My second birthday gift was to attend The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze in Croton-On-Hudson, New York. We chose the perfect crisp fall night for viewing seven thousand lit jack o’lanterns—crisp, cool air with crunchy leaves underfoot, and the crowd was enthusiastic but chill, now that Halloween was past. The ambiance the spooky, but not so spooky it terrified the littles in the crowd.
Overall, Blaze is an impressive display of pumpkin art with different areas dedicated to different themes running from a pumpkin-based fine art gallery (Banksy in pumpkin) to iconic NYC images, Celtic knots, dinosaurs and so, so much more. While all the jack o’lanterns are hand-carved, only some are carved from real pumpkins. Others are carved from realistic-looking faux pumpkins and, considering the size of the display, this only makes sense.
If you want to visit Blaze around Halloween, I strongly suggest you purchase your tickets well in advance. There is plenty of parking and you can purchase snacks and drinks from a tent at The Blaze, but I say save your money and have a nice dinner with drinks ahead of time. We had supper at Badageoni, a Georgian restaurant in Mount Kisco, and ate so much khachapuri adjaruli (cheesy bread).