With the continuation of COVID-19, many friends and neighbors are debating their trick or treat plans. But whatever your decision, there’s still plenty of opportunity for free Halloween fun and some friendly frights by visiting local scarecrow displays in Acworth and Woodstock.
Sponsored by local civic and business organizations, both towns engage creative and fright-loving friends to build scarecrow displays that line their main streets and business places during the weeks leading up to and days just past Halloween. Sponsoring organizations in both cities conduct contests and award prizes to the winners. In Acworth, judges award five prizes for Best Overall, Most Creative, Most Traditional, Best School Entry and Mayor’s Choice. In Woodstock, visitors pay $1 to vote for their favorite scarecrow, with proceeds supporting ongoing beautification efforts in the downtown area.
We Visit Woodstock
On one of our Wandering Wednesdays in October, we packed up the grandsons for a half-day outing to visit the Scarecrow Invasion. We’re always surprised by the amount of activity in and growth near downtown Woodstock. As usual, many downtown parking spots on Main Street were full by our 10 am arrival, but we found parking in the city lot at the corner of (Nightmare on) Elm Street and Market Street.
With over 175 scarecrows, Woodstock’s displays lined both sides of Main Street with spill-overs on Towne Lake Parkway and the shopping and restaurant district of Chambers Street. Portrayals included the usual assortment of Halloween frights, plus cartoon and movie characters, lots of pirates, and many local themes. While some displays included one scarecrow, many featured elaborate sets with multiple figures, sound and even motion. Our littles (five and seven-year boys) loved the interactive displays, which mostly included the opportunity to sit and take a picture with the friendly frights.
In the pedestrian-friendly downtown where most of the walkways are set away from traffic, it generally was easy to keep the boys nearby and safe, even with the many distractions drawing their attention. However, in a few locations where there is no dividing space between the sidewalk and traffic, we kept them closer to avoid any potential mishaps. And though we passed on it, a Scarecrow Invasion Scavenger Hunt starts in the downtown Visitor’s Center, challenging participants to locate scarecrows and answer questions for a prize.
We needed just over 75 leisurely-paced minutes to see all the scarecrows, including extra time for photos and discussions with excited little boys. Then we selected from the wide array of restaurants for a take-out lunch and picnic in the park.
Scarecrows Around Acworth
The 2020 version of the Acworth Scarecrow Parade marks the 10th annual event, which ends Nov. 6. Until then Acworth’s scarecrows line both sides of Main Street between Lemon and Mill Streets, with a few spilling over to Center Street and Southside Drive.
With a theme of “Totally 80s,” the Acworth Scarecrows feature typical Halloween characters often dressed in spandex exercise wear, posed in funky dance moves, and reflecting historic 1980s cultural moments. You’ll also find some local color and characters, like the Chef Henry scarecrow outside the landmark downtown Cajun restaurant.
We combined our Acworth visit with an afternoon walk, so we parked at Logan’s Farm by choice to get a few extra steps and allow the littles to climb up the pedestrian bridge and watch trains pass below. And with a good assortment of shops and restaurants to choose from, we stopped in for a sugary special treat of shaved ice at Flavors of Hawaii. Our full exploration of the Acworth scarecrows required less than an hour, plus some extra time spent in the extended walk and bridge stop.
Other Halloween Excursions
Because of the pandemic, many traditional Halloween events have been curtailed or cancelled. Owl-O-Ween at Kennesaw State University featuring hot air balloon displays is one of the cancellation victims, but we hope it will be back next year. Over at Six Flags, where we are season ticket holders, Fright Fest is underway, though it’s taken on a different vibe in 2020 due to distancing and pandemic concerns.
But that doesn’t really bother us because our family doesn’t enjoy real Halloween frights. Thus, we’ve enjoyed simply driving around Brookstone and the surrounding neighborhoods checking out the creative displays, which seem to be more prevalent and elaborate this year than in the past.
