Primary Times - the definitive what’s on and where to go family guide of activities and events for children of primary school age. Things to do with your kids during the school holidays including arts and craft activities, music and theatre for children, parties, competitions, days out, and family attractions along with term time drama schools, dance classes, after school clubs and sports activities. Things to do at a place near you!
Pumpkin fun for Halloween
Halloween is not far away and it is already time to start thinking about preparing a costume, treats (and tricks) and perhaps most importantly of all, the pumpkin!
In recent years going and picking your own pumpkin and carving out a ghoulish, or crazy, design has become a tradition we have inherited from the United States. Some places have ready picked pumpkins, others have fields full of them.
Carving can often be done there and then but sometimes it is nice to take one home and take your time in coming up with a design.
Here are a few of the places across Edinburgh and the Lothians where you can get involved with pumpkins and other Halloween shenanigans:
East Links Family Park near Dunbar has a Pumpkin Festival running from 15 to 31 October. Book online and enjoy a free pumpkin for every child - choose your own, carve a scary face on it and take it away. There is a daily fancy dress competition, themed hunt and lots of scary fun, music and jokes around the park.
Conifox Adventure Park has loads on, from a Pick Your Own Pumpkin & Halloween Hunt from 16 to 24 October and 29 to 31 October, where you can use Carving Stations to create a scary lantern, to Pumpkin Nights on 29 and 30 October, where there are fire breathers, stilt walkers and spooky characters. There is also a Halloween Bash on 23 October and fireworks on Halloween itself.
Between 8 and 31 October, Edinburgh Zoo is opening its gates after dark to invite you on a family friendly, illuminated Spooktacular trail through the zoo. You can listen out for a rustling amongst the trees and peeping eyes as you make your way through the park, meeting lots of different characters on the way, from witches and wizards to scarecrows and spiders
Trinity House in Leith is opening its doors at night on 28 and 29 October when a storyteller will share tales of mysterious ships, strange superstitions, hangings, vanishings and storm creating witches. The experience includes a twilight tour of Trinity House and the lantern lit sixteenth century vaults. There are separate times for under 12s.
The grounds of Newhailes House will host a Haunted Halloween Trail on 30 and 31 October where you can visit the Haunted Woodland and get spooked as you walk along. Count the bats, hunt the spiders, and beware the deadly cemetery.