Toronto 
A list of 10 fun things to do for Thanksgiving weekend in Toronto and GTA for adults and kids including Thanksgiving dinner/brunch, Harvest festivals, weekend trip ideas and more!
Halloween Night of Lights/Pumpkinville
For all other events, see Things to Do This Weekend.
1. Thanksgiving Brunch/Dinner & Food Festivals/Events
Create warm, festive memories of Thanksgiving and enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving meal.
- Thanksgiving Dinner/Brunch: GTA Restaurants to Dine-in, Order Turkey to Go and Thanksgiving Dinner Takeout
- Toronto Chocolate Festival – Chocolate Afternoon Tea: The OMNI King Edward Hotel will be offering up Afternoon Tea complemented with chocolates and chocolate pastries this weekend.
- Toronto’s Oktoberfest offers a traditional German celebration experience without travelling to Germany. Held under a Bavarian-style Festhalle tent, it features thousands dressed in lederhosen and dirndls celebrating German culture with food, beer, music, and a fun fair reminiscent of the original Munich event. Attendees can enjoy polka music, shared tables, European drinks, and food in the Festhall, explore the Bavarian Village with games and rides, and shop for treats at the Vendor Marketplace, including fresh pies and flavoured pretzels.
- Fall High Tea: What’s more beautiful than riding in a historic train with fresh linen tablecloths decorated with a traditional high tea lunch. Musicians playing softly in the background, and the autumn colours all around you, it will be an afternoon to remember.
2. Fairs & Festivals
There are quite a few festivals happening this weekend in Toronto and GTA. Enjoy a weekend of family fun at one of these events:
- Woodbridge Fair: 176th year, the Woodbridge Fair offers so many things to see, learn and do!
- Toronto Pumpkinfest: Toronto Pumpkinfest has something for all ages. Come experience this family event over 3 weekends with great food, vendors, entertainment and loads of pumpkins!
- Pumpkinfest Richmond Hill: The Toronto Pumpkinfest will also pop-up at Richmond Hill during Thanksgiving weekend with great food, vendors, entertainment and loads of pumpkins!
- Pumpkinville: Check out one-of-a-kind pumpkin sculptures, a pumpkin patch in the city, a striking nighttime lights display, midway rides and games, or an outdoor pumpkin-themed experience with dozens of fall-themed Instagramable memories.
- Harvest Festival Mississauga: Celebrate Thanksgiving weekend at Square One with plenty of food, games and fun fall activities.
- Fall for Dance North: Fall for Dance North (FFDN), Toronto’s leading international dance festival, offers a diverse lineup of live performances in its 9th annual edition. Highlights include Toronto debuts from the UK’s Ballet Black, Candoco, and NYC’s Gibney Company, along with premieres like “My Mother’s Son” and “KAMUYOT.” The festival also features a preview of CBC’s documentary series on Karen Kain’s Swan Lake for The National Ballet of Canada.
3. Harvest & Farm Fun Events
Visit nearby farms and enjoy harvest festivals in GTA.
- October Harvest Festival @ Forsythe Family Farms 2009 Inc, 1025 Cragg Rd, Uxbridge
- Pingle’s Harvest Festival @ Pingle’s Farm Market, 1805 Taunton Rd, Hampton
- Fall Fun at Downey’s Farm @ Downey’s Farm Market, 13682 Heart Lake Road, Caledon
- Falls Fun Festival at Brooks Farms @ Brooks Farms, 122 Ashworth Road, Mount Albert, Uxbridge
- Buzzing Bees Adventure Farm – Fall Festival @ Buzzing Bees Adventure Farm, 1070 Concession Rd 5, Sunderland, Brock
- Fall Fun on the farm at Applewood Farm Winery @ Applewood Farm & Winery- North of Port, 2055 Saintfield Road, Scugog
- Fall Fun at Applewood Farm @ Applewood Farm, 12416 McCowan Road, Stouffville
- Harvest Season @ Springridge Farm, 7256 Bell School Line Milton
Apple Picking
Visit an Apple Orchard near you and pick fresh apples or better still, go on a gourmet apple pie hunt across the Apple Pie Trail to find the best of all things APPLE! Or go on a foodie road trip!
Pumpkin Patches
Visit a pumpkin patch to pick the perfect pumpkin for that spooky Jack-O-Lantern!
Corn Mazes
Get lost this weekend amongst the giant stalks of corn, or at a night maze.
4. Fall Colour Tours
Credit: Conservation Halton
As the season of leaf-peeping begins, a great opportunity to drive away from the city and make a quick getaway awaits. Provincial parks, quaint towns, and wonderful geological attractions span around Toronto, offering Toronto locals a chance to see the changing fall colours and get outdoors to bask in the cool air. See here for a list of 25-day trip ideas to see nature come alive in hues of gold and red.
There are plenty of waterfalls near Toronto, and Autumn is a fantastic time for waterfall tripping when leaves are bathed in hues of yellows and reds!
- Chairlift Rides at Kelso: Take a chairlift ride up the escarpment and admire the changing colours above the treetops at Kelso Conservation Area on Saturdays, Sundays and Thanksgiving Monday (11 am to 5 pm).
- Fall Forest Wagon Ride: Visit Terra Cotta Conservation Area and explore a stunning fall forest by wagon ride! During this interactive guided tour participants will enjoy the fall colours and learn about all the fascinating changes happening in the natural world during this lively season.
- Ravine Days: Explore the city’s ravine network, including events at the High Park Nature Centre, Black Creek Community Farm, Evergreen Brick Works, Clark Centre for the Arts and more.
- Bucket List Ideas for Fall Activities and Getaways in Ontario
- 15 Places to Hike to Enjoy Fall Colours in GTA
- 25 Things to Do During Fall in York Region
- 25 Things to Do in Fall in and Around Halton Region
- 25 Things to Do During Fall in the Durham Region
- 25 Things to Do During Fall in the Peel Region
5. See Salmon Run
Early September to November when temperatures are between 3°C to 18°C is the time to see Salmon (Coho, Chinook) migrating upstream from Ontario’s Great Lakes to lay their eggs in the shallows before winter settles in.
6. Light Shows/Pumpkin shows
Pumpkins After Dark
Enjoy a seasonally-themed light show.
- Halloween Night of Lights: Go on an immersive, walk-thru experience like none other, featuring more than 700,000 LED lights animated and synchronized to your favourite Halloween tunes.
- Spooktacular Light Show @ Pickering & Milton: Spooktacular Light Show will be featuring over a million lights on a 2KM route of your family fun favourite characters, pumpkin-filled tunnel, from 2D to 3D displays, music lights and much more this Halloween season!
- Pumpkins After Dark: Witness magnificent works of pumpkin artistry – 5,000 hand-carved pumpkins, creating more than 100 sculptures, displayed among a series of jack-o-lanterns all illuminated after dark.
7. Unique Exhibitions & Shows
Lasting Impressions in 3D: The Magic of The Impressionists/Mirvish Productions
Enjoy an immersive exhibition or theatre or take in a world-class exhibition at an art gallery.
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“Lasting Impressions in 3D” is a unique art event featuring 160 masterworks by 17 Impressionist painters. Cutting-edge 3D motion sculpting and holographics technology bring these paintings to life, allowing viewers to immerse themselves in iconic artworks like Renoir’s luncheon, Degas’ ballerinas, Monet’s water lilies, and Van Gogh’s Starry Night. The experience is enriched with music by composers like Debussy and French standards by artists like Edith Piaf, creating a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with art.
- Illuminarium: The Distillery Historic District is home to Illuminarium which offers immersive experiences without the need for VR glasses. It employs Christie’s laser projection, scent machines, LIDAR sensors, and digital soundscapes to create a multi-sensory narrative. Illuminarium’s Toronto debut features the immersive experience”SPACE: A Journey to the Moon & Beyond.” Visitors can explore cosmic wonders include taking a walk on the moon at this groundbreaking experience.
- Technicolour Ocean: Renowned wildlife photographer Prince Hussain Aga Khan presents “Technicolour Ocean,” an exhibition at Khan Park and Lower Level Gallery in the Aga Khan Museum. Through his stunning underwater photographs, he highlights the beauty and fragility of marine life, drawing attention to the urgent need for ocean conservation.
- Divina Dalí showcases a transcending experience into Salvador Dalí’s vision of prolific Italian Poet, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy spilled into over 100 authentic works of art.
- Immersive Van Gogh Exhibition: The exhibition evokes the highly emotional and chaotic inner consciousness of one of the greatest artists of all time through an all-encompassing experience of art, light, sound, movement and imagination.
8. Concerts
Credit: TSO
Take in a live concert:
- Disney Pixar’s Coco In Concert – Gather your family for a screening of the beloved Disney/Pixar film with GRAMMY®- and Academy Award–winning composer Michael Giacchino’s magical score performed live by Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
- Wiggles – One of the iconic children’s performers is back in GTA. See Anthony (Blue Wiggle), Tsehay (Yellow Wiggle), Lachy (Purple Wiggle) and Simon (Red Wiggle) singing and dancing their way in Toronto and Oshawa this weekend.
- Drake: It’s All A Blur Tour – Drake is set to play in Toronto on his “It’s All A Blur” tour, produced by Live Nation. This marks his first headlining tour since the 2018 “Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour.” The tour’s name reflects his decade-long success and eagerness to return to the stage. The tour is scheduled for two nights at Scotiabank Arena on October 6 and 7, 2023, at 8:00 PM.
- Autumn Classics – The GTPO’s opening concert showcases two talented young pianists, winners of the North York Music Festival, conducted by Maestro Lorenzo Guggenheim. The program includes Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “The Bamboula – Rhapsodic Dance,” Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and ends with Schumann’s epic Symphony in D minor, promising an unforgettable autumn orchestral journey.
- Queen + Adam Lambert are bringing “The Rhapsody Tour” to the Scotiabank Arena on October 8, 2023, at 8:00 PM. Their 150-minute setlist features iconic hits like “We Will Rock You,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” and “Somebody to Love,” alongside fan favourites and deep cuts. The show promises a mind-blowing experience with dazzling stage design and special effects, accompanied by the band’s regular members and musicians like Spike Edney, Neil Fairclough, and Tyler Warren.
For more:
9. Live Theatre
Six Musical
- Take your kids to enjoy fun theater with two fantastic options:
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- Pinkalicious tells the story of a girl who can’t resist pink cupcakes, leading to Pinkititis. Watch as she turns entirely pink, and only she can find a way out of this colourful predicament.
- A Peter Rabbit Tale brings Beatrix Potter’s classic story to life. Peter Rabbit runs away from home but soon realizes that home might not be so bad after all. This playful musical is sure to delight the whole family.
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- The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time: Walter Borden’s “The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time” is a poignant autobiographical performance revisiting his 1986 show. Through ten characters, he reflects on life, exploring Black homosexuality and showcasing the resilience of the human spirit.
- SIX is a sensational original musical where Henry VIII’s six wives take the stage to remix 500 years of history into a 21st-century celebration of girl power. It garnered numerous awards and critical acclaim, with The New York Times calling it a rule-breaker, and The Washington Post praising it as an energizing and inspirational production.
- In Dreams is a touching and humor-infused musical by the creators of & Juliet. It follows a country-rock singer hosting a mysterious reunion with her old bandmates, all set to Roy Orbison’s classics. The show delves into themes of love and connection through Orbison’s iconic songs.
- The Canadian Opera Company presents two captivating operas this weekend:
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- Fidelio is Beethoven’s only opera, following Leonore’s journey as she disguises herself as a man to infiltrate a modern-day prison facility where she believes her husband is held as a political prisoner. Directed by Matthew Ozawa, the production sheds light on themes of power, corruption, and tyranny, echoing Beethoven’s timeless message of justice and freedom.
La Bohème takes us from a charming apartment in the Latin Quarter to the vibrant Café Momus, where poet Rodolfo and seamstress Mimì, portrayed by real-life couple Pene Pati and Amina Edris, seek love and life in Bohemian Paris. Tony Award-winner John Caird directs this evocative production with dynamic set design.
- Fidelio is Beethoven’s only opera, following Leonore’s journey as she disguises herself as a man to infiltrate a modern-day prison facility where she believes her husband is held as a political prisoner. Directed by Matthew Ozawa, the production sheds light on themes of power, corruption, and tyranny, echoing Beethoven’s timeless message of justice and freedom.
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- The Howland Company and Crow’s Theatre collaborate on Will Arbery’s acclaimed play “Heroes of the Fourth Turning,” directed by Philip Akin. Set in post-Charlottesville America, it explores a tumultuous reunion of conservative Catholic college alumni, delving into politics, beliefs, and personal responsibility. The play has won several awards and is praised as remarkable and riveting.
- Soulpepper Theatre Company presents “WILDWOMAN,” a bold comedy by Kat Sandler, inspired by the true story behind Beauty and the Beast. Set in the 16th Century French Court, it delves into the lives of three women, including Queen Catherine de Medici, as they grapple with survival, legacy, and the unexpected influence of the King’s wildman. The play tackles themes of gender, class, and power in a provocative manner.
10. Get a head start on Halloween
Credit: Casa Loma Legends of Horror
Get a head start on Halloween! There are plenty of Halloween-themed events this weekend from ghost walks to haunted houses. Check out some of them. The Great Canadian Horror Film Festival takes place on October 6 & 7.
For more things to do this Thanksgiving weekend, including theatre, live music/concerts/exhibitions, see
1. Weekend Events in Toronto
2. Family Events in Toronto
You can visit one of the beautiful beaches in Toronto. Check out this video to see some good recommendations:
https://youtu.be/ZA6FItYEF9s
Come play Archery with friends and family! Come shoot your friends and family for fun! Battle Sports has 50% off for just Thanksgiving Monday! Coupon code on the website! Visit: http://www.battlesports.ca