Hallowe'en in Greenfield Village
Dearborn, Mich.
Through Oct. 26, 2025
Halloween generally means pumpkins, costumes and candy. But when it happens at Greenfield Village – an outdoor living American history museum in Dearborn – Halloween is celebrated (mostly)19th-century style.
Hallowe'en in Greenfield Village takes place evenings throughout the month of October. The family-friendly event is more fun than scary. Magic shows, fortune tellers, costumed storybook characters and 1000 jack-o-lanterns fill up the historic streets with eerie holograms and skeletons peeping throughout historic windows and parlors. Live-acted, talking projections of the Wizard head from the “Wizard of Oz” and the Cheshire Cat from “Alice in Wonderland” heckle passersby. A spooky train ride takes participants to additional “haunted sites” around the village, with lights, skeletons and characters surrounding the tracks.
Toward the front of the village, a headless horseman ride re-enactment from “Sleepy Hollow” performs periodically, which I have frustratingly missed twice now. The vibe, however, is still cool, and the sound effects are particularly creepy later in the dark when the village begins to close.
What I didn’t miss was the zombie 1950s sock-hop at the Town Hall, where a “dead” high school cheerleader and jock danced to novelty Halloween tunes, played by a werewolf DJ. Apparently, there is an entire evening’s worth of such music, expanding well beyond “Monster Mash” and “The Purple People Eater.” I was here for it.
This year, I added the Harvest Supper to my evening, a fall-themed feast at the village’s Eagle Tavern restaurant. Set in the 1850s, the tavern features vintage recipes from the mid 19th-century. For the Harvest Supper, the multi-course meal is served family-style in candlelight, as it would have been in 1850.
Our innkeeper/tavern owner opened the feast with a welcoming speech, introducing himself as Calvin Wood. He explained that Eagle Tavern – apparently located in Clinton Township, Michigan – was a popular overnight stop for stagecoach travelers on the route between Detroit and Chicago, a journey that took about eight days. A strolling fiddle player and servers in period costumes added to the ambience.
We enjoyed a seasonal menu of fresh-baked bread and jam, squash soup, roasted chicken, carrots and parsnips, smoked pork loin with mustard sauce, sausage stuffing and frosted pumpkin cake. The soup – in particular – was a standout, tasting like a mildly sweet but more savory pumpkin pie filling, perfectly balanced with nutmeg and cinnamon.
Toward the front of the room were historic parlor games, which I had been looking forward to. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of spare time between courses, and we lost track of time during the hour-long feast and missed our window, especially since we were on the opposite side of the tavern. I would have loved it if there had been a little extra time, maybe a half hour or so before or after dinner, for a larger opportunity to play.
Hallowe'en in Greenfield Village is one of the museum’s most popular events – basically selling out each year – and for good reason. It’s a charming, whimsical Halloween experience for kids and adults alike and a great alternative for those looking for a less scary way to celebrate the holiday.
