Pumpkin Picking at Newham Grange Farm

The Halloween activities here are included in the normal farm admission price, which makes this one of the cheaper ways to get children into a pumpkin patch on Teesside. The farm runs a Halloween weekend on 17 and 18 October, then Halloween week from 24 to 31 October.

The site is dressed for the season with giant skeletons, creepy spiders and other displays, and there is a witches' cabin to look into. A Halloween trail ends in a trick-or-treat finale, spooky crafts run alongside it, and children who arrive in costume can win spot prizes through the day.

Pumpkins are bought at admission rather than picked and paid for in the field, cost £3.75 each and are subject to availability, so arriving early on a busy day helps if a pumpkin is the point of the trip. Carving happens in the Discovery Barn.

All the farm's usual activities, animals and play areas stay open as normal, including the indoor soft play, so a wet afternoon is not a washout. One thing to plan around: last admission during the Halloween events is earlier than usual, and both the pumpkin patch and the carving barn close in the middle of the afternoon, so an after-lunch arrival leaves very little time. Frightmare on the Farm, a separately ticketed after-dark event, runs on Wednesday 28 October at £10 per person.