Close your eyes and imagine you're driving with your family on a cool October evening.

Orange and yellow leaves flutter down from the trees.

Your dad turns on to Main Street and suddenly you can't believe your eyes.

Every single house is decorated for Halloween.

There are pumpkins on every porch.

Witches hang from trees.

Skeletons dance in yards, giant spider webs cover bushes.

But that's not all.

The whole street is filled with people in costumes walking around, laughing, and having

fun.

There's a parade with marching bands and floats.

There are special shows and festivals. Your little brother presses his face against

the car window and says, this is the coolest place ever. Your mom smiles and says,

Welcome to a town that really loves Halloween. Some towns in America don't just celebrate Halloween for one night. They celebrate it for

weeks, or even the whole month of October. Let's visit three of the most amazing Halloween towns in the

country. Our first stop is Anoka, Minnesota. This small town has a very special nickname. It's called

the Halloween capital of the world.

That's a big title for a town of only about 17,000 people. But Anoka earned that name by being one of the very first cities in America to celebrate Halloween in a big, organized way.

The story starts way back in 1919. Back then, kids played pranks

on Halloween night, but in Anoka, the pranks got out of hand. Kids tipped over outhouses,

which are like outdoor bathrooms. They soaked windows so people couldn't see through them. They

broke fences and smashed things. One Halloween night, some kids even let a whole

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