Newark's annual Halloween Parade steps off Sunday afternoon at Tyre Avenue and Main Street, and Trick-or-Treat Main Street fills the parade's last hour. Seven weeks later, the season ends somewhere new. Winterfest has spent decades on the University of Delaware's Academy Lawn. On Saturday, Dec. 12, it moves to Old Paper Mill Road Park. The city owns that park, which sits across from the Newark Reservoir.
Parking at the new site is free, the event runs in daylight, and the city no longer needs UD's permission to hold it. Each event between now and then lands on one side of that change, so it helps to know which.
The season starts tonight, Thursday, Oct. 22. The Halloween Party at the George Wilson Center, 303 New London Road, runs 5:30 to 7 p.m. Admission is $5 at the door, and you don't have to register. The program includes spooky storytelling, a costume contest, Zombie Limbo, Ghost Bowling, Pin the Hat on the Scarecrow and a scary room maze "to enter if you dare." Every kid gets a pre-packaged bag of candy.
Sunday on Main Street, by the clock
The parade is the one big event of the season that stays downtown. It's also the only one where downtown parking is free. According to the Newark Parks & Recreation catalog, all municipal lots are free during the parade and Trick-or-Treat Main Street, and Main Street stays closed until trick-or-treating ends.
Here's how Sunday, Oct. 25 runs:
- By 2:30 p.m.: If you want to walk in the parade in costume, check in at the information booth at George Read Park. You don't need to pre-register, and walkers get their own line-up space.
- 3 p.m.: The parade starts at Tyre Avenue and Main Street and marches west to College Avenue. Expect marching bands, floats judged on their Halloween theme, antique automobiles and costumed groups.
- 4 to 5 p.m.: Trick-or-Treat Main Street. The catalog promises "goodies from many stores and downtown businesses" and a pumpkin patch for photos.
The Parks & Recreation catalog gives the parade window as 3 to 5 p.m. The City of Newark's event calendar lists 3 to 4 p.m. Since trick-or-treating starts at 4, plan around the catalog's longer window and figure the street stays closed until about 5.
Before you drive downtown, here's what's closed:
- Main Street, Library Avenue to North College Avenue
- Tyre Avenue and Delaware Circle
- Delaware Avenue, Chapel Street to Library Avenue
Neither the parade nor trick-or-treating has a rain date. If the weather looks bad, the city's Leisure Time Hotline at 302-366-7147 has cancellation information. The city also asks people to leave pets at home because of the crowds.
November already happens off Main Street
After Halloween, the calendar moves away from downtown. The November events were already being held at Parks & Recreation sites, so they show what Winterfest is moving toward.
The Turkey Trot is Saturday, Nov. 21, at Norma B. Handloff Park, rain or shine. The 10K starts at 9 a.m. and the 5K walk/run at 10:30 a.m. The Newark Post calls it the oldest road race in Delaware, with both courses running through western Newark and plenty of runners in turkey hats. Online registration is through Races2Run. Mailed and walk-in registrations have to arrive by Wednesday, Nov. 18. The first 500 registrants get a long-sleeve shirt, and shirt and number pickup is Friday, Nov. 20, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Parks & Recreation office.
The 40th Annual Thanksgiving Day Breakfast is Thursday, Nov. 26, 8 to 10:30 a.m., back at the George Wilson Center. The menu is pancakes, eggs, sausage, fruit, coffee, juice and tea. Tickets are $3 in advance and $6 at the door, and anyone 60 or older eats free. The breakfast is meant for neighbors, older adults and area students who would otherwise spend the holiday without family or a companion. There's also an optional food drive for the Delaware Food Bank, so bring a can of fruit, vegetables, meat or tuna. Volunteers are needed on Thanksgiving and the day before, and the catalog warns those spots fill fast.
Why December left the Academy Lawn
The Newark Post reports that for decades, Winterfest kicked off the Christmas season on the first Friday of December on UD's Academy Lawn, with a tree lighting, music, ice sculpting and a visit from Santa. The city's tree had stood on that lawn every holiday season since 1995.
Last year, the Newark Post reported that UD, which owns the lawn, told the city that the tree and any other holiday displays could stay there for no more than one day. The university tied the change to its Campus Culture and Engagement Initiative and its review of how campus space is used. The city's 20-foot tree went up in front of City Hall instead. The 2025 Winterfest was held on Friday, Dec. 5. It still took place on the Academy Lawn, from 6 to 8 p.m. Officials lit a smaller tree that UD's rules required them to take down after the event. The artisans market set up outside the Barnes & Noble on Main Street, and Special Olympics Delaware's Reindeer Run 5K started at 7 p.m. in front of the fire station on Academy Street.
Regular parking fees applied that night, and Academy Street was closed from 4 p.m. until after 9. The city also put up two giant photo-op wreaths on Main Street, in the sidewalk bumpouts in front of Newark United Methodist Church and The Ugly Dumpling.
The Newark Post reported that the lawn was already too small for the event to grow, according to Parks and Recreation Director Paula Ennis, and that UD's decision led to calls to rethink Winterfest. Old Paper Mill Road Park solved both problems. The city owns it, so UD's restrictions don't apply, and the park and the Newark Reservoir both have plenty of free parking. It's Newark's newest park. The city's improvements plan for it lists a multipurpose field, six outdoor pickleball courts, two sand volleyball courts, a mowed grass trail, a seating plaza, a shelter and 100 parking spaces.
The February plan and the December listing
The city's version is in a Feb. 17, 2026 staff memo. It proposed turning "a small evening event and display on the Academy Building Lawn" into a larger, multi-day event, with the new site improving safety, accessibility and crowd circulation. Staff asked for a $15,000 increase to the Winterfest budget, mostly to rent an outdoor synthetic ice rink at an estimated $5,000 to $7,000 a day for two days. The Newark Post reported that council approved the increase and that Ennis was tentatively planning a Friday evening plus a Saturday day and early evening, aiming for 2,000 to 3,000 attendees.
By the Aug. 31, 2026 council meeting, plans also folded Snack with Santa and Santa's Secret Shop into the same event, along with the ice rink, food trucks, children's activities and an artisan market. Here's how that compares with the catalog listing as of this week:
| February proposal | Current Parks & Rec listing | |
|---|---|---|
| Days | Multi-day, tentatively Friday evening and Saturday | Saturday, Dec. 12, with Sunday, Dec. 13 as the inclement-weather date |
| Hours | Included evening programming | 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Programming named | Synthetic ice rink, food trucks, inflatables, lighted trail, performances, artisan market, Santa's arrival, tree lighting | Holiday entertainment, caroling, ice carving, demonstrations, local artisans and small businesses |
| Santa | Santa's arrival | Snack with Santa and Santa's Secret Shoppe, both 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
The current listing doesn't mention the ice rink, the lighted trail or a tree lighting, and it lists no Friday evening, so check back with Parks & Recreation as December gets closer. The Reindeer Run that started outside the fire station last year has no 2026 listing tied to Winterfest yet.
Planning for Dec. 12
Whatever gets added, the basics are set. The event is in daylight, at a park with its own lot, next to a reservoir with more parking. Last year's Winterfest was a two-hour evening event on a downtown lawn with paid parking. This year's is a five-hour daytime event at a city park.
Families with young kids should get there early. Snack with Santa runs only from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and costs $3 per person ages 2 and up, with kids under 2 free. Children must come with a paying adult, and day-of payments are cash only, so the city recommends registering ahead. Santa's Secret Shoppe runs during the same two hours. Kids shop for family gifts priced at $10 and under, volunteers help them choose, and everything gets wrapped for free. Snack with Santa used to be its own event. The Newark Post's early-2026 calendar had it at the George Wilson Center on Dec. 5. The catalog now lists it as "new this year" combined with Winterfest at the new park.
The artisan market comes along too. It started on the Academy Building Lawn in 2024 and last year set up on the Main Street sidewalk outside Barnes & Noble. This year it moves to Old Paper Mill Road Park, its third location in three years, and it's part of a program supported by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts.
So Halloween is still on Main Street this Sunday, Thanksgiving is in its usual places, and Winterfest moves to the park across from the reservoir on Dec. 12, starting at 11 a.m.
Questions like where a new park goes, or which events move into a neighborhood, are part of what makes a Newark address valuable. They're also the details we bring to every pricing conversation. If you're wondering what your home is worth heading into winter, Furrowh Homes will put together a valuation based on the streets and parks around you. Request a Free Home Valuation, and we'll get back to you personally.
