Actually No, I Do Not Celebrate Halloween
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Halloween. The holiday with lots of candy and costumes. The holiday that some people celebrate, and others don’t.Â
Growing up, I was not allowed to celebrate Halloween. My parents did not want us to take part in it and they had their reasons, and I never had a problem with it. Halloween always scared me as a child, maybe because of what my parents told me or maybe because of what the day really is. On Halloween we usually would sit in the dark and watch a movie and have a family night. Sometimes my church would have activities for the family and we went to those as well.
Now that I have my own child, I had to make the decision to either celebrate and let him celebrate or not to celebrate. My husband did celebrate as a child and in doing so has different views then me. But we agreed what and how we wanted to celebrate all the holidays and we have come to the decision that we are not going to celebrate Halloween. It was something I knew in my heart all along, but I still struggled with it and wasn’t sure I was making the right decision. I felt as though I was the only Christian who felt this way and so I thought maybe I should give in and celebrate like everyone else.Â
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As to the why, I don’t really want to get into. I know everyone has different opinions, and I don’t think you are a bad person if you choose to celebrate. Every person is different and every family is different. I see nothing wrong if you choose do Halloween your way and make it fun, but for my family we probably will not be participating. For us, we will probably just make it a family night similar to what I had growing up. Maybe we will do it differently maybe not, Adam is only four months so it’s hard to tell right now until he is older.
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As to the why, I don’t really want to get into. I know everyone has different opinions, and I don’t think you are a bad person if you choose to celebrate. Every person is different and every family is different. I see nothing wrong if you choose do Halloween your way and make it fun, but for my family we probably will not be participating. For us, we will probably just make it a family night similar to what I had growing up. Maybe we will do it differently maybe not, Adam is only four months so it’s hard to tell right now until he is older.
A few weeks ago I asked on Facebook what others thought of Halloween and if they celebrated. Here are some of the answers I got:Â
I Celebrate Halloween:
- Â “I think as long as your not worshiping the devil or demons it’s a super fun holiday to celebrate. But we celebrate.” -Ashley
- “Over the years, Halloween has lost the “meaning” that it used to have. It is now nothing more than a time for kids to get dressed up in costume, and get candy. How many people actually think of the devil when they’re putting up their jack-o-lanterns and ghosts? I personally think it’s a harmless holiday geared toward children. and we don’t really ‘celebrate’ it..we just partake in traditions.” -AmyÂ
- “We don’t do anything scary or gory. We go to the church activities and trick or treat a handful of houses and go to the squadron’s trick or treat. We don’t teach our kids the evil side of it. We carve pumpkins – mostly for the fun mess & seeds. Halloween is the day before my son was killed, so it is a different time of year for us. We also enjoy lucky the lepr. on st patricks and the easter bunny (on mondays since we bring our spring outside toys that we don’t play with on sundays – bubbles, chalks, sprinkler…) and santa. However, my kids know the REAL meaning of the holidays.” – JodiÂ
- “We celebrate Halloween! in our family, we don’t see anything wrong with it as long as you don’t participate in all the “evil”, scary things. We see nothing wrong with decorating with pumpkins and all the cute Halloween decorations…nothing scary for us! And there’s nothing wrong with all the cute Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating. I love Halloween because all the little kiddos I baby-sit come over in their adorable costumes and we get to hang out with them and give them yummy snacks. It’s just like anything, you just have to draw a line and not cross it. We draw the line with the cute decorations, carving pumpkins, cute costumes, and trick-or-treating. Nothing scary. When we were younger and trick-or-treating, if we came across a house that was decorated with scary stuff, we just skipped it. No harm done.” -Leeanne
I Do Not Celebrate Halloween:
- “Our family does not celebrate. Although it is tempting sometimes to take the kids trick or treating….Between the history/beginnings of holloween and all the violence that seems to accompany it…..we choose to stay away from it. Instead….we plan a family night with the kids. We buy Mcdonalds for the kids and watch a movie together. The kids actually have told us that they look forward to the family night and don’t feel that they are missing anything. We try to focus on what they CAN do instead of what they can’t do.” -Beth
- “We don’t. It doesn’t fit the description of Phil. 4:8 when it expressly celebrates death, gore, fear, blackness, and evil. And as Beth said, its history is not wholesome.” – LillianÂ
- “Our personal family conviction is to not celebrate Halloween in any way…we don’t pass out candy or trick or treat, participate in halloween activities/ parties/etc. We spend the night at home in pj’s, watching movies, playing games, and making supper and snacks together. However, I feel strongly that this is a choice you will have to make with Adam as a family – you have to pray, seek God’s will for your family and make your own choice. This really goes for ALL holidays – not just Halloween. Many people will have different opinions and ways of celebrating other holidays such as Easter, Christmas, etc. While taking advice from others is great, it really boils down to how the Lord pricks at your heart.” – Julie
- “Halloween was originally “Hallowed Eve” hallowed means holy. It was the eve of All Saints Day…. The day set aside in memorial of all the martyred saints…. The early church was so persecuted, having a remembrance day for each martyr became impossible. Thus, All Saints Day became a collective day. As usual, Satan and man have claimed the day for pagan ritual and frivolity. The tantalizing aspects of the “Dark Side” lure men to “worship” him with their attention to glorified evil made “innocent”…. And in many ways, not so innocent, sadly. Maybe if our faith were on fire like it is in places like Communist China, North Korea, Indonesia, etc. We would reclaim the day with tears and a renewed hunger for His life manifested in us to the place of dying for Him….maybe tomorrow, even, it would be our turn to prove it??? But we American adults are having too much fun dressing up not just our kids, but ourselves today… And if we look at it this way… We are kill joys and feel guilty for offending those believers who don red suits, witches caps, and vampire fangs…. I don’t say this from my holy high horse… Honestly… just a perplexed, bewildered believer watching the American church slip a little further from her Bridegroom with each passing holiday… It makes me cry, we are so prone, all of us, to wander, and the holidays meant to help us stay close are now absorbing us in our culture of “fun”…. Just my thoughts…” – Kimberly
- “We don’t celebrate it. I never celebrated it growing up, but we did a big hayride with a bonfire and cider and hot chocolate earlier in October just to enjoy the harvest season (I grew up on a farm). Fall is my favorite reason and I never felt like I was missing out on anything by not celebrating Halloween. We also choose not to do Santa at Christmas or the Easter Bunny at Easter. Some of our relatives are annoyed by this and think it’s ridiculous, but I love that we are teaching our children to focus on God, and on the things that are pure and lovely and holy.” – Marga
- “We do not celebrate it. I believe the Bible tells us to stay away from all appearance of evil. It is rooted in evil. I used to say that it was ok as we were just doing it for candy for the kids. Have you seen the costumes? They are enough to scare me. We used to give out candy, but then I don’t want my children looking at those with the costumes to scare them, so we turn off all our outside lights and do something as a family together.” – Sherry
But whether you celebrate or not, I feel the best answer is found in what my friend Julie said:
“I’ve been reading different articles on holiday celebrations (not just Halloween) and this this statement really sums it up…….. ‘The decision is ultimately ours to make. But as with all things, we are to incorporate the principles of Romans 14. We canât allow our own convictions about a holiday to cause division in the body of Christ, nor can we use our freedom to cause others to stumble in their faith. We are to do all things as to the Lord. Especially the “we can’t allow our own convictions about a holiday to cause division in the body of Christ.’ I get curious as to how different families “run”. And how or why they celebrate different events in the way they do. Not to condemn, or think “oh, that’s weird”, but just out of curiosity. Now does our family have certain personal convictions we hold dear. Absolutely. And that goes for every holiday and how we choose to celebrate the event (easter, christmas, halloween) but just b/c we do it a certain way doesn’t mean its right or wrong, just how we feel it is best for our family.”
Growing up we never "celebrated" the holiday. I don't like that word in relation to Halloween. Instead, it was just a night to get dressed up and go out with friendsâor when we were younger, to go out and visit neighbors.
We were never allowed to be anything related to evil (no devils, ghosts, etc.) and I never had a problem with that. We carved our pumpkins and most of the time we made our costumes out of what we had in the house. Actually, I think that was the dealâwe couldn't go out and purchase something to contribute to "the holiday." All in all, it was just a fun night to be with friends.
Sorry for the novel đ
Our parents must be of the same mold:) We were never allowed to trick or treat or celebrate, but we would all watch a movie as a family, eat candy and make caramel apples! I never felt like I missed out and while I do let my kids dress up and trick or treat, I think it's "to each his own". I love fall and to me, Halloween is just a celebration of fall! Great post!
Growing up, we weren't big on the holiday. We usually went to our churches activities and did Halloween things there.
As an adult, I'm not a big fan of it.
My parents did the same thing for us when I was growing up. We got a big bowl of candy, turned off the lights, went downstairs and watched a movie together. We've done things through churches before, but not as regularly. I never dressed up or went trick-or-treating as a child, and even though I was upset sometimes, it was only because I wanted the candy! I like doing pumpkins around this time of year just as a celebration of fall, but we never do anything halloween related.
Although I loved trick or treating as a child, the one tradition that has stuck with me is having hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks and donuts.
Curtis and I will have to discuss this topic for next year at least. My family only celebrated a few years when I was growing up, then we stopped altogether. We would go out to eat and leave a not on the door saying there was no candy there. However, Curtis pretty well loved Halloween as does his whole family from what I can tell… I don't really know, we've never had an in depth conversation about it.
Either way, I never saw much harm in dressing up for parties or anything. But we will definitely need to figure out what we intend to do for Halloween if Curtis is ever home for it.
Actually both my husband and I went "trick or treating" as children, but we don't do the same with our children. I'm not "anti-Halloween" and plenty of our friends celebrate with their children, but we have just chosen not to participate.
One year we were actually visiting my family around Halloween and went to a carnival that their church hosted, which was a nice alternative. Otherwise, we just have a "family night," taking the kids out to eat at Chickfila or somewhere similar, then going to a bookstore to read books together. Occasionally we have taken them to a store and allowed them to choose one bag of candy for themselves (if we feel we can handle the sugar "high!")
It's wonderful that you and your husband were able to come to agreement on celebrating holidays with your children!
great post! I have a similar one posting tomorrow…I believe you made the correct choice…God will bless your family because of your obedience to Him…not that celebrating Halloween is disobedient (although I do believe if you are in His Word you will see that it is!) but He has laid it on your heart for a reason and you are answering His call…and that will produce blessing.
I have always celebrated it and for my family, it just revolves around the kids and all the fun they are able to have. To each his own!
My hubby and I both grew up trick-or-treating. My kids trick or treat and we do the whole carving of pumpkins thing. (no ghosts or devils for us) It is fun for us and good family time.
I am glad that you and your hubby were able to come to an agreement on how to spend Halloween. =)
BRILLIANT post!!
In Australia, Halloween is a non-event. If anything, people use it as an excuse to host costume parties or TV shows do "special" episodes where they dress up and have a "spooky" themes or whatever. But no one really goes trick or treating or anything.
Having said that though, it doesn't mean I don't have views on it. And they seem to align pretty much with yours and your friend Julie's.
Thanks for using my answer!
It sounds like you made the right decision for your family! I'm glad you were able to agree on it. đ
This is a well-rounded post. Right now, it's a non-issue for us because Little Man is still young and doesn't know the difference.
I do know that many churches have different things to do for the kids on or around Halloween. One church we went to had the children dress up as biblical characters. They had to tell about why they chose that person. Now that's something I can support.
We do not celebrate Halloween either but we do substitute something fun for the kids. Like Saturday we are taking them to Sesame Place and Sunday is ice Cream at Friendlys! i am a follower and have added your button to my side bar. Thanks for doing the same! Also come back tomorrow. I am doing a giveaway for EcoMom.com! It is an awesome website!
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We do not celebrate it either, and I too have had a hard time deciding if it is the correct choice. The only reason I have a hard time is because of the cute costumes. I think we may have to have a “pretend to be day” where we play to be “something” and talk about what that means. Thanks for posting!
I agree! I think that is a good compromise. Thanks for commenting! đ