The Albertson Halloween House

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September 24, 2011 by Eric Albertson

How to Make Bamboo

Any respectable Asian Fortress needs to be shrouded in a wall of tall impenetrable bamboo.  But how do you get some?  Where do you find…

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September 10, 2011 by Eric Albertson

Painting Like a Warrior

We had a great crew for our painting day on September 10th.  We had folks from the neighborhood, friends from Santa Cruz and even a…

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August 21, 2011 by Eric Albertson

A Structured Approach

In order to have everything ready for Halloween, we began planning this year’s house right after we were done with the last one.  Now that August…

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July 4, 2011 by Eric Albertson

Special Guest Appearance: Kung Fu Panda!

When Po from Kung Fu Panda found out that this year’s theme for the Albertson Halloween House is to be Asian Fortress, he said that…

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June 11, 2011 by Eric Albertson

Nemo House Source Map

One of the main tenets of the Albertson Halloween House is to use recycled materials.  We get lots of items from generous and resourceful folks and have…

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May 9, 2011 by Eric Albertson

2011 Halloween House Theme Announced

The theme for the 2011 Albertson Halloween House is Asian Fortress!  So, all you samurai, Kung Fu Pandas, Mulans, Shao Lin priests, ninjas (Teenage Mutant…

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November 6, 2010 by Eric Albertson

Video: How to Make a Halloween House in 2 Minutes and 49 Sec...

Inspired by SoCalHalloween, I chronicled the building of this year’s Nemo House by taking a time lapse video of the process.  In the video you…

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This site chronicles the design process for the Albertson Halloween House, a do-it-yourself community-supported project, located in downtown San Jose, California (USA). The house typically welcomes 800–1500 trick-or-treaters and their parents annually and has been a source of family fun since 2002. In 2026, the Albertson Halloween House is celebrating its 25th year!

The theme for the 2026 Albertson Halloween House is Star Wars: The Mandalorian!

We are located at 497 North 16th Street, San Jose, CA (between Empire and Washington).

Upcoming Events

Community Painting Days

  • Saturday, October 17th
    9:00 am–12:00 pm

RSVP to let us know if you can make it!

Visit our How to Help page for more event information.

Items We Are Looking For

We are always keeping an eye out for items for the house. If you happen to have any of the items below and are willing to donate them to the cause, let us know! Your name will be added to the Super Awesome Donor list and kids in San Jose will have an even funner(!) Halloween thanks to you.

  • • Foam insulation panels (4 ft. X 8 ft., and either 1 or 2 inches wide). Can be pink-colored (no outer film), or with outer film—basically whatever. Looking for 10+ panels.
  • • Large storage bins with tapered sides and rectangular indented shapes to be used as Imperial crates. We will paint and cut them, so they will not necessarily return in the same condition.
  • • One or two of those giant wooden spools (3-4 ft. high, 3-4 ft. diameter) that they sometimes have on construction sites to hold big cable.
  • • A Halloween yard animatronic of a child, preferably that moves its head or arms (to be dressed up as a Jawa).
  • • Replica-grade Mandalorian era Star Wars cosplayers and/or costumes. Eric is in the 501st. Contact him if you or someone you know would like to be a part of the evening (~3ish hours Halloween night), or be willing to lend some armor or costumes to us for the night.

 
If you know of a place to access these resources, give us a holler at our email on the Contact Us page.

Recent Posts

  • The Pillars of Nevarro
  • Making a Star-Wars-y Box
  • Painting Day 2
  • A25: How It Started
  • Painting Day 1
©2025 The Albertson Halloween House