Canal-O-Ween Highlights Lit Pumpkins, Delaware Canal Stroll in Yardley

YARDLEY, PA —If you like Halloween, pumpkins, and the Delaware Canal, then Yardley will be your hot spot next week.

The borough will also hold its annual Halloween parade on Saturday.

And then comes a week of festivities with the annual Canal-O-Ween, a Yardley Halloween tradition where Jack-O-Lanterns are carved at our family fun Carv-O-Thon and lit nightly for crisp, evening strolls along the historic Delaware Canal, which earned Pennsylvania's Trail of the Year Award.

Experience Yardley organizers said this season marks 12 years for the event, which starts Sunday, Oct. 30, with the Carve-O-Thon.

"It's one of the few events that last for multiple days," Councilman David Appelbaum told Patch Thursday. "It's a great community event, but it brings people here from outside the area too. This event creates memories for years to come."

What follows Carve-O-Thon is when volunteers place the pumpkins along the canal, light them up, and the Jack-O-Lantern Stroll begins.

Located on North Edgewater Avenue along the historic Delaware Canal in the Rivermawr neighborhood, the stroll lets residents and visitors safely enjoy fall’s beauty within the natural, car-free setting of the canal.

"Canal-O-Ween is all about carving pumpkins and enjoying the creativity and imagination put into 300-plus Jack-O-Lanterns along with their warm candle-lit glow and sharing the beauty of fall together with friends and family," organizers said.

A new addition this year is a 5K Run by a partner organization, Run Bucks.

Appelbaum said the event is labor intensive with a lot of volunteers needed to carve the pumpkins, set them up for the canal stroll and dispose of them. He said the pumpkins are ground up and then sprinkled into the soil.

For more information, visit the Experience Yardley website.

If You Go

• Carve-O-Thon - Oct. 30; 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
• Evening Stroll - Oct. 30 through Nov. 5; ~6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• 5K Run - Oct. 30; race begins at 3:15 p.m.