Children looking for an early Halloween scare — and maybe a treat too — still have a few days to buy tickets for the Halloween Warm Up.

The 26th annual Halloween Warm Up, a “haunted” forest tour complete with cookies and hot apple cider, is this Friday and Saturday evening at the Jay. C. Hormel Nature Center.

This mildly spooky tour of an enchanted forest is designed for children ages four to 11. Every 10 minutes, beginning at 6:50 p.m. both evenings, a group of 25 is led into the forest where each group runs into various skits. The final hike each night is at 9:50 p.m.

“It is not too scary, and it is a very fun evening,” Larry Dolphin, director and naturalist for the nature center, said.

He said the spooky skits even integrate natural history and ecological concepts.

“There is a skit about Johnny Appleseed, one about trees and one about bats,” Dolphin said. “It has a history flavor, but it is mostly about having fun and enjoying the nighttime outside,” he added.

The Matchbox Children’s Theatre co-sponsors the event.

Profits from the event are split evenly between the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center and the Matchbox Theatre. Dolphin said the nature center uses the funds to keep prices down for their other events, specifically their summer adventure programs.

The Halloween Warm up has sold out the past several years.

Tickets are $6 and will be sold through Friday only at Super Fresh, 2101 Fourth St. N.W.

Tickets are also available for the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center’s Thanksgiving Feast fundraiser, which takes place Nov. 14 at St. Edward’s Corcoran Center. The evening begins at 5 and includes a social hour, banquet, entertainment, live and silent auctions. Tickets are $30 per person and are on sale at the nature center.

All proceeds will go to the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center Operations fund, and will particularly fund the addition of a new teacher at the nature center, Dolphin said.