The pumpkin on your front step has a schedule in Reading this year. It can go to a festival on Woburn Street on October 24 and sit on the porch through Halloween. On November 7 it gets a send-off in a high school parking lot, where Reading Composts and the Town of Reading will let you throw it at a target. Three weeks later, the lights come on over the Common.
That middle event is new. The first annual Reading Pumpkin Smash gives early November an anchor, and it turns six weeks of separate dates into one season with a beginning, a middle and an end. Here is that season in order, with exact times and addresses. It also covers the grocery stop that opened on Walkers Brook Drive the same month.
The season opened at the Crossing at Walkers Brook
Before any pumpkins, Reading got a new store. Patch reported that Trader Joe's held its grand opening on Wednesday, October 14, at 34 Walkers Brook Drive. The store is in the Crossing at Walkers Brook plaza, alongside Jordan's Furniture, Home Depot, Chipotle and Chili's, near Route 128 and I-95.
The numbers give it some scale. The new store covers 9,865 square feet, most of the space Staples used to fill, and it hired 40 people from the area. It is the 22nd Trader Joe's in Massachusetts, following recent openings in West Roxbury and Newton. So Reading isn't opening a first-of-its-kind store. It's catching up with a regional rollout, and by October 22 the store will have been open about a week.
The store has a small part in the season. The Pumpkin Smash on November 7 asks everyone who comes to bring nonperishable food for the Reading Food Pantry. If you're making a weekend grocery run anyway, you can pick up those cans in the same trip.
Downtown has a quieter addition from earlier in the year. Reading Recap reported that Virginia's Café & Market opened on March 7, 2026 at 26 Haven Street, in the former Pamplemousse storefront across from the Reading commuter rail station. It is a Portuguese-inspired coffeehouse and market that sells Portuguese coffee drinks, house-made Portuguese pastries, sandwiches and Portuguese pantry goods. On a cold Saturday in late fall, that's where your morning coffee comes from on Haven Street.
October 23 and 24 put the costumes on early
The first pumpkin dates come a week before Halloween, on back-to-back days.
On Friday, October 23, the Reading Public Library holds a Trick or Treat Storytime for children ages 0 to 5, from 10 to 11 a.m. The library says it includes a costume parade and needs no registration. If you have a toddler, Friday morning is a low-pressure first outing for the costume, a full week before October 31.
On Saturday evening, October 24, Creative Arts holds its 4th Annual Pumpkin-Fest from 5 to 7 p.m. at 25 Woburn Street, according to the Town of Reading calendar. This is its fourth year, which makes it the established event in the pumpkin season. The Smash two weeks later is the newcomer.
November 7 gives the pumpkin somewhere to go
Reading Recap reported that Reading Composts and the Town of Reading will host the first annual Reading Pumpkin Smash on Saturday, November 7, 2026. It runs from 9 a.m. to noon in the Performing Arts Center parking lot at Reading Memorial High School, 62 Oakland Road. The theme is "Smash, Don't Trash!" You bring your old pumpkins and smash them at targets and a hoop instead of throwing them away.
The rules are short, and worth checking before you load the car:
- No paint, glitter or candles. Pumpkins must be free of all three, so remove the tea light and skip the painted ones.
- Bring a pantry donation. Organizers ask for nonperishable food for the Reading Food Pantry.
- Come any age. The event is open to all ages.
- Plan for coffee. There will be a Coastal Coffee cart, a pumpkin-themed bake sale, face painting and fall crafts.
The no-paint rule pays off weeks earlier. If you want your pumpkin to make the November trip, carve it or leave it whole when you decorate in October. Glitter and paint rule it out.
The Smash is the town's pumpkin event, but your yard keeps shedding through November. The Town's Compost Area takes leaves, grass clippings, yard waste and tree trimmings from Reading residents. It sits on Strout Avenue at the end of Grove Street, past the golf course. Check the posted schedule before you go.
November's four dates lead to one Sunday
November keeps a steady pace, with four public dates spread across the month, all heading toward its last Sunday.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, Nov. 4, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. | Reading Revolts | Reading Public Library, Community Rooms A & B, 64 Middlesex Ave. |
| Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 a.m. to noon | First annual Reading Pumpkin Smash | RMHS Performing Arts Center lot, 62 Oakland Rd. |
| Saturday, Nov. 21, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Church of the Good Shepherd FALL-iday Fair | 95 Woburn St. |
| Sunday, Nov. 29 | Chamber Tree Lighting Celebrations | Reading and North Reading Town Commons |
Reading Revolts comes three days before the Smash. The town's November calendar lists it in the library's Community Rooms A and B. Reading Recap's events listing says the library will display Colonial Reading documents and artifacts from the Revolutionary era that night. It falls on a Wednesday night, the one weeknight date in the stretch.
Two weeks later, the Church of the Good Shepherd FALL-iday Fair runs Saturday, November 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 95 Woburn Street. Woburn Street bookends the season. Pumpkin-Fest at No. 25 opens it in October, and the FALL-iday Fair at No. 95 hosts the last Saturday event before Thanksgiving.
The Common lights on November 29
The season ends where the town's holiday traditions start. The Reading-North Reading Chamber of Commerce says its next Tree Lighting Celebrations are on Sunday, November 29, 2026. Every year the Chamber holds both towns' lightings at the same time, on the first Sunday after Thanksgiving, when the holiday lights on each Town Common go on for the season. The Chamber says the events draw thousands of local residents.
According to the Chamber, activities vary by location and typically include:
- Local food vendors such as Del Sur Empanadas and Cupcake City
- Hayrides on closed local streets, plus trolley rides
- Pictures with Santa at Reading Cooperative Bank
- Stilt walkers, balloon animals, jugglers, face painters and carolers
- Youth performances by local dance and martial arts studios, plus high school marching bands and chorus groups
- Santa arriving by firetruck at the Common, where the crowd counts down before he turns on the lights
The Chamber also notes that local Reading churches add craft and music events, and that the celebrations are free. Local business sponsorships, Chamber memberships and occasional grants pay for them.
Seen in order, the six weeks have a clear arc. A costume parade at the library opens the season on October 23. Pumpkin-Fest follows on Woburn Street, then the pumpkins get smashed at the high school on November 7. A history night and a church fair fill out the month, and the season closes with Santa on a firetruck counting down on the Common.
A season with this much going on usually brings plenty of visitors through the house. If you're planning how your entry, porch or front room will look from Pumpkin-Fest through the holiday lights, the design studio at Covelle & Company can help you put together a seasonal palette, from a mood board for the front steps to tableware for Thanksgiving. Schedule a Consultation, and we'll plan your home's look for late fall and the holidays.
