"Halloween is a goodwill thing and it brands Willow Glen," the executive director of the Willow Glen Business Association told merchants in November 2010, as The Mercury News reported. That meeting was about whether the event should continue at all. It did. Sixteen years later, Trick or Treat Along Lincoln Avenue returns on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. Its format still reflects that debate. Lincoln Avenue's Halloween is hosted by the shops during business hours, a day before the holiday. It runs in two age-specific windows and moves in one direction. Families who show up expecting an evening costume crawl on Halloween night will miss it.
Friday, Oct. 30, at a glance
The WGBA event page lists the 2026 schedule as two separate sessions, open to the public.
| Session | Time | Who it's for | Free book at the Garden Theater |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session 1 | 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. | Toddlers | Kindergarten-aged children and younger |
| Session 2 | 3 to 4:30 p.m. | School-aged children | 1st through 6th grade |
Participating businesses from Minnesota Avenue to Willow Street hand out candy and other goodies along Lincoln Avenue. There are 90 minutes in each window and a two-and-a-half-hour gap between them. Last year, the Mercury News Halloween roundup listed the Willow Glen event for Thursday, Oct. 30. This year Oct. 30 lands on a Friday, so the avenue gets its costumes on the last weekday before Halloween Saturday.
Why a Halloween event runs at lunchtime
The daytime, age-split setup is older than most of the businesses now on the block. Back in 2010, the event was "traditionally held on the Friday before Halloween," and the two groups were already separate. Preschool-age children walked Lincoln Avenue from 10 a.m. to noon, and older children went from 2 to 4 p.m., according to The Mercury News. In 2026 each session starts an hour later and runs 90 minutes instead of two hours, but the split is the same.
It's a merchant event first, and the 2010 numbers show what that costs the merchants. The same Mercury News story reported that one shop handed out 1,500 pieces of candy that year and 2,000 the year before. Another spent $300 on the 1,300 pieces it gave away. Merchants raised the same practical concerns any small retailer would. Store traffic stalls for most of the day. One owner reported she couldn't turn into her bank's parking lot because of the gridlock. Some shopkeepers stood outside to hand out candy so the crowd stayed out of stores full of breakable stock. At the time, participation was voluntary, and some merchants floated ideas such as moving the event to a Sunday or selling family tickets to cover candy.
The event survived, and the 2026 version keeps the features that make a big crowd workable on a working retail street.
- Separate windows by age, so the youngest children aren't sharing a sidewalk with the after-school crowd.
- A single direction of travel. WGBA asks everyone to follow the route clockwise.
- Volunteers on the route. The 2010 event already had volunteer monitors keeping children moving one way and helping with street crossings. WGBA's 2026 listing is recruiting volunteers to serve as crossing guards and sidewalk monitors in both sessions.
The WGBA listing doesn't mention a street closure, and the event relies on sidewalk monitors and crossing guards to manage the crowd.
Walking the route clockwise
The route runs along Lincoln Avenue from Minnesota Avenue to Willow Street, and WGBA asks everyone to move through it clockwise "for safety and ease of trick-or-treating." The San Jose Blog's preview of the 2025 event described the same clockwise route, with local shops handing out candy and goodies.
A practical sequence for Friday:
- Pick the session that matches your youngest child. The free-book giveaway follows the same age split.
- Park in one of the lots listed below rather than on Lincoln itself.
- Join the route and go clockwise. Don't double back against the flow.
- Plan a stop at the Garden Theater, 1165 Lincoln Avenue, for the book giveaway.
Where to park
The WGBA parking page lists street parking plus these public lots:
- Bank of America lot, 1245 Lincoln Ave.
- Behind 1351 Lincoln, entering from Brace Avenue or Minnesota Avenue.
- Behind Thrift Box, entering from Minnesota Avenue.
- Behind the Garden Theater, 1165 Lincoln, entering from Meredith Avenue or Willow Street, across from Bill's Cafe.
The two lots you enter from Minnesota sit near the north end of the route. The Garden Theater lot puts you closest to the book table and the Willow Street end. Families who live within walking distance of Lincoln can skip all of these, which leaves more spaces open during the short windows.
The book table at the Garden Theater
The one stop on the route that isn't a shop is Books for Treats, the nonprofit that will be giving out free books at the Garden Theater during both sessions. Each child chooses one book. Books for Treats is a 501(c)(3) built around Halloween book-giving. It says the Willow Glen tradition began in 2001 and that it has given away as many as 10,000 books a year to children in costume.
"Halloween is already filled with excitement and imagination, so it's the perfect time to give children another kind of treat, one that can take them on countless adventures long after October 31," founder Rebecca Morgan said in the WGBA event announcement. The group accepts donations of new or gently used children's books, plus financial contributions toward future events.
A scheduling note: the Books for Treats homepage still shows older event directions with a different weekday and a different morning location. Go by the WGBA schedule above for 2026. Morning books are for kindergarten age and younger, afternoon books are for 1st through 6th grade, and both are handed out at the Garden Theater.
The same blocks, through December
Halloween opens a run of WGBA events that keep coming back to the same few addresses. The Garden Theater and the 1245 Lincoln check-in point show up again and again.
| Date | Event | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday, Nov. 8 | Garden Theatre Fall Makers Market | Garden Theater, noon to 4 p.m.; with San Jose Makers, over 20 local artists and makers, no ticket required |
| Saturday, Dec. 5, 2026 | Holiday Bubbly Walk | Check-in at 1245 Lincoln Ave.; walk starts at 2 p.m. |
| Dec. 6 through Dec. 17 | Holiday Trolley Rides | Check-in at 1245 Lincoln Ave.; six departures from 5:15 to 9 p.m. |
| Dec. 12, 13, 19 and 20 | Selfies with Santa | Garden Theater, 1165 Lincoln Ave., 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; free |
Details are on the WGBA pages for the makers market, the Bubbly Walk, the trolley rides and Selfies with Santa. WGBA's general events calendar shows slightly different Santa dates than the dedicated page, so check the Santa page before you go.
The schedule follows the same logic as the Halloween event. Most of it runs in daylight or early evening, starts from a fixed check-in point, and is built around Lincoln Avenue's storefronts. On Friday, Oct. 30, the shops between Minnesota and Willow will be handing out candy in the late morning and again after school lets out.
At Georgia Phillips Realty, we track the local calendar as closely as we track the market, because the events on your street are part of what you're buying when you buy a home. If you're thinking about a move within Willow Glen or nearby, schedule a personalized consultation and we'll talk through which blocks put you within walking distance of Lincoln Avenue.
