rink means a wet December does not cancel your session. No parking on site, but the whole site is step-free.
New operator, new format: the plateau outside St George's Hall becomes an outdoor ice rink with a Christmas market, a big wheel and a rooftop bar, open 10am to 10pm. You can buy skating on the day, but booking guarantees your session. The operator suggests children are with someone 16 or over.
A Christmas experience at Otterspool running on selected dates from 28 November through to Christmas Eve, including both November and December weekends plus 21 to 24 December. Popular weekend slots sell out early, so booking ahead is worth doing.
A full day of free festive entertainment round Liverpool ONE, hosted by Jay Hynd and Gemma Cutting, with prizes to win. The new 30 metre walk-through tree at Paradise Place is the photo everyone will be queuing for, so do that first.
Father Christmas and Buddy the Elf do stories and songs in the Town Hall, every child gets a turn to tell Santa their wishes and goes home with a gift. Sessions are capped at 20 children and run 45 minutes to an hour, which is the right length for the small ones. One adult goes in free with each child ticket.
Places you can turn up to whether or not anything is on.
South Liverpool's favourite park: lake, playground, ancient trees and the Storybarn, The Reader's hands-on storytelling space in the old coach house. The neolithic Calder Stones are older than Stonehenge, which is a good fact to deploy.
Two minutes off junction 5 of the M62, and you cannot hear it once you are past the trees. A Green Flag park with a playground, sunken gardens, a community orchard and free parking on site.
A hilltop park with the best free view of the city, a modern playground and a mini roads track where children can learn to ride a bike without meeting a real car. It sits just up the hill from the city centre, and it is free.
A Green Flag park on the wedge of land left behind by three converging railway lines: playground, cafe, bird hide and the Trans Pennine Trail straight through. Halewood station is next door, so you can arrive by train.
The spiral atrium is one of the most spectacular free interiors in the North West, the children's floor is genuinely brilliant, and the rooftop terrace looks across the city. Rainy-day Liverpool's best-kept non-secret, next door to World Museum.
The city's story with an overhead railway carriage to climb aboard and Little Liverpool, a dedicated hands-on gallery for under-6s. Free, on the waterfront, and the window views are half the fun.