Ghostly greetings from Stoke this Halloween!

We have lots of treats in store for you this half term (and maybe a few tricks as well)! Read on to discover some special spooky events and activities taking place to keep you and your family entertained during the school holiday.

If you hop onto your broomstick and head to the Trentham Estate you’ll find that Trentham’s mischievous fairies have cast their enchantments to make pumpkins appear on their brand-new Pumpkin Patch, nestled in the heart of the Italian Gardens. There are pumpkins of all kinds to choose from - from small to large, orange to white! There’s lots of spooky fun for all the family to enjoy taking place in the gardens: enjoy making magical wands & broomsticks; spot the scarecrows; visit the pumpkin colouring and design studio; dress to impress and enter the fancy dress competition; enjoy the Pumpkin pantomime every weekend from 10am to 4pm; and enjoy seasonal food & drink - why not enjoy a hot chocolate and a toffee apple as you hunt high and low for the perfect pumpkin?

Gandeys Circus will also be offering lots of tricks and treats at Trentham this half term. Running from 14 – 30 October, the circus is back with a brand-new action-packed legendary Halloween Spooktacular Big Top show for all the family.

The monkeys at Trentham Monkey Forest won’t be missing out on Halloween fun either this year. It is really frightening that there are less than 8,000 wild Barbary macaques in the wild. So this year for Halloween, Monkey Forest has designed a Pumpkin Trail Quiz which will raise awareness around the scary plight of the wild Barbary macaque and keep your little ones entertained. A visit to Monkey Forest this October will also be the last chance of the year to see the fascinating primates and the babies of 2022!

It’ll come as no Halloween shock that in our city of imagination we have some fang-tastic creative activities for all to enjoy! World of Wedgwood will be running Autumnal Trinkets Workshops that involve foraging in the woodland and then getting creative with woodland materials, clay and glaze. There will also be Pottery Painting on offer in their Decorating Studio. Middleport Pottery are holding Play with Clay and Spooky Craft Sesssions, while LoveClay Ceramics Centre have Halloween themed Decorating Sessions where you and your family can create your very own spooky masterpiece. There are crafts, tours and spooky goings on at Emma Bridgewater where you can learn all the tricks from the expert studio team and decorate your own pottery with a spooky design to treasure. Have a go at Spooky Screen Printing and create your own Halloween Emma Bridgewater poster with expert tuition from We Are Culla. You can also follow a FREE Pumpkin Treasure Hunt and win a delicious treat!

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery will be hosting the only Count that counts, Dracula himself, who will be presenting a delicious spread of games, competitions and hilarity aided by his long-suffering Corpse Bride at Dracula’s Fiendish Feast! The museum are also holding a Friday Twilight – Jekyll & Hyde which will see a new and enthralling one-man stage adaptation of the classic tale of terror!

Just a stone's throw away from the museum in the City Centre, is Mitchell Arts Centre who have an October Half Term Film Club, showing some great family favourites including Coco, Goosebumps, The Witches, Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit, The Addams Family, Ghostbusters Afterlife, Hotel Transylvania, and Coraline. There are no terrifying costs with Film Club films costing £3.50 per child with 1 Adult going free per paying child!

Hanley Park are hosting some half term halloween fun activity days with Monstrous Monday, Witchy Wednesday, and Freakish Friday! BeeActive are also inviting you to scoot, skate or scare your way around Hanley Park on 30 October and join them for a Spooktacular encounter like no other! With tricks n' treats up for grabs and a fun afternoon guaranteed, you won't want to miss it!

It’ll be full steam ahead this Halloween at Apedale Valley Light Railway as their Spooky Halloween Specials return on Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 October. Shirley's 1857 Etruscan Bone & Flint Mill will also be in steam and operating as in Victorian times at Etruria Industrial Museum as the museum hosts a Halloween Steaming Weekend!

If your kids are in the mood for a party, then Factory Floor at the Quarter Potbank is the place to head! Their Spooktacular Children's Halloween Party will feature a fancy dress disco, a magician, and a spooky cocktail included! 

Dimensions Leisure Centre's Blood Pool Party may have sold out quicker than you can say "Double double toil and trouble" but our brilliant leisure centres - Dimensions, Fenton Manor, and New Horizons still have lots of great family fun activites to enjoy over half term. 

On Friday 28 October Affinity Staffordshire is hosting some SpOooOooky Halloween games, activities for your little pumpkins and monsters… and your older ones too! Between 10am – 2pm a Wicked Witch will be conjuring all kinds of mischief and will be bubbling, brewing, and mixing all kinds of Halloween fun. With her trusty cauldron, are you ready for the concoction that Wilma has prepared? Not to mention, if you finish the Halloween hunt, you get a free goody bag!

Alton Towers’ terrifyingly fantastic Scarefest returns with spooks, frights and thrills for everyone at the UK’s largest theme park - all just a short broomstick ride from Stoke-on-Trent.

For a full listing of things to see and do and events taking place this half term, head to visitstoke.co.uk/halfterm and remember to use #MyStokeStory to share your adventures on social media!