Children's Museum Houston celebrates Día de los Muertos on Sunday, November 1, 2026

Día de los Muertos celebrates the lives of loved ones

Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is a Mexican tradition in which families remember loved ones who have died and welcome their memory home with food, flowers and photographs. It is observed on November 1 and 2. Traditionally, November 1 honors children and November 2 honors adults. UNESCO added the tradition to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.

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For children, the museum frames the day the way families do: as a happy time to tell stories about the people they love. Sugar skulls are smiling and colorful, and marigolds are bright orange. The museum describes the building on this day as "a colorful, beautiful and bountiful Land of the Dead."

An ofrenda is a family's home altar

An ofrenda is an altar that a family builds at home to honor relatives who have died, set with bread, fruit, flowers and photographs. In the tradition, the departed enjoy these offerings when they come home for their holiday visit. Marigolds, called cempasúchil, are the flower most often used.

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The museum builds its own ofrenda for the day. Visitors can see it all day in Kaleidoscope.

The November 1 schedule runs from 10 am to 2 pm, with crafts all day

The day has 4 scheduled sessions between 10 am and 2 pm, plus 6 activities that run all day. The ofrenda workshops hold 12 at a time, so plan the visit around them.

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Scheduled sessions:

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• Giggles and Stories, an interactive bilingual storytime with songs and play, at 10 am in the Gallery of Wonder.
• Día de los Muertos workshops, where families learn the traditions and build a mini ofrenda, from 10 am to 2 pm in the Design Studio. Each workshop holds 12 participants.
• Spanish and English storytimes celebrating cultures and storytelling traditions, at 11 am and 1 pm in the Parent Resource Library.
• Intempo Dance, a storytelling and dance performance of Mexican culture and Día de los Muertos traditions, at noon and 2 pm in the Brown Auditorium.

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All-day activities:

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• View the museum's ofrenda in Kaleidoscope.
• Cut papel picado, the Mexican folk art of punched paper banners, in Kaleidoscope.
• Build a calavera puppet, a paper skeleton with movable joints and traditional clothing, in Kaleidoscope.
• Design an alebrije-inspired stuffed creature in the Chevron Maker Annex. Alebrijes are brightly painted fantasy animals from Mexican folk art.
• Mold calavera shapes from thermoplastic beads and learn how heat changes a material, in the Science Station.
• Draw a sugar skull design on your face with face-painting crayons, in Prototopia.

Bilingual programming is part of how the museum works every day

Children's Museum Houston offers exhibits, signage and family programs in Spanish and English all year, so the bilingual storytimes on November 1 follow the museum's everyday practice. A Spanish-speaking grandparent and an English-speaking grandchild can sit in the same storytime and both follow it.

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The same approach runs through the museum's community work. Para los Ninos is a series of 11 bilingual workshops for families with children from birth to age 7, held at libraries, Head Start sites and community centers across Houston.

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So how does a family make the most of one Sunday, and what else is on the museum's cultural calendar this fall?

Plan the visit around the timed sessions

• Arrive by 9:30 am if your child wants a workshop seat. The ofrenda workshops hold 12 at a time and run only from 10 am to 2 pm.
• Set your clocks back the night before. Daylight saving time ends at 2 am on Sunday, November 1, 2026, so the museum's 9 am opening comes an hour later by your body clock.
• Bring a family photo if your child wants to talk about someone they miss. The museum's ofrenda is there to see, and a photo gives a child a way into the conversation at home.
• Bring a child. Adults enter only with a child aged 12 or under.

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General admission is $21.95 online and $23.95 at the door for everyone aged 1 and up, and children under 1 enter free. Members enter free. Tickets are on the Tickets, Hours and Admission page.

The museum celebrates 3 cultural holidays in November 2026

Día de los Muertos opens a month of cultural programming at Children's Museum Houston, with 2 more celebrations to follow.

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• Diwali, Thursday, November 5: Hindi and English storytimes, a Bollywood dance class, Silambam Houston performers and Diwali craft workshops.
• Native American Heritage Month, Saturday, November 21: Aztec dance and drum with the Calmecac Indigenous Organization, feather art workshops, Native American storytime and corn husk dolls.

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The museum's Halloween season runs until the day before. Families who want both can find the October 31 schedule, when the museum stays open until 8 pm, on the Halloween at the BOO!seum page. Activities, events and times are subject to change, so check the event page before you go.

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