Saratoga Halloween Weekend Events 2026: Your Weekend Guide

"We need to create grassroots foot traffic so businesses feel comfortable taking a chance on opening here," Saratoga Chamber of Commerce President Jim Cargill told The Mercury News in June. "It needs to grow organically."

He was talking about the Saratoga Village evening series, but the line also explains the coming week. Over Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1, the organized part of Saratoga's fall moves up the hill. The Village's last scheduled event before late November fills Big Basin Way for two hours. Hakone Gardens switches to shorter winter hours that same day. For almost four weeks after that, the evenings with tickets and start times are at Montalvo's Carriage House. The Village calendar doesn't pick up again until Friday, November 27.

The Village series has already had its finale

Saratoga Nights, the Chamber's free first-Thursday gathering with live music and pop-up vendors, held what the Saratoga Chamber called its "Last Event of the 2026 Series" on Thursday, October 1, from 5 to 8 p.m. The 2026 run started in May. The 2025 run started in April.

The series was never meant to be a big night for sales. Cargill told The Mercury News the point was to show people "that there are restaurants and unique shops there, so maybe they will come back on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday night." In its first year the events usually drew a couple hundred people, and attendance went up whenever there was a live act. Anchors and Big Basin Burger Bar both saw more business on those Thursdays. Cooper-Garrod and House Family Vineyards donated wine, and the sales went back into funding the series.

Now that the Thursday series is done for the year, the Village has one organized event left before Thanksgiving.

Saturday, October 31: both ends of Big Basin Way close at 4

The Saratoga Village Development Council's annual Witchy Walk-A-Bout runs from 2 to 4 p.m. on Big Basin Way in Historic Saratoga Village. It's free. Kids can trick-or-treat at local businesses, play games, do crafts, show off costumes and look at the scarecrows. The Saratoga High Robotics Team is doing demonstrations, and there's a giant bubble booth and a set from the No Direction Ukulele Band.

Farther along the same road, at 21000 Big Basin Way, Hakone Gardens starts its winter schedule that day. The garden's visitor information page lists winter hours from October 31, 2026, through March 15, 2027. Here's how the day compares with the rest of October:

Hakone's homepage calls October 31 a Sunday, but it falls on a Saturday this year, so the weekend schedule applies. That makes the order of the day simple. Last admission at Hakone is 3 p.m. and the Witchy Walk-A-Bout starts at 2, so plan on the garden first. The gates open at 11 a.m., which leaves time for a full loop before you head down to the Village. Admission is $15 for adults 18 to 64, $12 for seniors 65 and up, $10 for ages 5 to 17, and free for children 4 and under. The Cultural Exchange Center is showing UMI, an exhibit by Chris Sicat, through December.

From the 31st on, a Saturday at Hakone is an hour shorter. Weekday visits after work lose an hour too, and with last admission at 3:30 they're mostly off the table until mid-March. Hakone will also be closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Sunday, November 1: tea at noon, lowriders at 1

On Sunday the main events are both outside the Village, and the times line up.

1. Hakone's Omote-senke tea ceremony demonstration, at noon or 1 p.m. Tea tickets are $10 per person for ages 5 and up, with registration through Eventbrite. Garden admission is separate. Members get in on their membership but still need a tea ticket.
2. Montalvo's 4th Lowrider Art Showcase, from 1 to 5 p.m. at 15400 Montalvo Rd. It celebrates Día de los Muertos and is free, with an optional RSVP. Expect lowriders parked on the lawn, art-making, local artists and vendors, food, DJs and dancing, and access to the gardens and trails.

If you take the noon tea, you can still reach Montalvo with most of the four hours left. The event page doesn't mention a shuttle, and Montalvo's visitor guide says events without a shuttle note use on-site parking.

Families who want a costume warm-up the weekend before can go to Goblins in the Garden at Montalvo on Sunday, October 25, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be food trucks, a no-host bar, hands-on activities and room for a picnic on the lawn. Fratello Marionettes perform in the Oval Garden at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $14 for children, and those totals include a $2 fee on each ticket.

Until Thanksgiving, the ticketed evenings are at the Carriage House

After Halloween, Saratoga's scheduled nights out are concentrated in one place. Every Montalvo concert on the calendar from this Friday through mid-November is in the Carriage House, and each starts at 7:30 p.m.

That's seven shows in about three weeks, with tickets running from $64 to $103. Saratoga Nights ran once a month and cost nothing to attend. Through mid-November, the scheduled weeknight events are at Montalvo, and three of these dates are Wednesdays or Thursdays, the kind of night the Chamber was trying to build in the Village.

The weeknight the Chamber is counting on

From November 1 to November 27, the Saratoga Chamber's calendar has no Village event to bring people down on a Tuesday. That's the stretch where Cargill's "grassroots foot traffic" either shows up on its own or doesn't.

Saratoga has a ready-made way to do that this season. A 7:30 curtain at the Carriage House leaves room for an early dinner nearby, and a Village table works on the nights when there's no show. These are the names that come up in this fall's coverage:

• Anchors and Big Basin Burger Bar, the two restaurants Cargill said got a lift on Saratoga Nights evenings.
• Hero Ranch Kitchen on Big Basin Way, which the City Council picked for its 2025 sidewalk outdoor-dining pilot along with Flowers Saratoga, as The Mercury News reported.
• Scarlett Cocktail Room & Lounge at 20490 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road, a prohibition-style lounge the Chamber describes as tucked away in the heart of Saratoga.
• Linn, which held a Chamber ribbon cutting and product reveal at 14440 Big Basin Way, Suite B, on October 17 and 18.
• House Family Vineyards and Cooper-Garrod, the wineries whose donated bottles helped pay for the Thursday series.

The Chamber told The Mercury News that neither it nor the city could put hard numbers on what Saratoga Nights did for local businesses. What it had was restaurant owners reporting busier evenings.

The Village calendar comes back on Friday, November 27. Candy Cane Village is free and runs from 3 to 5 p.m. at 14460 Big Basin Way. At 6 p.m. the Chamber's Saratoga Holiday Wine Experience starts, with tastings around Historic Saratoga Village and live music by Kurt & Johnny until 9. The City of Saratoga's event listing says tickets are limited and the stroll often sells out. Tickets are $50 in advance, $60 on the day and $375 for a group of eight, before fees and tax. Check-in opens at 5 p.m. at the Chamber office, 14460 Big Basin Way, and every attendee needs a photo ID.

Kelly lives and works in this community and keeps close track of how the calendar shapes daily life in Saratoga, from Saturdays at Hakone to evenings at Montalvo. If you're thinking about what your home is worth in a town where so much happens within a few miles of the Village, Kelly Dippel is happy to talk it through. Request a complimentary home valuation.