Anaheim's Halloween Parade Is a True California Classic

Here's something that's deeply indisputable: If you enjoy a long and interesting life, you don't need to wait for your 100th birthday to start touting that impressive, celebration-worthy number.

You can start telling people, proudly, years beforehand, that you'll soon be 100 years old.

If the Anaheim Fall Festiva and Halloween Parade could talk, it might just be touting that terrific fact. For the late-October event is now in the centennial home stretch, which is only a few festive years away.

And such festive years they'll surely be, for this community-big party is full of charm, nostalgia, and lots of neato activities for the tots. It's ready to paint pumpkins, and show off cute costumes, on Saturday, Oct. 26.

Oh yes, there's a Halloween Pooch Pawrade, too, if your Fido feels left out.

It's all happening at Center Street Promenade, while the sun is high, but don't dash away as the sky grows dark.

For the Halloween Parade starts at 6 p.m., and while there will be plenty of floats, outlandish get-ups, waving participants, and cool sights to see, everyone wants a glimpse of Andy Anaheim, the longtime parade mascot.

Broadway is the main thoroughfare for this merry procession.

It's all free, and, for sure, one of our region's most venerable expressions of autumn and Halloween joy.

And, truly, how often do you get to combine both the season's gentle pleasures and the spookiest holiday in one big two-parter of a bash?

It's no surprise that this great, people-pleasing gathering will honor its centennial in under a half decade. 

It's "A Hometown Tradition" that many Southern Californians have enjoyed since they were babies.

Do you have a baby who'll one day be talking about this fall must-do on the occasion of the festival's 150th?

Best keep the autumn glow going, for generations to come.