We Went to Halloweentown Without Ever Seeing the Movie. It Didn’t Matter.

Confession up front: none of us has seen Halloweentown. Not Dill, not me, not Nori’s grandmother, and certainly not Nori, who showed up in a costume that had nothing to do with Halloweentown and wore it with total confidence anyway.

Last Saturday the four of us drove up to St. Helens for the Spirit of Halloweentown celebration. It was our first visit. We expected a cute small-town festival. What we got was a whole downtown that had quietly agreed to become somewhere else for the month.

Arriving After Dark

We rolled in just after 6:30 PM and parked about three streets away. Free. On a Saturday. During the biggest event in town. Anyone who has tried to park for a Pearl District street fair knows that alone is worth the drive.

The walk in sets the tone. The historic buildings on and around Strand Street are washed in purple, magenta and green light. There are stages with full theater lighting, food trucks lined up, vendor tents tucked into every gap, and a steady crowd moving between all of it. City Hall looks like it has been possessed by a very tasteful poltergeist.

Dill posed in front of City Hall looking like she’d been there for years, which is about how the whole town makes you feel. Within ten minutes you stop being a visitor and start acting like you have opinions about the decorations.

The Museum Has Been Taken Over

The local museum has been fully converted into an alien encounter and a haunted house. Not “a few props in the lobby.” Fully converted. Glowing skull panels, sci-fi machinery, a very committed little green man holding a ray gun, and black-light everything.

The alien setups are stationary scenes, which makes them ideal photo-ops. You can take your time, line up the shot, and let your family pretend to operate equipment none of you understand. We did exactly that.

There are also roaming themed characters around town. We didn’t cross paths with them, so consider that a reason to go back. We did find an end-of-the-world EMT rig parked on the street, which felt about right.

Shops That Committed to the Bit

The part that surprised us most was the storefronts. The business owners in St. Helens did not phone this in. Window displays, exterior lighting, full themed facades. Every shop looked like it was competing for something, and in fairness, there is a window decorating contest, so they were.

We ended up buying several things across several shops, which is what happens when the browsing is this pleasant. Inside, a lot of these places are genuinely good boutiques: curated, well lit and worth a visit on any ordinary weekend.

The Columbia Theatre

The Columbia Theatre’s neon marquee is doing a lot of the atmospheric heavy lifting downtown. The night we went, it was showing Avengers: Endgame and The Faraway Tree, which is the kind of double feature you only get in a town with real character.

Performers Worth Planning Around

The festival books a serious lineup of circus, comedy and variety acts. These three are worth building your visit around.

Supernova the Strongwoman (@supernovatalent): A Portland-based strongwoman trained by Cirque du Soleil coaches. Her show mixes feats of strength with acrobatics and stunts, and she brings audience members up on stage to help. Powerful and playful in equal measure, and a local act worth supporting.

Bright Heart Circus (@brightheartcircus): Kendall and Allie, a variety and circus duo known for spinning ten hoops at once. They perform in the daytime and again in the evening with LED displays, so this is one of the best reasons to show up before dark and stay late.

Rhys Thomas JuggleMania (@jugglemania): Rhys has juggled in 30 countries, worked NBA halftime shows and served as an Artist in Residence at the Smithsonian. He also juggles on a very tall unicycle, which is exactly as tense to watch as it sounds.

The Main Event: The Pumpkin Lighting

If you only stay for one thing, stay for this.

The night ends with a pumpkin lighting ceremony. It opens with a countdown and some commentary from actors from the Halloweentown movies. We had no idea who they were. The crowd absolutely did, and that energy is contagious.

Then the pumpkin lights up. It’s about four feet wide. Mystical music starts, and the pumpkin runs through a series of colorful lighting effects, glowing from the inside out as the music builds. At the crescendo, everything eases into a calm melody, and the pumpkin settles into a steady, quiet glow.

It’s a surprisingly peaceful way to end a loud, bright, busy night. A whole street of people just standing there watching a gourd. We’d do it again.

Here’s the full ceremony, so you can see it for yourself:

Why This Matters If You’re House Hunting

Here’s the real estate part. I’ll keep it short, because you came here for the pumpkin.

Living in the Portland and Beaverton area means a night like this is a casual Saturday decision, not a vacation. We drove up in the early evening and were home that night. St. Helens sits roughly 45 minutes from Beaverton, depending on traffic and route. That proximity is one of the most underrated perks of living here: you are always a short drive from a small town doing something wonderful.

And then there’s the secret version of that perk. If you choose to live along Highway 30, the road to Astoria that runs through Scappoose, St. Helens and Columbia City, this isn’t a day trip at all. It’s your town’s thing. You get river views, small-town downtowns that still throw a proper party, and Portland within commuting distance.

Most buyers don’t think to look up Highway 30. The ones who do tend to stop asking why everyone else hasn’t. If that kind of trade sounds right to you, more space and more character for a bit more drive, we’re happy to show you around. I’ll even tell you where to park.

Curious about living along the Highway 30 corridor? Reach out to the Dill Ward Group and let’s talk.

If You Go

You have until November 1, 2026. Don’t sleep on it.

• Where: Downtown St. Helens, centered around 275 Strand St, St. Helens, OR 97051
• When: Select days through November 1. Check the event calendar for the nights that are open.
• Arrive: Before sunset. We got there around 6:30 PM and wished we’d come earlier. Daylight gets you more time on the street and a shot at the scheduled performances before the pumpkin lighting.
• Parking: Free street parking a few blocks out. Wear comfortable shoes and enjoy the walk.
• Don’t miss: The pumpkin lighting at the end of the night, the alien encounter and haunted house in the museum, the shop windows, and the performers above. Check the event calendar for show times.
• Bring: A costume, any costume. Nori’s had nothing to do with Halloweentown, and nobody checked.
• Details and tickets: spiritofhalloweentown.co

We went in knowing nothing about the movie and left planning next year’s costume. That’s the whole review.