[Click here for a Noozhawk photo gallery from the event.]

After almost 20 years, the Halloween event known as Ghost Village Road in Montecito continues to be the block party of the year.

What started as an after-school event for younger kids in 93108 to trick-or-treat in a safe area in the daylight has turned into a carnival of fun and pure joy for children of all ages — and their parents, too.

Some families dress up as a theme, but many stand aside as their little ones venture up to a storefront or tables erected for the occasion to shyly say “trick or treat.” Restaurants, especially those with patios such as Los Arroyos, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Cava, Tre Lune and Trattoria Mollie are staked out early for the best seats and show in town.

For more than three hours, everyone just smiles until their face hurts and has a good time at what is an innocent and purely fun time.

While no one knows the exact number of people who descend upon the street between Olive Mill and Hot Springs, it seems to be well more than 1,000 — maybe more. People from all over Santa Barbara come to our little village, not just locals any more. Second-generation children are now pushing their own children in buggies.

Whether it’s the best candy or just the best of Halloween spirit, no one knows — only that the numbers continue to grow each year.

A haunted house and costume contest are part of the festivities, and almost all of the merchants stand ready with candy aplenty, or at least until they run out.

This year’s nerds, pirates, fairy princesses, animals , ghosts and goblins, superheroes, devils, witches and some very imaginative costumes that had everyone cheering for their originality capped off another successful community event.

— Judy Foreman is a Noozhawk columnist and longtime local writer and lifestyles observer. She can be contacted at judyforeman@noozhawk.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.