This Halloween festival, with four levels of fun, has been crafted to please kids of several age groups. Activities for little creatures include trick-or-treating, playing games and getting chummy with friendly costumed characters Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Cinderella. Older ghouls and goblins (ages six to fourteen) will discover confections and creepies lurking in the darkness as they wind through the House's two maze adventures, the Spooky and Fitness Safaris.
Quit carving that pumpkin and head to the Not-So-Haunted House. Admission is $6. Call 314-822-8900 or visit www.magichouse.com for more info. -- Rob Levy
Heebie-Jeebie Man
Blake Travis' Necronomicon
MON 10/27
When Blake Travis isn't slapping the congas and singing lead for local funksters Dangerous Kitchen, you'll probably find him holding a group of grade schoolers hostage at one of the St. Louis County Library branches. The kids are in thrall to his storytelling talents, which he shows off at the Daniel Boone Branch (300 Clarkson Road, 636-227-9630) at 6:30 p.m. Ages ten and older should call for reservations to this free, Halloween-themed night of stories, featuring such urban legends as "A Long-Distance Phone Call" and "Ghostly Kids Push You Off the Train Tracks." Travis says he plans to "take the kids right out of their general comfort zone, strictly through my voice." -- Byron Kerman
Hell Is for Children
In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, as you surely know, a headless dude gallops through the misty moors, slicing off the heads of petrified townsfolk. Also, there's these two gents competing for a single, um, maidenhead. Not exactly the stuff of children's theater -- or is it? The kids of the St. Charles Young People's Theater have turned the classic Washington Irving tale into a Halloween "spook-a-drama" that's suitable for all ages.
This time the story is presented as a musical, and naturally, there's much less gore in this kid-friendly version than in the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp film. Still, we have to wonder how the headless dude will get around the stage in his vision-obscuring get-up, how they'll depict the decapitation of various eleven-year-olds and how they'll stage the particulars of that bizarre love triangle (7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25; and 2 p.m. Sunday, October 26; Shook Fine Arts Building, St. Charles Community College, 4601 Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters; $4-$5; 636-922-9310). -- Byron Kerman
