Nickelodeon Is Getting Spooky With New “Smurfs,” “Rubble & Crew” and “Patrick Star” Halloween Specials

Grab the costumes, find the biggest pumpkin you can and maybe keep an eye out for any suspicious wizards.

Halloween is creeping closer, and Nickelodeon is getting into the spooky spirit with a full day of new seasonal adventures on Monday, October 12. From a giant pumpkin in Builder Cove to magical trouble with the Smurfs and some very strange fairy tales courtesy of Patrick Star’s family, there is something waiting for kids across the network’s lineup.

And in true Nickelodeon fashion, “spooky” doesn’t necessarily mean scary.

Instead, October 12 is shaping up to be the kind of Halloween celebration filled with familiar characters, ridiculous problems and just enough tricks to go along with all those treats.

Things begin at 10:00 a.m. ET/PT with “Rubble & Crew” and the new Halloween episode “The Crew Builds a Giant Halloween Pumpkin.”

Builder Cove is getting ready for a pumpkin decorating competition when Speed Meister decides he wants to beat the pups. Naturally, his attempt to come out on top doesn’t exactly go according to plan, and he ends up ruining the contest for everyone.

That leaves Rubble and the crew with a rather appropriately enormous Halloween problem to solve.

Thankfully, if anyone knows how to fix Halloween with a giant construction solution, it is probably these pups.

The magic continues an hour later when the Smurfs head into an adventure considerably bigger than their village with “The Great Magic Showdown,” premiering at 11:00 a.m. ET/PT.

The new 22-minute “Smurfs Adventures” standalone special begins when the great wizard Homnibus invites Papa Smurf to participate in the creation of the philosopher’s stone. Things become considerably more suspicious when a magician named Radicchio enters the picture and seems to have quite a bit in common with Gargamel.

And, yes, Gargamel is once again causing magical trouble for our favorite blue friends.

“The Great Magic Showdown” takes the Smurfs into a competition featuring wizards from around the world, giving the long-running characters a larger standalone story while retaining the laughter, adventure and friendship that have followed them across generations.

It is also only the beginning of these bigger Smurfy adventures. Nickelodeon has acquired a second standalone special, “An Unexpected Arrival,” which will introduce Baby Smurfie, a sweet but mischievous little girl whose not-so-innocent ideas sound destined to cause some trouble of their own.

Then, after Builder Cove has been saved and the magic has settled down, it’s time to head under the sea.

At 5:30 p.m. ET/PT, “The Patrick Star Show” is closing out our trio of new Halloween adventures with “Scary Tales,” and this might be where things get especially strange.

Submitted for the approval of the Bikini Bottom chapter of the Midnight Society, the Star family is gathering on a rambunctious Halloween night to tell its own collection of frightening stories.

Well, Patrick Star versions of frightening stories.

“Scary Tales” will put a Bikini Bottom spin on familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes including “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Hansel and Gretel” and “Little Miss Muffet,” with the stories narrated by the show’s iconic live-action hand, Hans.

Classic fairy tales have been retold approximately every way imaginable by this point, but handing them over to Patrick and the rest of the Star family?

There are probably a few versions nobody has thought of yet.

Together, the three premieres give young Nickelodeon viewers a full range of Halloween fun without every show having to celebrate the season in exactly the same way. Younger kids can help Rubble save a pumpkin contest, families can jump into a magical mystery with characters generations have grown up with, and older kids can settle in for Patrick’s wonderfully bizarre take on spooky storytelling.

That’s part of what makes seasonal television so much fun in the first place.

Halloween doesn’t always need monsters hiding underneath the bed or something lurking around the corner. Sometimes all you need is a giant pumpkin, a suspicious wizard and Patrick Star attempting to tell “Little Red Riding Hood.”

Actually, on second thought, that last one might be terrifying