Celebrate the Season
Depending on where you’re from, College Station is either a small town or the biggest city you’ve ever seen. Without the 73,000 students attending A&M, the town is left with about 37,000 citizens—a relatively small amount. Despite being at least an hour away from any big city, the small town of College Station still loves to celebrate the fall season. There aren’t any hayrides or huge corn mazes, but you can still enjoy this time of year by attending the local pumpkin patches around the area.
The city of Bryan’s Habitat for Humanity non-profit organization hosts a pumpkin patch every year to get people in town to come together and to show support. Habitat for Humanity works hard to perform “new construction, repairs to existing homes, small loans for incremental building, home improvements, disaster prevention and recovery, and more.” This is a great way to support a local non-profit while getting the perfect fall photo-op for your Instagram feed. With many photo props provided, this is a great place to go with friends to take pictures. The people working under the tent are just as inviting as the backdrops. There is another pumpkin patch for the public set up by Aggie Habitat for Humanity, an organization on campus, located at Covenant Presbyterian Church. With an assortment of different sizes and shapes, this is another great place to get the perfect pumpkin for your front door this season.
A&M decorates the gardens on campus every fall. From an artsy pumpkin wall to hay bales and flowers, this is a beautiful place to walk through. There is a bridge to walk across to this hidden area on west campus and flower beds year-round adorned with special holiday decorations in the fall and winter. Since this location is right on campus, it’s a convenient place to meet with friends to hang out and take pictures. This is a great area to get some exercise, with sidewalks surrounding the gardens, or use the provided tables to study on cool fall days.
At the Lake Walk outside of the Stella Hotel, there is an adorable pumpkin display with stacked hay bales. You could grab a coffee at POV Coffee House and then walk the sidewalk that loops around a scenic lake. There are benches where you could work on homework or journal when the weather is nice and stretches of grass if you want to bring a blanket to relax on. This little area is a gem of College Station. Though slightly further out, the Lake Walk at the Stella Hotel is definitely worth the drive this fall.
Although College Station is small, the town still celebrates the holiday season for college students and families to enjoy. Whether you celebrate the cooler weather and changing leaves by getting a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks or buying fall candles at Target, attending local pumpkin patches in town is one of the best ways to enjoy this time of the year.
Written by: McKenna Madis, Photography: Olivia Garza, Design: Cassidy Schippel, Social Media: Mackenzie Davis