Disneyland's Spookiest Halloween Events You Won't Want To Miss

You haven't lived until you've sipped a pumpkin spice latte on Main Street, U.S.A. Okay, so maybe that's a bit dramatic, but Halloween Time at Disneyland is pretty great. Every autumn, spooky season descends upon "the happiest place on earth" with a delightful lineup of special events and limited-time fun that Disney calls Halloween Time.

From seasonal overlays of favorite attractions like Haunted Mansion to an after-hours event hosted by Oogie Boogie from "The Nightmare Before Christmas," Disneyland Resort goes all-out for Halloween across its two theme parks (Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park) and surrounding property in Anaheim, California. If you're staying onsite at a Disney hotel, you can even trick-or-treat at your place of residence on Halloween night.

While you'd be forgiven for assuming Halloween commences once the calendar turns to October, Disney gets things started much earlier. Typically, Halloween Time at Disneyland begins in early September and lasts at least through October 31, and sometimes a few days longer, wrapping up just in time for the holiday season to get underway. There's a ton of ghostly amusement to discover, so let's hop aboard our doom buggy and dive in. Oh, and "don't pull down on the safety bar, please. I will lower it for you."

In the words of its namesake host, "Well, well, well, what have we here?!" Oogie Boogie Bash — A Disney Halloween Party is an after-hours, separate-ticket event at Disney California Adventure on select nights in September and October. Oogie Boogie Bash is family-friendly. If you're expecting a haunt event with scare mazes and the like, opt for the nearby Knott's Scary Farm or Universal's Halloween Horror Nights.

Oogie Boogie Bash features trick-or-treating, a parade, a special edition of the World of Color water show, a show starring Mickey and pals, a walkthrough trail called Villains Grove, rides on favorite California Adventure attractions with short waits, and meet & greets with rare Disney villains. Disney switches up the roster every year, but past years' villains have included Sid from "Toy Story," Ernesto de la Cruz from "Coco," and Agatha from "WandaVision." Oogie Boogie Bash is also the only time when adults are allowed to wear costumes at Disneyland Resort.

Tickets to Oogie Boogie Bash start around $135, increasing depending on the date. The party lasts from 6-11 p.m., but guests with party tickets can enter California Adventure as early as 3 p.m. without daytime park admission. If it's within your budget, Oogie Boogie Bash is a good time, but you can definitely get your Halloween fix with other spooky activities throughout Disneyland if you don't attend the party. (This stands in contrast with Walt Disney World in Florida, where Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is the destination's only major Halloween offering.)

Both parks celebrate the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos, or "Day of the Dead" with special activities throughout the duration of the resort's Halloween Time season. At Disneyland Park, guests can visit El Zócalo Park in Frontierland to enjoy decor, artwork, and food inspired by the holiday.

Over at Disney California Adventure, Paradise Gardens (near Goofy's Sky School) transforms into Plaza de la Familia, an immersive way to learn about Día de los Muertos with help from the world of "Coco," the hit 2017 Pixar film. Plaza de la Familia is truly one of the highlights of Halloween Time, complete with craft activities, mariachi performances, and specialty food at Paradise Garden Grill. At the center of it all is A Musical Celebration of Coco, a live show featuring vocalists, dancers, and an insanely cool puppet representation of Miguel, the story's hero.

The festivities in El Zócalo Park and Plaza de la Familia offer a pleasant refresher in contrast to the adrenaline-pumping thrill rides with long lines elsewhere throughout the parks. Particularly at Plaza de la Familia, you could easily spend two hours soaking in the atmosphere and partaking in everything it has to offer, presented at the same level of Disney excellence as any high-tech attraction.

You'll find touches of Halloween decor here and there throughout Disneyland Resort during Halloween Time, but there are a few areas that take things up a notch and really go all-out. One such area is Cars Land, a recreation of the town of Radiator Springs from Pixar's "Cars." Here, residents like Lightning McQueen, Mater, and Sally celebrate Haul-O-Ween (in "Radiator Screams," naturally) with a host of creative, in-universe parallels to Halloween as we know it. The Imagineer designers really outdid themselves here.

Garland strung in the shape of a monster's face above the main thoroughfare appears to be made from mechanical items. The giant orange Cozy Cones sport macabre faces, making them seem more like jack-o-lanterns than traffic cones. At night, the area's year-round neon glow nicely pairs with the seasonal decorations for a retro-spooky vibe whose color palette would feel at home in early episodes of "Scooby-Doo." The famous cars who roam the streets even wear Haul-O-Ween costumes. Lightning is a superhero, while Mater is a vampire and Cruz Ramirez is a friendly pirate.

Two of the three attractions in Cars Land even receive Haul-O-Ween makeovers in their visuals and music. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree becomes Mater's Graveyard JamBOOree, while Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters becomes Luigi's Honkin' Haul-O-Ween. (Their soundtracks are on Spotify, with songs recorded by Larry the Cable Guy and Tony Shalhoub as their respective characters, Mater and Luigi.) Radiator Springs Racers, the area's biggest ride, remains the same.

Guests enter Disney California Adventure through Buena Vista Street, an avenue resembling a romanticized version of Hollywood as Walt Disney encountered it when he arrived there in the 1920s at the beginning of his career. During Halloween Time, Buena Vista Street receives some spooky flair in line with its vintage aesthetic.

Bewitching bat-shaped cutouts adorn the street's lamp posts. An imposing statue of the Headless Horseman — connected to Disney lore through the 1949 animated featurette "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" — greets visitors near the street's central plaza. At nighttime, Buena Vista Street shines with an enchanting overlay of twinkling purple lights in its trees and purple lighting upon its centerpiece fountain. The evening purple lighting of Buena Vista Street is one of those things you see on Instagram and hope looks just as good in person. Real talk: It's everything.

While it's true that you'll find many exclusive character greetings at the after-hours Oogie Boogie Bash event at Disney California Adventure, you can also keep your eyes peeled for Halloween Time meet & greets throughout both parks during regular operating hours. On Buena Vista Street at DCA, Mickey and pals wear "home-made" Halloween costumes with wardrobe styles that match the area's 1920s setting. (Goofy dressed like a sheet ghost is particularly charming.)

Over at Disneyland Park, Mickey and the gang show off an entirely different ensemble of Halloween garb in Town Square, toward the front of Main Street, U.S.A. (Donald Duck is dressed like candy corn!) Back in Fantasyland, villains like Maleficent and the Evil Queen wander about, occasionally even taunting their heroic foils like Aurora and Snow White (as well as young guests dressed like them) if they cross paths.

Meanwhile in New Orleans Square, also in Disneyland Park, Jack Skellington and Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" pose for photos, making for a perfect prelude to enjoying a ride on the nearby Haunted Mansion Holiday. Jack and Sally are loads of fun. When we met them, Jack asked us where we were visiting from. We told him Charlotte, to which he turned to Sally and excitedly proclaimed, "They're from North Carolinatown!" Also, if you're a Florida regular who's used to Jack and Sally's line being three hours long at Walt Disney World, meeting the pair here on the west coast at Disneyland is much easier. We waited a whopping ten minutes.

A specially decorated tree in Frontierland is easy to overlook but holds a special historical connection. Just outside the Golden Horseshoe Saloon, Disney designers cover an oak tree with orange lights and small, painted pumpkins. You'd be forgiven for glancing at the tree and assuming it's a generic decoration — festive, for sure, but not particularly noteworthy. As with many details throughout the Disney theme parks, a closer look yields a delightful discovery.

This tree, simply named "The Halloween Tree," is a tribute to the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name. Bradbury, perhaps best known for writing "Fahrenheit 451," loved Disneyland and hoped that the namesake of "The Halloween Tree" would perhaps one day make its way into the theme park. In 2007, Disney Imagineers did just that, dedicating a specially decorated tree in Frontierland during a ceremony with the help of Bradbury himself, just five years before his death. Among the many Disneyland tips to remember during your Halloween Time visit, slow down in your speedwalk between Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Haunted Mansion Holiday long enough to pause and observe a touching monument to a terrific storyteller that many guests walk right past.