A 51st-year nursery festival on the Jericho Turnpike that runs daily for seven weeks — easily the most convenient option in Nassau County, and pitched at toddlers rather than at anyone over about eight.
No admission or activity price is published on the pages read.
Fifty-one years of running the same autumn event tells you what this is. Hicks is a large Long Island garden centre that puts on a fall festival, and the festival is built for small children: a hay maze, a walk-through featuring a character called Otto the Ghost, pumpkin picking, pumpkin decorating, sand art, crafts and photo spots.
Set expectations at that level and it is a good use of a morning. Set them at farm level and you will be disappointed within ten minutes — there is no corn, no hayride and no field to walk.
What Hicks has that almost no farm on Long Island has is availability. Seven weeks, every single day, 8:00am to 6:00pm. Farms in Suffolk County run weekends and cram their entire season into a dozen operating days; this runs for fifty-one consecutive ones. If you have a toddler, an unpredictable schedule and an October full of rain, that flexibility is worth more than a bigger attraction list you can only reach on a crowded Saturday.
The other quiet advantage is the ground. Long Island Octobers are wet, and by the middle of the month most farm parking fields and pumpkin patches have turned soft. A garden centre on the Jericho Turnpike is a hard-surfaced, well-drained site with a proper car park. For anyone pushing a buggy or managing a child who cannot yet be trusted near mud, that is a genuine reason to choose it.
The gap in the record is money. Nothing we read gave a price for admission or for any individual activity. Craft-and-decorating festivals of this type frequently charge per activity rather than at a gate, which can add up quickly across two or three children, so ask at the entrance what is included before anyone sits down at a table.
September 12 to November 1, 2026, open every day from 8:00am to 6:00pm. Daily opening across seven weeks is the whole advantage here: a Tuesday morning in early October costs you nothing in queueing and is the right way to use it. Weekend afternoons are when a Nassau County garden centre a short drive from most of the county gets busy.
An hour, maybe ninety minutes with pumpkin decorating and crafts. This is a festival attached to a nursery, not a farm you spend the day at.
Seven weeks of daily opening spreads demand better than any weekends-only farm can. The last two weekends of October are still the peak; almost any weekday is not.
Not published, but this is a large established garden centre on a main road rather than a farm field — expect a proper lot and no mud, which after a wet Long Island October is worth something.
Not published. A garden centre site is generally flatter and firmer underfoot than a working farm, which usually makes it the easier option for pushchairs and wheelchairs, but confirm the hay maze and ghost walk specifically.
You want a corn maze, hayrides or pick-your-own. This is a hay maze at a garden centre — there is no corn, no field and no wagon. Children over about eight will be finished in twenty minutes.
The Dees' Nursery in Oceanside runs the other Nassau County nursery festival on our list, with a corn maze and a petting zoo but weekends only. If you want more than a hay maze without leaving the county, that is the comparison.
No admission or activity prices were published on the pages we read. Call 516-334-0066 before you plan around a budget.
No. It is a hay maze, which is a much smaller and simpler thing — appropriate for small children, not a challenge for older ones.
September 12 to November 1, 2026, daily from 8:00am to 6:00pm. Hicks describes it as the 51st annual festival.
September 12 – November 1, 2026. Daily, Monday through Sunday. Hours: 8:00am-6:00pm.
Admission pricing was not published when we last checked. No admission or activity price is published on the pages read.
100 Jericho Turnpike, Westbury, NY 11590, in Nassau County. It is one of 6 patches we track in Long Island.
We track 6 patches in Long Island. The farm has not published a gate price, so it cannot be compared on cost — call before you budget.
Its season runs about 51 days against a regional average of 47, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.
There are 2 other patches we track in Nassau County. All Long Island patches →
hicksnurseries.com
Checked August 2026.