October 31, 2026 • The Bluffs • Vail, Arizona
A Neighborhood-Wide Evening
A fun, family-friendly evening throughout our neighborhood—created by residents and hosted at participating homes. Learn what is being planned, explore ways your household can participate and sign up if you choose.
Passport to The Bluffs After Dark
How It Works
How to Enter the Drawing
Who Can Participate?
Pick up a free passport at any official Passport Stop, or print one at home. Use the event map to visit stops in any order and collect a different hole-punch shape at each one.
Collect the minimum number of punches printed on the passport to qualify for the grand-prize drawing. It is not a race, and you do not need to visit every stop.
Who Can Participate?
How to Enter the Drawing
Who Can Participate?
The Passport Challenge is open to children, teens, and adults. Each participant must use their own passport, and each person may receive one entry in the grand-prize drawing.
Several people from the same household may participate as long as each person completes and submits a separate passport.
How to Enter the Drawing
How to Enter the Drawing
How to Enter the Drawing
Photograph your completed passport and text the picture to the event number printed on the passport. Your submission must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on November 1.
Make sure the entire passport is visible, including the punch shapes and contact information. Send only one passport in each photograph. Completed passports will not be collected at participating homes.
Grand-Prize Drawing
Finding Passport Stops
How to Enter the Drawing
Every verified passport will receive one entry in the random grand-prize drawing. A grand-prize winner and a backup winner will be drawn at the same time with two
committee members present.
The grand-prize winner must respond from the phone number submitted on the passport within 48 hours. If the winner does not respond, the backup winner will be contacted.
What Counts?
Finding Passport Stops
Finding Passport Stops
Only different hole-punch shapes collected from official Passport Stops count toward the required minimum. Receiving the same punch more than once will not increase your total.
No purchase, registration, correct answer, or additional activity is required to receive a punch. The number of different punches needed to qualify will be printed on the passport.
Finding Passport Stops
Finding Passport Stops
Finding Passport Stops
Official Passport Stops will be identified on the event map and marked with a Passport Stop sign. Each stop’s participation hours will be listed on the passport.
Blank passports will be available at every Passport Stop. A printable version will also be available online before the event.
Costume Contest
How It Works
Who Can Enter?
Who Can Enter?
The Costume Contest takes place throughout the neighborhood during The Bluffs After Dark—there is no stage, scheduled performance, or end-of-night ceremony. Contestants register at an official judging home, choose one category, and visit the judging homes along their regular Halloween route.
Who Can Enter?
Who Can Enter?
Who Can Enter?
The Costume Contest is open to individual contestants. Children and teens are eligible, and the planning committee is also considering opening the contest to adults. Final eligibility details will be announced before the event.
Coordinated costumes are welcome, but each person must enter and be judged individually. There will not be a separate group-costume category.
How to Enter
Who Can Enter?
Choose One Category
Begin at any official judging home during the advertised judging window. Choose one award category, receive a contestant number, and complete the brief registration using the shared QR code.
A parent or guardian must register a minor. A paper form will be available for anyone who cannot or prefers not to use the online form. Each contestant registers only once.
Choose One Category
Choose One Category
Choose One Category
Each contestant will choose one of four award categories:
Most Creative, Funniest Costume, Spookiest Costume, or Best Character Costume.
The four awards will have equal status and equal-value prizes. There will be no Best Overall winner or first-, second-, and third-place ranking.
How Judging Works
Choose One Category
Winner Notification
Contestants will visit the official judging homes shown on the event map during the advertised judging window. Every judge will use the same scoring guide, considering how well the costume fits its selected category and its overall impact.
The number of judging scores counted for each contestant will depend on the number of official judges confirmed. No performance, speech, pose, or costume explanation will be required.
Winner Notification
Choose One Category
Winner Notification
Winners will be contacted by text after the judges’ scores have been calculated. To claim a prize, the recipient must reply from the phone number used to register the winning contestant number.
Prize pickup or delivery will then be arranged. If a winner does not respond within the stated claim period, the award will pass to the next-highest-scoring eligible contestant in that category.
House Decorating Contest
How It Works
Official Viewing Hours
Register by October 1
The House Decorating Contest turns The Bluffs into a neighborhood Halloween display tour. Registered homes will appear on the contest map so residents can visit the displays during official viewing hours and vote for their favorite.
Homes may create anything from a simple decorated yard to an elaborate display. One home will be named
The Bluffs After Dark Best Decorated House.
Register by October 1
Official Viewing Hours
Register by October 1
Homeowners and renters within The Bluffs may register one home per street address by October 1. There is no entry fee or minimum decorating requirement, and the display does not need to be finished when the registration form is submitted.
It must be ready when official viewing begins October 24. Registered homes will receive an entry number and appear on the contest map and ballot.
Official Viewing Hours
Official Viewing Hours
Official Viewing Hours
Registered displays will be illuminated and available for viewing from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. each evening, October 24–31.
Decorations must be visible from the street, sidewalk, or another publicly accessible viewing area. Visitors will not need to enter a yard, driveway, garage, or home to view the display.
How to Vote
Winner and Recognition
Official Viewing Hours
Voting will take place on October 31. Each household within The Bluffs may cast one vote for the registered home it believes should be named The Bluffs After Dark Best Decorated House.
The online ballot will list all eligible entries. Voting instructions and the submission deadline will be published before voting opens. Only one ballot per Bluffs street address will be counted.
Winner and Recognition
Winner and Recognition
Winner and Recognition
The home receiving the most valid household votes will be named The Bluffs After Dark Best Decorated House. Contest results will be announced no later than November 3.
The winning household will receive a traveling trophy to display for one week and a certificate to keep.
Display Guidelines
Winner and Recognition
Winner and Recognition
Creative, spooky, humorous, and family-friendly displays are welcome. Entries containing coarse or crass language will not be eligible for the contest.
Displays must remain substantially available during the official viewing period. A display that is repeatedly unavailable or not illuminated during the published viewing hours may be removed from the ballot.
The Bluffs After Dark • October 31, 2026 • The Bluffs, Vail, Arizona
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