Halloween Events for Kids Near Me: Chinatown Halloween Festival on Waverly Place

The 12th Annual Chinatown Halloween Festival takes over Waverly Place, between Sacramento and Washington Streets, on Saturday, October 31, 2026, from 11am to 3pm, and it is free. Community Youth Center of San Francisco, known as CYC, runs it with a pumpkin patch, lion dancing and a costume contest whose winners take home $50 Chinatown dining certificates. If you are searching halloween events for kids near me from North Beach, Nob Hill or downtown, this is the costume party with the most character in the city.

CYC was founded in Chinatown in 1970 to give young people alternatives to juvenile delinquency and gang violence. It added a drug education and prevention program in 1976, merged with the citywide job-training program Directions in 1991, and in 2000 partnered with Boston's Museum of Science to open a Computer Clubhouse. Today it runs programs in several neighborhoods, with a Chinatown office at 830 Sacramento Street.

The Halloween festival closes a three-part series of Waverly Place celebrations that also includes the Chinatown Springtime Festival and Craving Chinatown. The idea is to turn the alley into a gathering space for families, neighbors and local businesses. The city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development sponsors it, with Chinatown Merchants United Association, LionDanceMe and Self-Help for the Elderly as partners.

The pumpkin patch is the first stop for most families, and children can pick a pumpkin to take home. The pumpkins are donated by Arata's Pumpkin Farm, Clancy's Pumpkins & Christmas Tree and Sloat Garden Center, so arrive early if your child has a favorite shape in mind. Arts and crafts tables run hands-on Halloween activities through the afternoon.

Two activities set this festival apart from a standard school carnival. Older kids line up for an interactive virtual reality game, and LionDanceMe performs a traditional lion dance on Waverly Place. The drums are loud and the lion comes close, so hold toddlers' hands and let them watch from a step back if they startle easily. Most children end up delighted rather than scared.

CYC's own announcement describes the day as Halloween activities, cultural performances and local businesses together, open to families, neighbors and visitors alike. That mix is the point: it is a neighborhood street party rather than a kids-only carnival, and the pumpkin patch, the crafts and the lion dance all sit within a few steps of each other on the same block.

The contest has four categories: children from newborn to 11, teens 12 to 17, adults 18 and over, and families and groups. The top three in each category win a $50 dining gift certificate to a signature Chinatown restaurant, which means a family that enters together and a child who enters alone both have a real shot at dinner.

Pre-register online by Wednesday, October 28. The first 50 contestants who pre-register and check in at the festival receive a free goodie bag at the CYC information booth. Separately, the first 100 children who reach Trick-or-Treat Lane get a Halloween treat, so arriving close to 11am pays off twice. Group costumes that play on the setting, such as a family dragon, tend to draw a crowd.

The festival is compact, one block of a narrow alley, and that is its strength for families with small children. You can see the whole thing from one spot, strollers can cover it in minutes, and nobody gets lost. Adults can enter the contest in their own category, and teenagers have their own contest category instead of being lumped in with the little kids.

An honest note: this is not a full-day outing. Two hours covers the pumpkin patch, crafts, the contest and the dance. Skip the hour after 2pm if your child wants a pumpkin, because the patch thins out, and pair the festival with a walk around Chinatown or a costume lunch instead of planning the whole day around it.

Look up while you are on Waverly Place. The Tin How Temple, at 125 Waverly Place, is dedicated to the sea goddess Mazu, called Tin How in Cantonese, and it is one of the oldest operating Chinese temples in the United States. Its founding is commonly dated to around 1852 or 1853, and it is said to stand on its original site.

The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed the building, but the statue of the goddess, the temple bell and part of the altar survived. The Sue Hing Benevolent Association reopened the temple in 1910 on the top floor of a new four-story building. If you climb up with children, keep voices low, leave an offering if you can, and note that photography is not allowed inside.

Waverly Place is a narrow street tucked between Grant Avenue and Stockton Street, running from Sacramento to Washington. Muni's T Third line stops at Chinatown-Rose Pak Station at Stockton and Washington Streets, a short walk from the festival, and the California Street cable car runs a block south along California. Driving into Chinatown on Halloween afternoon is the choice to skip; streets are narrow and parking is scarce.

After the festival, Grant Avenue's shops and bakeries are steps away, and Portsmouth Square is a short walk east along Washington Street, an open plaza where kids can run off the candy. Families with young children can loop from Waverly to Grant and back to the square in twenty minutes, then head home before the evening trick-or-treat rush.

Where: Waverly Place between Sacramento and Washington Streets, San Francisco, CA 94108. Organizer: Community Youth Center of San Francisco, Chinatown office at 830 Sacramento Street. When: Saturday, October 31, 2026, from 11am to 3pm. Cost: free, with an optional reservation on Eventbrite. Costume contest pre-registration closes October 28.

Best plan: arrive at 10:45am, head to Trick-or-Treat Lane and the pumpkin patch first, check in at the CYC booth if you pre-registered, then stay for the lion dance and contest. Bring a tote bag for the pumpkin, and dress kids in costumes that fit through a crowd, since the alley is narrow and busy at midday.