Halloween Carnivals, Parties, Haunted Houses : Parks Offer Options to Trick-or-Treating

Instead of going door to door, children may don costumes and participate in the many Halloween activities offered by the recreation and parks departments this week in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Culver City and Santa Monica.

Haunted houses will be at Palisades Park, 851 Alma Real Drive, Pacific Palisades, from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday; the Penmar Recreation Center, 1341 Lake St., Los Angeles, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday; Westwood Park, 1375 Veteran Ave., West Los Angeles, 7 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; Baldwin Hills Playground, 5401 Highlight Place, Los Angeles, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, and the Rancho Cienega Sports Center, 5001 Rodeo Road, Los Angeles, 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday.

The new Jim Gilliam center, 4000 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, will stage a teen disco costume dance at 6 p.m. Friday.

The Van Ness Recreation Center, 5720 2nd Ave., Los Angeles, will offer a children’s party from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday and a Halloween film festival from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday. The Penmar Center also has a children’s party scheduled from 6:30 to 7:30 Thursday.

The Baldwin Hills center will have a preschool party, carnival and costume parade at 11 a.m. Thursday. Palms Park, 2950 Overland Ave., will stage a preschool carnival and puppet show from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. A carnival, costume parade and a pumpkin weight contest will be at the park 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

A preschool party will begin at 9:30 a.m. and a carnival will run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Robertson Recreation Center, 1641 Preuss Road, Los Angeles.

The Vineyard Recreation Center, 2942 Vineyard Ave., Los Angeles, will have a carnival and costume parade from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Carnivals and costume parades are scheduled for Thursday at the recreation centers at West Wilshire, 141 S. Gardner Ave., in the Fairfax District; Barrington, 333 S. Barrington Ave., Los Angeles; Crestwood Hills, 1000 Hanley Ave., Los Angeles; Rustic Canyon, 601 Latimer Road, Pacific Palisades, and Stoner, 1835 Stoner Ave., West Los Angeles.

Costume Dance

The Oakwood Recreation Center, 767 California St., Santa Monica, will have a costume parade for children ages 3 to 6 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday and a preteen costume dance at 8 p.m. Friday. The Palisades center will have a teen costume dance from 8 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

All eight city parks in Culver City will have Halloween activities every day starting Monday. Youngsters of all ages may participate in crafts on Monday, games on Tuesday and a pumpkin-carving contest Wednesday. Each activity is scheduled for 3 to 5 p.m.

Blair Hills, Blanco, El Marino, Fox Hills, Veterans Memorial, McManus, Culver-West and Lindberg parks will also feature carnivals and costume parades from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Halloween night. “Dreams, Schemes and Moonbeams,” a production by youths from the Teen Center, will be staged at 7:30 p.m. at Veteran’s Memorial Park after the carnival. The program will include a dance, masquerade ball and a reenactment of the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

A Halloween carnival featuring game booths, a costume parade and food stands will be held in Beverly Hills at La Cienega Park, 8400 Gregory Way, from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday. The carnival, geared for children ages 4 to 12, is sponsored by the Beverly Hills Recreation and Parks Department. Admission is 50 cents.

Three buses, sponsored by Santa Monica Recreation and Parks, will leave from Memorial Park at Olympic Boulevard and 14th Street for Knotts Berry Farm’s 13th “Not Scary Farm” night on Thursday. The bus will depart at 6 p.m. and return at 1:30 a.m. Santa Monica Parks and Recreation is no longer taking reservations for the bus.