October At This Is The Place: Little Haunts For A Non-Spooky Halloween

This is a sponsored post.

We received a product in exchange for our honest review.

No matter how much I personally do not care for Halloween, I do have kids who would not take too kindly to Mom banishing the holiday all together.  Thankfully for all involved, we've discovered the Little Haunts festivities at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City and a compromise that keeps everybody happy.

I wasn't sure what to expect on our way to Little Haunts for the first time.  Here in Utah children's activities have a tendency to be jam-packed with people and a little chaotic.  We arrived only a few minutes before 11:30 and walked smack-dab into the middle of the costume parade being led by a Story Witch and followed by adorable kids and parents making their way with her down Main Street. At the end of the parade a candy cannon shoots taffy out into the street for little ones to run and retrieve. The parade and candy canon happens twice on Little Haunts days.

The Little Haunts Candy Cannon packed with treats

After such an exciting introduction, the boys excitedly led us in and out of the buildings lining the This Is The Place Main Street.  The schoolhouse was adorable and we stopped to complete the assignment of drawing the American Flag.  I was grateful that at the schoolhouse the treat was a pencil, although the rest of the day we kept finding pencils littered on the ground which leads me to believe it wasn't the children's favorite treat.  

The rest of the day the offered treat was one piece of candy.  Since This Is The Place is so large and spreadout, we never felt crowded and never stood still in a line waiting to get a treat.  After reaching the top of the street, we wandered through other buildings that were decorated for Halloween but without treats and then on to the fun activities on the top of the hill which we'd not made it to on our visit earlier this year.

Inspecting the underground mine operation in the Treasure House

Panning for gold

The view from the Mini Train is breathtaking!

 At the end of our Little Haunts day everyone had had a good day.  The kids had a bag full of candy (but not too much candy, which made mom happy).

We'd spent time together as a family playing, entertained, and learning.  It was a perfect balance of Halloween celebrating without commercialism or sensationalism; more like a day of exploring with bonus spooks and treats thrown in.  I think it will make a great October tradition destination!

Want to take your little ones to Little Haunts?

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More Information

Costumes not required,

but aren't kids always looking for a reason to wear them?

After our 1st Little Haunts experience, I want to say 

the overall park experience wasn't quite the same 

as going on a non-event day.  

The pioneer employees were focused on giving out candy,

so had less time to share history in their buildings.

Also, a number of buildings were not open the day we visited

which I can assume was because they are set up for the

night time Haunted village activity.

There was still plenty to do while we were there,

but I felt it is worth noting the difference

from previous visits.

Looking for grown-up Halloween activities at This Is The Place?
Check out the Haunted Village!