The Sprit of Halloween Town

Ah the Sprit of HalloweenTown! I’ll be honest, I should of made this post awhile ago but it seems perfectly fitting right now too. A lot of us who love October, Halloween and everything in-between, need to soak up everything we can in just four weeks. I have been getting a ton of questions on instagram about HalloweenTown. This blog post is here to help! I'll give you my honest opinion on the happenings, when to go, where to stay, what's worth your money and more!

I first visited HalloweenTown ,or to properly name it outside of the spooky season, downtown St. Helen Oregon in Spring 2019. It looked like the picture above. Thats the city hall which was in the movie Halloween Town where Calabar comes standing at the top trying to doom everyone into his spell.

My best friend was in town that spring and HalloweenTown was on the list but for her it was more so because of the Bella Swan, from Twilight, house being two blocks away from downtown. We will get into that later. When we arrived it felt like a ghost town. It was a cold, dark cloud covered typical Oregon day. There were no pumpkins, no signs with pointy hats or anything related to the movie. The only sign letting you know that you were in the right place was a faded banner hanging from the street lights reading "Welcome Spirit of HalloweenTown, St. Helens Oregon", with a picture of a pumpkin wearing a witch hat and a clocktower behind it. The only thing to see was the outside of the City Hall building, and the theater building from the movies. Without them being dressed up for the season only a true fan could spot these. The famous orange pumpkin that sits high on a cement block was no wear to be found. After messing around with the interactive, yet very loud, Oregon storytelling of its history as the town sits along the Columbia River we quickly left to get some food and onto our next adventure. My point is that HalloweenTown only exist Oct 1-31st.

After that day I went home and did some research. I googled everything and came across many websites with a lot of information. The city has events such as the lighting of the great pumpkin, a street costume parade and a famous guest speaker one night. Of course at one point in time all of the cast was there. Either together or at different times. Last year Dr. Carlisle Cullen, played by Peter Facinelli in Twilight, was there to kick off the season.

Visit: https://discovercolumbiacounty.com for an updated list on HT events. They won't be posted till July 2020

What is Halloweentown?

During the month of October the downtown of St. Helens, Oregon transforms back to the film set of HalloweenTown from 1998 just about every weekend and some weekdays they have:

Photo ops

Haunted Houses

Haunted History Of St. Helens

Costume Parades

Pumpkin Lighting

Themed food +more

*St. Helens, Oregon is located 30-40mins from the PDX airport

Where to park?

If you visit when there isn't an extra event going on or on Halloween there's plenty of parking. Just be mindful and respectful of parking in front of someones house.

If you go on an event day, follow the signs as you approach downtown, last I checked its $10 per car. They will guide you were to go.

Where to stay?

If you can find a cute place on Airbnb that's in one of our many forest areas I say go for that! Otherwise I would stay closer to the other things you want to do on you trip. There are hotels in the are but the prices go up. Try looking downtown or close to other things you want to see and do.

HalloweenTown can be done in one day, even a few hours in my case because I went on a Sunday in October when only the everyday HalloweenTown happening were going on.

What else is there to do close by?

Hiking - you have many trails, just look up what is in your comfort level.

Pumpkin Patches- we have some really great ones out here. The closet to HalloweenTown would be the patch on Sauvie Island

Corn mazes - We have a ton too. Google ones close to wear you are staying. The Mazie on Sauvie Island changes every year and they always do this awesome job at reseting the maze. If you look back at arial shots you will see some awesome mazes.

Haunted House - apart from the ones in town there are so many that pop up. I would do your research as October approaches and see where they are that year.

My experience 

Fast forward to October, spooky season. As we drove into the small one street downtown I was shocked how little traffic there was but we also went on a non event day. We found easy free parking after driving around once. During the month of October they close down the main street on event days and weekends.

I excitedly hopped out of the car and we walked toward the town square. It was dressed up perfectly. I was surprised to see not just one but two great pumpkins. One that looked just like the movies and one made of steel. Of course I took pictures with both! As we walked past the welcome booth we were handed a map of the tiny town square that also included things to do and see in the close area, the Bella swan house, and Twilight movie film spot and of course HalloweenTown ones. The welcome booth has all your HalloweenTown merch you could ever need. Coffee cups, t-shirts and more.

To right of the welcome booth there was the yellow cab from the movie with the famous skeleton driver inside. What followed after was what looked like local artists work and take on Halloween. Im not sure if they are the same every year. They were all setup for photo ops. They even had a nightmare before Christmas display for the perfect instagram picture. After walking around and taking pictures with everything, including the pumpkin, we kind felt done. To the right of city hall building was a few vendors selling relatable halloween type goods and some not. There was also the typical fair like food kettle corn, cotton candy and more.

Next we visited the shops in the downtown. Some were still closed bars, thrift like second hand store, a movie theater and clothing store. We walked around a few of the streets with houses and enjoyed the sunshine and fall colors. After maybe two hours we were like ok now what. We hopped in the car and went to a pumpkin patch near by.

My overall opinion and final tips

If you made it this far, thank you!

*If your making a trip of HT(flying in) then plan on going during an event day/night. Or find more to do on your trip then just HT.

*If you go on an off day, just know there isn't much to do then live in the sprit of HalloweenTown, see film spots and take instagram-able pictures.

*I think this year 2020 I will try to go during an event!!

*Its only a thing in October, otherwise its just a downtown