A neighborhood Halloween invitation makes room for haunted yards, apartment-window ghosts and the most important attraction of all: someone glad to see the kids.
Bixby Knolls is inviting its neighbors to unleash Halloween. The twelve-foot skeletons are welcome. So are the paper ghosts, suspiciously well-dressed dogs and households whose entire production is a bowl of candy and a hello.
Knolloween, organized by Bixby Knolls Commons, brings those contributions together on a neighborhood Halloween map. Residents can add their homes, share what they have made and indicate whether they will welcome trick-or-treaters on Saturday, October 31. The goal is bigger than finding the best decorations: help children discover Halloween close to home, and help families get to know the people behind the doors.
“You shouldn’t need a twelve-foot skeleton to make a kid’s night. A bowl of candy and being glad they showed up can do it. We want kids to feel that welcome in their own neighborhood and to recognize a few more people the next time they walk down the block.”
Joe Hayden, Founding Neighbor & Commons Director
A Map for Every Kind of Welcome
The map gives that welcome somewhere to show up. An elaborate haunted yard can sit alongside an apartment window, a shop or a shared gathering place. Households can make their trick-or-treat participation visible even without a display.
Families should check each listing’s details: decorations alone do not mean treats are available, and participating places set their own hours.
Contests and the Supreme Relic
October also brings contests for decorated places, pumpkins, costumes and pets, with voting open through November 2. A small Commons jury will award the Supreme Relic to a place that captures Knolloween’s spirit through imagination and welcome. Vote totals do not decide that award. Neighbors and businesses can also offer prizes.
There is room for the lovingly overbuilt and the wonderfully simple. What connects them is a neighborhood making something together and children seeing that they have a place in it.
Roots in Lights on Falcon
Knolloween carries some of the creative nerve of Lights on Falcon, the neighborhood light-and-music display created by Hayden and his partner, Chris Payne. Over the years, visitors have asked how to bring that sense of connection to their own blocks. The Commons starts with the people already here and gives more of their ideas, traditions and everyday kindness a way to meet.
Halloween makes a particularly good introduction. A familiar address becomes the neighbor with the memorable costume or the generous candy bowl. The hope is that those introductions last longer than the decorations.
How to Take Part
Knolloween runs across the neighborhood throughout October. It is a collection of participating places and activities rather than one centrally staffed event.
- Explore the map
- Add a place
- Enter a creation
- Offer a prize
Get started at bixbyknollscommons.org/knolloween.
About Bixby Knolls Commons
Bixby Knolls Commons is an independent neighborhood association and an initiative of LightLab Community Arts Foundation, a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It connects neighbors, local groups, businesses, artists and civic partners through shared traditions, practical care and useful information. Bixby Knolls is its home base, with a wider welcome to neighbors in the surrounding Bixby Zone-In area. Renters and homeowners, newcomers and longtime residents are welcome. Learn more at bixbyknollscommons.org.