Your Guide to Fall Fun in Southwest Missouri

Fall is approaching. The crisp autumn air and fiery leaves are short-lived here, where summer encroaches on the season a little too long, and winter comes hard and fast. So make sure you soak up every pumpkin-colored and apple-scented moment of our shortest—but arguably very best—season. We can help you out with that. Use this guide to fall fun in southwest Missouri to plan every moment of your perfect autumn.

Best Springfield, Missouri Neighborhoods to Trick or Treat

Winter Kinne lives with her husband, Marshall, and her two children, Walker and Kate, in Springfield’s Rountree neighborhood, a place notorious for its festive Halloween spirit. Kinne shares how she, her family and her neighbors prepare for the holiday and what October on Weller is really like.
By Winter Kinne, as told to Kate Duby

We live on Weller Avenue, right in the heart of Rountree. The Halloween parade comes right past our house. We moved in six years ago, right before Halloween. Of course, I knew about Rountree and knew about Halloween. I had bought a little house by myself in my mid-20s on Kentwood Avenue, which is just outside of the Rountree neighborhood, as close as I could get with what I could afford then. When Marshall and I got married, he moved in there, but it was not really big enough to have a family. I was pregnant with Walker when we moved over to Weller six years ago.

I will say––you can know about Halloween in Rountree, but experiencing it is completely different. Luckily, I have some coworkers and friends that also live on Weller, and they had given me a heads up of how much candy we needed to buy and what we needed to do. We start buying candy a month in advance, because we need at least 1,500 pieces––and that’s giving just one piece of candy per child that comes at least for the first hour, hour and a half.

I think the thing I love about it that strikes me every year is it feels like what you might call old-fashioned Americana in a lot of ways. Whatever day of the week Halloween falls on, the neighborhood really starts dragging out their Halloween decorations and all of a sudden, there’s lawn chairs and fire pits in the front yards and driveways, and everybody comes to the front.

We actually take our little kids trick-or-treating at 4:30 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon, before the parade starts, just because there’s so many people afterward that it’s really the only way we can go and see our neighbors and our neighbors kids. I think it’s really cool that the neighborhood embraces it. I will be honest, Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but we knew, buying a house on Weller, that we weren’t going to be the Scrooges that didn’t have our lights on or participate. You sort of can’t help but love it.

[MORE: Best Corn Mazes Near Springfield]

Fall Markets and Open Houses

All the best open houses, pop-up markets and boutiques for seasonal decor hunting.

Schofield + Gray

358 Hill St., Fordland

Places to Go Apple Picking

Fall’s best fruit grows well here in 417-land, where a few local orchards will even let you pop in to pick your own.

How to Tailgate in Springfield, Missouri

Fall means football, and football season is the perfect excuse to don your team’s gear, gather up some friends and snacks, and tailgate in the brisk autumn air.

Who to Root For

Get Lost in a Corn Maze

Pick Your Own Pumpkin at a Local Pumpkin Patch

Fall Roundup at Sycamore Creek & Family Ranch

2657 Sunset Inn Rd., Branson
The pumpkins: Pick-your-own and take it home!
The food: The best food combo that not enough people are talking about: wood-fired pizza and s’mores. We suggest renting a fire pit for the optimal group marshmallow toasting experience!
The fun: Enjoy classic fall activities like hayrides and a corn maze, or try your hand at pickleball, cornhole and the challenge course.

Pickin’ Patch Farm

22813 Hwy ZZ, Marionville
The pumpkins: One-of-a-kind, picked by you from the field or plucked up from the market
The food: This patch is optimal for a fall picnic, offering an outdoor area perfect for a picnic.
The fun: Classic fall hayrides, weiner-roast bonfires and a spooky corn maze
The shopping: Hello, gourds galore! Pickin’ Patch has all sorts of homegrown wonders that will amp up your Halloween front-porch display, including pumpkins in every shape and color.

Barnhouse Pumpkin Patch

5484 W. Sunshine St., Springfield
The pumpkins: You can pick ‘em and you can paint ‘em!
The food: On weekends, enjoy food from local vendors who set up shop on the farm.
The fun: Catch an outdoor movie, navigate your way through the hay-bale maze or let out your competitive side in a round of pumpkin bowling!
The shopping: Browse festive front-porch decor like mums, colorful gourds, milo stalks and scarecrows––the perfect complement to your hand-picked or painted pumpkin.

Modern Homestead Fall Harvest

14038 Farm Rd. 84, Ash Grove
The pumpkins: They grow in all sorts of shapes, colors and sizes in the patch.
The food: Every fall season, you can find a variety of pop-up food trucks at the farm, which operate on a rotating schedule. With can’t-miss Springfield favorites like Pineapple Whip and Ash Grove specialties like Maple Lane Bakery.
The fun: Check out the Homestead Hollows (not one, not two, but THREE corn mazes!), which cater to different levels of adventurous-ness. For younger kids, try the Happy Hollows; older kids can try the Harvest Hollows and Haunted Mine.
The shopping: Find everything from corn stalks and mums and a major home decor selection.

Summer Fun in the Fall

There are some quintessential summertime activities that we really should be doing in the fall instead. You might consider these things part of your summer fun bucket list, but hear us out: They’ll be better in autumn when the tamer weather lets you enjoy them instead of sweat through them.

Millsap Pizza Nights 

These farm dinners at Millsap Farms offer such a quaint and neighborly atmosphere—we just love them. But you know what we don’t love? Mosquitos. Sweating. Feeling sticky in the summer heat. The pizza nights run through October, and we think the end of the season is the best time to go, when cooler nights lend their own charming vibe.