Halloween Events for Kids Near Me: Anime Halloween at Brooklyn Children's Museum

Halloween falls on a Saturday in 2026, and for families in Central Brooklyn searching halloween events for kids near me, the indoor pick is Brooklyn Children's Museum in Crown Heights. Its Celebrate Halloween day runs Saturday, October 31, from 10am to 6:30pm, ninety minutes past the museum's usual 5pm close, and this year it has a twist: the museum describes it as spooky meets cute, a mash-up of Halloween and anime presented with AniTOMO Con. Admission is the regular $15 per person, which makes it one of the better-value costume days in the city.

The plan for the day is simple to explain to a four-year-old. Children trick-or-treat around the museum, collecting candy as they move between galleries on its three floors of interactive exhibits, then strut their costume on a runway set up for the occasion. The runway suits kids who love an audience, and parents who want a costume photo without competing with a crowd on a sidewalk.

Educators bring out creepy crawly animals for kids to meet up close, there is an anime art-making table, and professional cosplayers lead storytimes, which is the part older siblings tend to remember. The cosplay angle also means a child dressed as a favorite anime character fits right in next to the witches and dinosaurs, and adults in cosplay will not feel out of place either.

Brooklyn Children's Museum was founded in 1899 and calls itself the world's first children's museum. It describes itself as New York City's largest cultural institution designed especially for families, serving about 300,000 children and caregivers a year, and its exhibits and programs are built for ages 6 months to 10 years. That age range is the main reason to choose it on Halloween: everything here is pitched at small children, and nothing is designed to scare.

The museum still holds the collections it began building more than a century ago. Its doll collection numbers over 2,000 objects from around the world, the geological collection has about 6,200 specimens and grew out of early student field trips, and insect specimens have been part of the collection since the museum opened. Families can look for the doll and nature displays between trick-or-treat stops.

Celebrate Halloween is included with general admission, which the museum lists at $15 per person; museum members get in free and receive discounted admission for their guests. On the ticketing page for October 31, adults, children aged 1 to 12 and teens are all $15 and babies under 1 are free. Tickets show suggested arrival times of 10am, 1pm and 4pm, but the museum says you can arrive anytime on the day and the selected time is only a suggestion.

If you can choose, the 4pm slot is the one most families skip, and with the doors open until 6:30pm, it gives you a full two and a half hours of trick-or-treating that ends right as neighborhood trick-or-treating starts outside. Morning visits are livelier and better for toddlers who nap after lunch.

Away from the Halloween stations, World Brooklyn is the museum's miniature version of the borough's shops and streets, where kids run a pretend store or market stall, and it has seating where caregivers can take a break or feed a baby. The ColorLab Art Studio and STEM Makerspace offer hands-on projects, and the museum has a cafe and a rooftop with seating for a quieter snack.

Practical touches matter on a busy day. There are four all-gender restrooms on the second floor, a Mamava private nursing station near the lobby restrooms, and an elevator for guests who cannot use the stairs. Tops, bottoms and shoes must be worn at all times, so costumes with a bodysuit need something over them.

Halloween crowds can be a lot for some children, and the admissions desk lends free Sensory Kits on request with headphones, feelings flash cards and fidget toys. Food is allowed only at the rooftop terrace tables and in the second-floor cafe, not in the exhibits, and drinks must be in closed containers, so collected candy stays in the bag until you reach the roof. Self-service lockers are available to rent for coats.

The museum asks families to consider leaving strollers at home, or to park them in stroller parking, so the elevator stays free for visitors who need it. It has no garage or private parking lot and points drivers to street parking, which gets tight in Crown Heights on a Saturday, so transit is the better choice.

The building sits on the edge of Brower Park at Brooklyn Avenue and St. Marks Avenue. The 3 train to Kingston Avenue leaves you about a ten-minute walk away, and the Kingston-Throop Avenues station on the C is a similar walk to the north. Brower Park itself has a playground for a burst of running around before or after the museum.

Families who want to add some Brooklyn history can walk to Weeksville Heritage Center at 158 Buffalo Avenue, which preserves the Hunterfly Road Houses from Weeksville, one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America. It is a short ride or a longer walk east and gives older kids a different kind of story on the same day.

For something lighter, the museum regularly offers free admission on Community Access Thursdays from 2pm to 5pm, courtesy of Amazon, so if Halloween day sells out or feels too busy, a Thursday visit the week before lets you see the exhibits without the crowds.

Address: Brooklyn Children's Museum, 145 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11213. Phone: (718) 735-4400, extension 151. Event: Celebrate Halloween, Saturday, October 31, 2026, 10am to 6:30pm. Admission: $15 per person, under 1 free, members free. Regular hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, closed Monday and Tuesday.

Best for: children from about 1 to 10, anime fans, and families who want an indoor Halloween with trick-or-treating built in. Leave the stroller if you can, take the 3 train, and aim for the late-afternoon slot if you want shorter lines.