Denton's Great Pumpkin can go back on the Denton County Courthouse lawn after county officials reversed course Wednesday, about a week into the city's 31 Days of Halloween.
The oversized jack-o'-lantern sat on the courthouse lawn on the Square during the celebration's first two years, in 2024 and 2025, and the city's Sept. 28 news release for this year's event said it would be there again. Instead, the county judge's office told the city to take it off the lawn, and the pumpkin was set up a few blocks away in front of City Hall.
Former City Council member and mayoral candidate Brian Beck criticized the decision on social media Wednesday. He wrote that the explanation the city reportedly received was that "the county doesn't do Halloween," said the October events draw hundreds of thousands of people and roughly $19 million in sales for local shops, and asked whether the move was "election-season pandering to Christian nationalists." He urged residents to contact County Judge Andy Eads and the commissioners. Other residents also objected in comments online.
By late Wednesday afternoon, the county said the pumpkin could return to the Square. In an email to the Denton Record-Chronicle, county community relations director Dawn Cobb said anything held on county property must be coordinated ahead of time so the county can plan for things such as electrical access, irrigation and other infrastructure.
"The pumpkin may be placed on the Square as desired," Cobb wrote. "We will accommodate this year's event and ask that the City coordinate with the County in advance when planning future events or activities on County property."
