Westchester Fall Family Events: Dinorsaur Train Live and The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze

PLUS: The Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival and Exit Stage Left BY: Marisa LaScala

exit stage left photo courtesy of emelin theatreExit Stage Left
November 23
Emelin Theatre, Mamaroneck
(914) 698-0098; emelin.org
If you love Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, so do these guys. Bringing vaudeville and slapstick comedy into the 21st century is a tall order, but somehow they manage to do it. The five-person ensemble blends physical comedy and live music into a show that the New York Post says features “enough slamming doors, pratfalls, songs, magic tricks, tap-dancing, and slapstick to fuel a dozen shows.” 

 

Dinosaur Train Live: Buddy’s Big Adventure
October 19
Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown
(914) 631-3390; tarrytownmusichall.org
Kids love dinosaurs. Kids love trains. Even if they’ve never seen the PBS/Jim Henson Company TV show it’s based on, a ticket to Dinosaur Train Live is a no-brainer. The performance brings the TV characters to the stage in a musical that promises to have the little ones up and dancing. 

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The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze
October 5 – November 11
Van Cortlandt Manor, Croton-on-Hudson
(914) 631-8200; hudsonvalley.org
It just wouldn’t be Halloween without a trip to the family-beloved Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, where thousands of illuminated carved pumpkins combine to form glowing skeletons, snakes, monsters, and other tableaux. It’s not all scary, either: You can walk through a Tunnel O’ Pumpkin Love before grabbing a hot cider in the food tent. 

Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival
October 5
Robert E. Bell Middle School, Chappaqua
chappaquachildrensbookfestival.com
Westchester is a hotbed of children’s publishing. Don’t believe us? Check out the list of 70+ (!) local children’s and YA authors and illustrators converging on the first-ever Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival. Your kids can meet them, hear them read from their books, and generally get excited about reading something that’s not on the iPad. 


The great jack o’lantern blaze photo by brian haeffeleThe Great Jack O’Lantern
Blaze
By the Numbers

When The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze rolls into Van Cortlandt Manor each year, it’s a big deal. A very big deal. To give you an idea of the scope of the event, we asked the organizers to crunch some numbers for us. Here, the number of…

…pounds of pumpkin ordered for 2013: 240,000
…visitors to The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze in 2012: 90,000+
…votive candles used: 26,000
…additional non-votive lights used: 5,000
…Jack o’lanterns on display each evening: 5,000+
…volunteers overall working at or on this year’s Blaze: 1,000
…seeds in the typical pumpkin: 300
…days it takes to grow the average pumpkin: 100
…different Blaze-branded retail items available: 80
…gallons of hot cider consumed nightly: 36
…nights it’ll be open in 2013: 25
…different themed areas throughout the Blaze: 20+
…artists participating in this year’s Art of the Pumpkin exhibit: 25
…pumpkin carvers used this year: 20 
…hours it takes to light all the candles each night: 3

» For more from the 2013 Fall Arts Preview, click here

Our Westchester Home Builders Awards take place on April 4!

Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Forum is March 14!

Unveiled: A Boutique Bridal Brunch is February 25!

Our Best of Westchester Elimination Ballot is open through March 6!

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