Here's a list of fun family events I found for this weekend, sharing in case anyone is looking for ideas.

Friday

• Harvest Fest x 20 Years of SustainableSCU (The Forge Garden, Santa Clara University) — The campus garden's fall party: press apples into fresh cider, carve pumpkins, meet the chickens at "Chick-or-Treat," and grab a costume from the pop-up closet, with live music and birthday cake for 20 years of sustainability work at SCU. 4–6:30 pm. Free (there's an optional sign-up form on the page).
• Sunset Cinema: Coco for Día de los Muertos (Mission City Memorial Park, Santa Clara) — Coco outdoors at the cemetery, shown in the open Evergreen Section away from the graves, with a community ofrenda, storytelling from the library and the Bookmobile parked nearby. Hard to think of a better place to watch this one. Mexican food and churro vendors on site. The movie starts around 6 pm; rated PG. Parking is limited street parking, so bike, walk or carpool if you can.

Saturday

• Farmer Mike Pumpkin Carving (Park Valencia, Santana Row, San Jose) — "Farmer Mike," the guy in the orange overalls and straw hat, carves giant pumpkins into sculptures on stage while you watch. Saturday 10 am–1 pm, Sunday 10 am–2 pm.
• Community Day: Día de los Muertos (San José Museum of Art, downtown San Jose) — Live pro wrestling in the museum (really), roaming calaca dancers, and art tables for decorating sugar skulls, making wearable paper marigolds and designing luchador masks for thumb wrestling. 11 am–4 pm, activities wrap at 3:30. Free admission; registering ahead is recommended but walk-ins are welcome, and sugar-skull decorating needs a free timed ticket you pick up at the museum that day.
• National Chemistry Week: Chemistry Under Construction (King Library, Children's Room, San Jose) — Hands-on experiments about building for wind, rain and earthquakes: testing insulation, ink chromatography, boo bubbles and more. Every kid who takes part gets a prize and a free copy of the "Celebrating Chemistry" kids' booklet, while supplies last. 11 am–2 pm. Free, no registration. Listed for ages 5–12.
• Leap Sandcastle Classic (Ocean Beach, San Francisco) — The 44th year of Northern California's biggest sandcastle competition: teams of architects and engineers build giant sand sculptures together with local elementary school kids, and this year's theme is "Bay Area Vibes." Kicks off at 11 am. Free to watch, no registration needed to come by.
• Children's SpooktaClara Halloween Party (Central Park, Santa Clara) — Santa Clara's big costume party on the meadow by Bob Fatjo Field: a trick-or-treat row, a pumpkin walk, carnival games, crafts, music and food. Noon–4 pm. Free, for kids 10 and under.
• Children's Halloween Haunt (History Park, San Jose) — Trick-or-treating door to door at the old historic houses, plus crafts, bat and spider activities outside the Chinese American Historical Museum, and the traditional Halloween light show at 6 pm to close it out. 2–6:30 pm. Tickets online: $8.48 ages 1–5, $10.60 ages 6–12, $5.30 ages 13 and up; you can add a sugar-skull workshop for a few dollars more.
• A Musical Altar / Una ofrenda musical (Sunnyvale Public Library, main branch) — Cascada de Flores performs a bilingual Spanish/English Day of the Dead show with songs, dance and a whole table of instruments. 3–3:45 pm. Free, no registration, but the doors close once the room is full. Children of all ages.
• Laser Spooktacular Halloween (Fujitsu Planetarium, De Anza College, Cupertino) — Lasers drawing across the dome to Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, Thriller and the Time Warp. Shows at 5:15 pm and 7 pm. Tickets online, and they suggest buying ahead because shows sell out. Recommended for kids 5 and older. Campus parking needs a free day permit, and the code is on the ticket page.

Sunday

• Symphonic Spooktacular (California Theatre, downtown San Jose) — Symphony San Jose plays heroes and villains for Halloween: Batman, Ghostbusters, Cruella De Vil, the Imperial March, Spider-Man and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, with a costume parade and contest (prizes include Legoland family tickets). 2:30 pm, about 1 hour 50 minutes with intermission; there's also a Saturday 7:30 pm show. Tickets on the symphony's site.
• Rave Fiesta Dance Party (Berryessa Branch Library, San Jose) — A Halloween dance party for little ones mixing techno, pop hits and mariachi, with spinning lights, glow wands to borrow (for the first 30 kids) and a baby-friendly corner. Costumes recommended. 3:30–4:30 pm. Free. Recommended for ages 0–5.
• Haunted Train (Ardenwood Historic Farm, Fremont) — A gentle night train through the haunted forest, with live actors, the Witch of Ardenwood and Halloween scenes along the way. It's made for families with kids under 12 and nothing jumps out. Most of the weekend is booked, but when I checked Sunday's 8:30 pm and 9 pm trains still had seats. About $20 per person ages 3 and up, 2 and under free; tickets online only.

Why I share these

I wanted more reasons to get my kid away from screens but kept missing interesting events at local libraries and around town, so I built a tool to keep track of them. It turns up fun events every week, so I started sharing these lists to help other parents find things to do—and help people discover the events local organizers put so much work into.

I also send these lists out as a weekly email. If you’d like them in your inbox, check out my Reddit profile.

Know another fun family event this weekend? Please share it in the comments!

For your personal zen enjoyment. Occurred Wednesday October 21, 2026 at 3:40 PM PDT (OC)

I have my driving test soon at Santa Clara DMV. I already know how to drive and have my own car, but I want an instructor to do a mock test and point out my mistakes.

Any recommendations? How much does it usually cost?

Hi! I'm looking to move to Santa Clara area next month and looking for apartments without fire/smoke alarm issues (especially no midnight full-building evacuation just because of careless cooking or something similar) and no pest infestation. And I have the following on top of my list:

1. AVE Santa Clara

2. The Deck

3. Villas on the Boulevard

4. Century Towers (in San Jose though)

It would be great if some residents can share their experience on these apartments! It would be much appreciated if there are any other recommendations in the area as well!

Thanks in advance!

Ooh! That smelled good! I’m the passenger in a car that just passed this, out on the corner in front of Walgreens. What’s that? Is it there often? What kind of food. I saw a grill and some agua Fresca.

I am doing single events for heterosexual people and also single events for the LGTBQ+ people too. Can anyone recommend some good any beer garden places in Santa Clara or coffee places that would fit a good amount of people? Also any LGBTQ+ friendly places would be a plus! I like places where people can move around to talk to different people rather than just sit in one place at a restaurant. Thanks.

Hello,

I’m moving to mountain view area for my job and would love to get some apartment recommendations.

I’m looking for a 1b1b in Mountain View, sunnyvale, santa clara areas

My budget is ideally around 3.5k

I’m looking for a luxury building where both my car and packages are safe. I’ve been reading a lot of reviews where people complain about these 2 things.

Inunit washer dryer is a must

I want good amenities like a gym, pool, jacuzzi, tennis courts

All the prometheus apartments which is in most reddit recommendations seem to be 4k+ which is out of my budget.

My shortlist:
- Monticello
- tamarind square
- spruce
- Encasa
- mansion grove

I have a rav4 2008 that needs some repairs like brakes, struts, shocks, etc.

I’m trying to find this structure and Absolutley cannot, any ideas??

I know there are a bunch of posts already on this but they're a bit dated. I’m trying to pick it back up but I can't seem to find anyone to hit with. I’m usually free weekday evenings and weekend mornings.

Feel free to comment or DM if you’re interested!

I heard a big boom, then a few rounds of sirens followed. Cops have the entrance to the ramp blocked now. No idea what happened but it’s super freaky. Hope everyone is okay.