Face Your Fears 2026: 31 Days of Halloween

Face Your Fears is back for 2026 — and this time I’m stretching it across the whole of October.

The original Face Your Fears Week started as a Halloween half-term challenge. It included family days out, theatre, spooky adventures and things that pushed me outside my comfort zone. However, I never wanted it to be about pretending I wasn’t scared. Instead, the point was to try something anyway, make memories and see what happened.

For 2026 I’m bringing the idea back as 31 Days of Halloween. Some days will be proper adventures, while others will focus on theatre, horror or family-friendly fun. There may also be smaller challenges at home. Meanwhile, this page will be the main hub for the month. I can track what I’m considering, what I’ve chosen and what I actually did. It will also collect every new post that comes out of the challenge.

Where Face Your Fears Began

In fact, the first Face Your Fears Week became a little Halloween diary of its own. It included Ripley’s Wicked in London, The Very Hungry Caterpillar on stage, Kidtropolis and Kew Gardens. Finally, the week ended with a gloriously messy SlimeFest finale in Guildford.

That original post is staying exactly where it belongs in the Clarissa’s Corner archive. Rather than rewriting history, the 2026 series starts here. It also links back to where the idea first began.

Halloween 2026 Ideas & Guides

These are the current Halloween 2026 ideas, guides and events on the Clarissa’s Corner radar. As October develops, I’ll use this section to keep the new Face Your Fears content together.

Face Your Fears 2026: What’s on the Radar

This is the working shortlist. Not everything here means I’m definitely going. Some are confirmed Halloween ideas already covered on Clarissa’s Corner, while others are possibilities I’m weighing up before I build the final 31-day plan.

Horror & Bigger Scares

• NOX at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: Dark Arts Halloween 2026 — a strong late-October option if I decide to go properly dark.
• Alton Towers Scarefest 2026 — family spooky fun and full scare attractions in one place.
• Psycho Path 2026 — very firmly in the “how brave am I feeling?” pile.

Local & Dark Days Out

• Halloween at Eltham Palace 2026 — a local family-friendly half-term possibility.
• Crossness Pumping Station — its autumn programme includes a Halloween Steampunk Spooktacular.
• Halloween & October Half-Term 2026 in Bexley — useful for spotting local family options without having to travel across London every day.

Family Halloween

• Halloween at Paultons Park 2026 — a much gentler spooky-day option.
• Peppa Pig Halloween Afternoon Tea Bus — family Halloween in central London.
• Spooky Halloween Afternoon Tea Bus — the less Peppa, more spooky version.

More Family Halloween Finds

• Horrible Histories Halloween at Leeds Castle — 17 October–1 November. Silly Ghosts & Ghastly History mixes royal ghosts, witchcraft, superstition and gruesome history with live performers around the Castle. It is included with daytime admission, with an optional trail booklet costing extra. If Horrible Histories is already your thing, we also have Clarissa’s archive reviews of Terrible Tudors and Terrible Thames.

• Halloween at Godstone Farm — 17 October–1 November in Surrey, with the Halloween Traitor Mystery Trail, Dinosaur Squeak, free face art, crafts, a spooky scarecrow maze, pig feeding and optional pumpkin carving and marshmallow toasting. The farm also has a separate low-bangs Mini Fireworks Festival on 24–25 October.
• Enchanted Autumn Fest at Morden Park — 22–31 October, combining an illuminated light trail, pumpkin picking, Halloween folklore and storytelling, family attractions, live entertainment and the Monster Mash. This looks like a strong London half-term option for the 31 Days of Halloween radar.

At-Home & Smaller Challenges

Not every Face Your Fears day needs tickets or a train journey. The 2026 plan can also include horror-film nights, spooky books, Halloween crafts, trying something outside my comfort zone, themed food, a Lush Halloween bath, a horror bingo card and other smaller challenges that make the month feel connected without turning October into one exhausting marathon.

The 31-Day Plan

This will become the proper October diary. I’ll move ideas into the plan as I decide what I’m actually doing, then add links when each experience, review or challenge goes live.

Day	Plan	Status	Post / Review
1–20 October	Build-up: films, books, local Halloween, theatre and smaller challenges	Planning	Links added as they go live
21–26 October	Face Your Fears Week	Core challenge week	To be decided
27–31 October	Final Halloween run	Planning around existing commitments	To be decided

This section is deliberately flexible. The aim is to build a month I actually want to do, not force 31 expensive days out just because there are 31 boxes.

October Ideas Now on the Radar

These are options rather than fixed personal plans. I’m keeping the calendar realistic and using them where they fit rather than forcing every Halloween find into the core challenge week.

16 October — Witching the Wild Year at Emmetts Garden

This autumn folklore evening with Zoë Howe runs from 6.30pm–7.30pm and costs £15. It fits the 1–20 October build-up, so it does not clash with the 21–26 October core Face Your Fears week. It is a strong folklore/seasonal-culture option rather than a scare attraction.

Check Witching the Wild Year →

Gentler family Halloween options

For the family side of the month, Chartwell’s We’re Going on a Ghost Hunt runs from 3 October–1 November and Scotney Castle’s Monsters around the Moat runs from 17 October–1 November. Both can stay as flexible Kent options rather than fixed commitments.

See the practical and accessibility notes in our Halloween 2026 guide.

Latest from Face Your Fears 2026

As individual Face Your Fears posts are published, they will appear here automatically.

More Halloween on Clarissa’s Corner

Face Your Fears is only one part of our Halloween coverage. I’ll also keep building guides to family events, horror experiences, theatre, films, dark history and spooky days out across London and the South East as new dates are confirmed.