Pumpkins at Pier 6, vintage cars at Fort Totten: 8 ways to spend a week with kids in NYC for $0
A Pier 6 harvest festival, vintage cars at Fort Totten, a Staten Island light show and more free family outings through Oct. 18.
Families can fill this week with free outings in all five boroughs, from a harvest festival at Brooklyn Bridge Park on Saturday, Oct. 17, to a vintage car show at Fort Totten in Queens on Sunday, Oct. 18.
Free Halloween and fall events for kids
On Staten Island, Halloween Lights for Joy turns 98 E. Broadway into a neighborhood haunt with lights, animatronics, fog effects and eerie music. It runs every day from 5 to 8:30 p.m. through Oct. 31 and is open to all ages. For more ideas, see our roundup of free Halloween events in NYC.
Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Harvest Festival comes to Pier 6 on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with live music, crafts, face painting, learning activities and a small pumpkin patch. That weekend, the Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum in Brooklyn holds Farmhouse Family Day: Autumnal Wonders on Oct. 17 and 18 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for ages 4 to 12. Because it falls during Open House New York Weekend, the museum adds special tours of its 17th-century Dutch farmhouse, focused on how the building was laid out so a household could cook meals, raise crops and keep food stored.
In the Bronx, children ages 2 to 7 and their caregivers can drop in to Super Seedlings on Saturdays, Oct. 17 and 24, from 10 a.m. to noon. The gardening program meets at the park alliance’s garden and compost area in Van Cortlandt Park, near the corner of Mosholu Avenue and Broadway. Kids can make crafts, water plants, pick vegetables and dig in the soil.
Free events in Queens and Manhattan
Queens Borough Hall marks Hispanic Heritage Month on Wednesday, Oct. 14, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Helen Marshall Cultural Center, 120-55 Queens Blvd., with performances, live music and refreshments. Registration is required. On Sunday, Oct. 18, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Bayside Historical Society holds its yearly classic car show at 208 Totten Ave. Vintage and antique cars will line the grass in front of Fort Totten’s Castle, and owners and restorers will talk about bringing old cars back to life.
In Manhattan, a Miniverse pop-up at Astor Place Plaza recreates a tiny NYC bodega on Thursday, Oct. 15, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with an oversized vending-machine game for prizes, free coffee and snacks, and stickers or postcards to take home. On Friday, Oct. 16, for National Pasta Day, cookbook author Danielle Caminiti serves free portions of cacio e pepe from the window of AperiBar at the LUMA Hotel Times Square, 120 W. 41st St., from noon to 2 p.m.
Quick answers
When is the Brooklyn Bridge Park Harvest Festival?
Saturday, Oct. 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pier 6. It is free and open to all ages.
Where is the Fort Totten vintage car show?
On the grass in front of the Castle at Fort Totten, 208 Totten Ave., Queens, on Sunday, Oct. 18, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
How long do the Halloween Lights for Joy run?
Daily from 5 to 8:30 p.m. through Oct. 31 at 98 E. Broadway on Staten Island.
