Colts Neck's main Halloween day this year is Saturday, Oct. 24. It has two parts. The Colts Neck PTO runs a Trunk or Treat at Bucks Mill Park from 1 to 3 p.m. Then the township's Historical Preservation Committee hosts "All Hallows Eve Along the Burlington Path" at Firehouse #1 from 5 to 8 p.m.
The township didn't organize either one. Volunteer groups run both, and each event reflects the group behind it. The afternoon belongs to the PTO and the local business association. The evening is a ticketed event named for a road that began as an Indigenous footpath.
Why the township calendar shows an empty Saturday
Check the October 2026 calendar on the Colts Neck Township website and Oct. 24 and 25 have no listings. Neither does Oct. 31. We also couldn't find any 2026 township notice setting trick-or-treat hours or announcing a Halloween parade. That doesn't mean the events are off. Both have been announced in local news and in committee records. The township calendar just isn't a full list of community events.
The planning shows up in other places. The Historical Preservation Committee's minutes from February 2026 already list the Halloween event for Oct. 24/25 from 5 to 8 p.m., with the PTO Trunk or Treat on the same day from 1 to 3 p.m. The committee planned its October hayride eight months ahead and fit its timing around the PTO's afternoon event. The committee's June 2025 agenda shows the same habit. It carried a line for the 2024 Halloween event and called for subcommittee and food signups.
So the township's Halloween comes together through committee agendas and PTO emails, not through Town Hall. That explains why the details are scattered, and why it helps to have them in one place.
1 p.m., Bucks Mill Park
The afternoon event is the simpler of the two. The Colts Neck PTO hosts the Trunk or Treat at Bucks Mill Park from 1 to 3 p.m. Families decorate their cars, and prizes go to the best-decorated ones. A recent township notice lists the Bucks Mill Recreation Area at 135 Bucks Mill Rd.
You pay in candy, not cash. What to have ready:
- Admission: one bag of candy per child, in its original packaging
- Decorating a car: questions go to [email protected]
- Sponsors: the Colts Neck Business Association, Colts Neck Flag Football and the Colts Neck PTO
The sponsor list shows how the afternoon works. A school parent group, a youth sports league and the business association pool what they have. Every family's bag of candy becomes the supply that gets handed back out across the parked cars.
The park is also due for upgrades. On Sept. 29, 2026, Monmouth County announced a $55,000 Municipal Open Space Grant for Colts Neck's Bucks Mill Park Facilities Improvement Project. The release doesn't say when work will start or which facilities will change.
The road behind the evening's name
The evening event gets its name from local history. A booklet on the township website describes the Burlington Trail as a forest footpath, first used by Indigenous people and later by settlers. The Colts Neck Inn stood near it and served stagecoaches and dispatch riders traveling between inland towns and the shore. The Monmouth County Clerk's archives call the Burlington Path a stagecoach route between Middletown, Trenton and Burlington.
The Historical Preservation Committee could have called its Halloween night anything. It chose the name of the old route that ran past the Colts Neck Inn. On the night itself the history is light. It shows up in the name, in the spooky stories by the bonfire, and in the fact that the people running the hayride spend the rest of the year working on preservation.
5 p.m., Route 537
All Hallows Eve runs from 5 to 8 p.m. at Colts Neck Firehouse #1. The Colts Neck Volunteer Fire Co. No. 1 firehouse is at 123 Route 537. This year's lineup:
- A haunted hayride, with the last ride leaving at 8 p.m.
- Pick-your-own pumpkins
- Spooky tales by the bonfire
- Music, dancing, crafts, a bounce house and face painting
- Prizes for best costume
- A Halloween shop and refreshments under the "spooky pavilion"
Admission is $10 per adult and $5 per child. Children two and under get in free. If it rains, the event moves to Sunday, Oct. 25. In 2025, admission covered the hayride, the pumpkin patch and the bonfire stories, and the event was cash only. The 2026 announcement doesn't mention payment, so bringing cash is the safe choice.
Compared with last year, the evening has grown. The 2025 notices listed a hayride, a pumpkin patch, bonfire stories, face painting, a Halloween shop and a costume contest. This year's listing adds music, dancing, crafts and a bounce house. Those are things for younger children to do while the older ones wait for the hayride.
Only the evening event has a published rain date. If Saturday is wet and All Hallows Eve moves to Sunday, the two halves of the day will fall on different days.
Filling the two hours in between
The Trunk or Treat ends at 3 p.m. and the firehouse opens at 5. Eastmont Orchards says it's open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Sept. 18 through Oct. 25, plus Columbus Day, weather permitting. It's selling pumpkins, fall decorations, local jams and honey, and has a new corn maze. The farm's last weekend of the season is the same weekend as the Halloween events, so Oct. 24 is one of your final chances for the corn maze this year. Eastmont asks visitors to call ahead.
The rest of October
The same pattern runs through the rest of the month. Nonprofits, a church and a farm fill Colts Neck's October calendar more than the township does.
- Friday, Oct. 9, 6:30 to 10 p.m.: The Hackensack Meridian Bayshore Medical Center Foundation brings back its Oktoberfest at Stillwell Stables in Colts Neck. This year's proceeds support a new 10-bed Intermediate Care Unit at the hospital in Holmdel.
- Sunday, Oct. 11: Colts Neck Community Church holds its annual Fall Fest, with an outdoor service, a pig roast, live music, inflatables, a train and a mechanical bull.
- Monday, Oct. 12: Columbus Day, which Eastmont lists as an extra open day.
- Saturday, Oct. 24: Trunk or Treat at 1 p.m., All Hallows Eve at 5 p.m.
- Sunday, Oct. 25: the All Hallows Eve rain date and Eastmont's last listed day of the season.
Both Halloween announcements were posted weeks before the event, so check the PTO and committee notices again in the days before Oct. 24. The candy, the cash and the costumes are on you. The volunteers who have been planning since February handle the rest.
Mark Viggiani's community work with the Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce and SCAN NJ keeps him close to how this county's local calendar really comes together. If you're thinking about what your Colts Neck home is worth, or about a move, Viggiani Property Group can start with a free home valuation and calm, local advice.