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🎉 The Naperville FunTimes
Your Weekly Family Fun Guide
Issue #32 • Friday, October 16, 2026
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Happy Friday, Naperville families! 🎃
Halloween is exactly two weeks from Saturday, which means the costume debate is about to get loud in a lot of Naperville kitchens. Good news: this weekend lets everyone test drive it. There’s a trick-or-treat morning at Safety Town, a carnival of inflatables and pony rides in Lisle, and a free glowing-lotus display on the Riverwalk that costs nothing and tires out no one. Kids eat free at two spots, and both work on Monday.
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📅 This Week’s Top 3 Family Picks
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Trick-or-Treat at Safety Town — Costumes, Candy & Two Miniature Therapy Horses 🍃
Run by the Naperville Junior Woman’s Club, this is the gentle, small-scale version of Halloween: activity stations, trick-or-treat safety tips, and treats from local businesses, all set in a pint-sized town the kids can walk right through. Two miniature therapy horses, Oreo and Cocoa, are there until noon. It’s outdoors and goes ahead rain or shine, and tickets are required and non-refundable, so buy ahead online.
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Monster Madness in Lisle — Pony Rides, Hayrides, a Petting Zoo & a Pumpkin Patch 👻
A wristband gets each child into the whole thing: giant inflatables, fair games, pony rides, a petting zoo, hayrides, face painting, a trick-or-treat walk and a pumpkin patch. Food at the Creepy Café costs extra. Costumes are encouraged, it’s all outdoors rain or shine, and the first 150 registrants get a prize bag and a pumpkin. Siblings under 2 can come along but can’t do the activities.
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LOTUS — Six Giant Glowing Flowers Floating on the Riverwalk, Free Every Night 🪟
Six translucent lotus structures, each about 13 feet wide, float on the quarry and light up once the sun goes down, with their reflections doubling the effect on the water. It’s the first U.S. showing of a piece by French artist Nicolas Paolozzi, and it’s a short walk from downtown. The organizers say it stays lit until 10 PM. It ends Saturday, Oct 24, so you have this weekend and next.
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👻 Bonus: Your Halloween Cheat Sheet
Jessica DeVries Built the Fall + Halloween Guide We Wish We Had
Local realtor Jessica DeVries of Southwestern Real Estate put together a free spreadsheet of fall and Halloween events across the western suburbs: a day-by-day calendar, separate tabs for free and paid, and a little color code for little-kid friendly, spooky and scary. If you want more than three picks, start here. A few free ones she lists for this Saturday: the Woodridge Trunk-or-Treat (12–2) and the Monster Bash on the Boo-mobile in Bolingbrook (10–2). Times and prices can change, so check each event’s own page before you go, which she says too.
Compiled by Jessica DeVries, REALTOR®, Southwestern Real Estate • Instagram @keysfromdevries • Know an event she missed? [email protected]
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🍽️ Kids Eat Free This Week!
Both deals work Monday, Oct 19, so file them under “dinner is handled.” Ramsay’s also runs through Thursday.
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Pick one thing and do it well. If the Saturday plan falls apart, the glowing lotus will still be there after dinner, and it doesn’t care if anyone is wearing a costume. Halloween Happening at the Riverwalk (free, ages 10 and under) is Sunday, Oct 25, if you want to pencil in the next one.
See you next Friday,
The Naperville FunTimes Team 🧡
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