Every October, Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg closes for a whole month for regular visits only to open in the evenings for lit pumpkins. About 7,000 handcrafted pumpkins are put together for a colourful light show with huge pumpkin sculptures. The pathway is a kilometre long and takes about 30 minutes to complete.
The event is open nightly in October only after 7pm to make sure that it’s dark enough to appreciate the displays. October can get rainy, so either check the weather forecast ahead of time or wear boots to wade through the soft unpaved roads.
Advance ticket sales cost $16 per person this year with free admission for children under four. Again, be sure to check the weather ahead of time if you’re coming with a baby pram, I saw so many parents pushing their prams through the mud.
Although they say that the displays are made of pumpkins, I have heard that the pumpkins are actually made of polystyrene foam. That actually makes sense to me since real pumpkins are likely to rot and deteriorate quite quickly in the rain and sun for days on end after they’ve been carved. It was too dark for me to determine the facts, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
The first few displays of dogs with “Who let the dogs out” as background music was corny, but any 7-year-old boy would love the shark and octopus maritime display if they weren’t already captivated by the triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex at the dinosaur display.
A magical forest display with mushroom houses (who said you can’t enter a mush-room?), fairies, and deer might appeal to the 7-year-old-girl. Teens might like steampunk station, parents would reminisce at the “groovy sixties” display, and grandparents would be relived to see Van Gogh, American Gothic, and the Mona Lisa just before they leave.
If the pumpkins let the dogs out, who let the pumpkins out?
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