Oh Fall - You have fulfilled your many promises this season.
We have ate a lot of Pumpkin...or maybe it was just me that ate a lot of Pumpkin.
And we have made some fun memories...
Like last night when Daddy was able to break away from work for a hayride with his lovelies :).
Along with a huge group from the girls school...
Have I mentioned how much we love this Academy? The people, the teachers, and oh the academics - absolutely phenomenal. I can't imagine us anywhere else. This was a fun, fun group. Anyway, back to the topic at hand...
I had an interesting conversation with another mom the other day about Trick or Treating. There are so many different views - especially amongst Christians.
I had an interesting conversation with another mom the other day about Trick or Treating. There are so many different views - especially amongst Christians. Now I'm really curious...
Where do you stand on the whole Trick or Treating situation? Do you let your kids go? Or do you just stick to Fall Harvest Parties? I do struggle with the scary factor for the girls (even though I have explained Halloween to them like 100 times)...but when I was a kid (it was the 80's), we had so much fun going from house to house...
Anyone want to offer an opinion, or share what your family does for Halloween?
15 comments:
Hey Kate! Growing up in a split home, one fam did NOTHING Santa or Halloween...the other did it all. I understood where things came from, but didn't take part in 'occult' or scary thing. With Lila, we take her around Trick or Treating, and she avoids the scary things too. My 2 cents at the moment =o)
We take the kids trick or treating, but avoid the scary stuff too. Just explain it as a fun time to dress up for treats and that's all there is to it! We try to keep our hearts open if that ever changes!
Where to the girls go to school?
Our daughters are still so young that nothing scary has ever been mentioned. Just fun dress up stuff. As far as trick or treating, Mia's still too young for actual door-to-door, so we take her to my family members' houses. It takes longer driving all over town, but we get to stay and visit for a few minutes, and we get plenty of treats that are completely safe. Not that I'm terribly worried about safe candy...but it's still nice to get candy from an aunt rather than a stranger, kwim?
You know, if you look at how halloween is advertised and the decor and really everything about it, I feel like it all has a darkness to it. The roots of it are satanic as are many other holidays we celebrate. The difference here, simply in my opinion, is that in other holidays we have broken away from those roots and claimed those holidays with Light. Things associated with them are not always Godly but they are not all about darkness and scary things. This holiday is advertised and decorated for with scary, icky, dark things. Even when we make a ghost or witch. cute, they are still a ghost and witch. It has not broken away from its dark roots and that is really what it is all about. Sure not everyone is celebrating it in that way, I totally understand that, but that is the way it is presented in everything associated with it. And traditionally, very bad things happen on that night all over the country, also unlike other holidays.
For those reasons, we do not celebrate it in traditional form. We want to break away from those dark roots and try to find ways to bring God's light to a traditionally dark night. A couple of the things we have done are taking part in carnivals where kids can play games at a church and then at the end before candy is given out, the gospel message is given. We have also put on a carnival with our youth group where to get in a kid has to have their face or hand pointed and the gospel was shared with them while that was taking place. It was exciting to see God at work on that night in particular!
So, those are just my convictions. I do not ever look down on others who choose to go trick-or-treating. Everyone has to do what they feel is right between them and God. That is just where we stand. Sorry that got so long :)
We do not celebrate Halloween in any way at our house. We do not trick or treat. We do not hand out candy. We do not even attend the BIG event at our church every year. We do not feel that celebrating a holiday with such evil and wicked roots is something that brings honor and glory to Our Lord. Since we want to live EVERY day of our lives as honoring to Our Lord Jesus Christ, we can't make an exception for "just one day".
Where we used to live, we hosted a HUGE Pumpkin Party every year in the middle of October. We had over 100 people come every year. We all dressed in orange. We all brought pumpkin treats (and shared their recipes). We had a pumpkin painting contest for the Dads (since it's always the mom and kids that are doing the crafty things). It was a FUN way to celebrate the Fall and the Harvest, without having anything to do with Halloween or Oct. 31st.
On Oct. 31st, we usually eat an early dinner and then head down to our basement for family games or movie night ... with all of our upstairs lights turned off so that no one comes to our door looking for treats.
mama of 13
Hi Kate! This topic has really been on my mind a lot this season. All the past Halloween's our kids have gotten sick, so we've never had the opportunity to go out. Also, Lydia's food allergies have been a huge deciding factor to not participate.
Lately I've been thinking about all the meaning of the holiday. And when I'm out grocery shopping I don't even want the kids seeing the displays. A lot of them are evil and scary... not the images I want in their little minds. It seems a lot worse than when we were kids. I LOVED Halloween for the simple fact that my usually health-conscious mom would let loose and let us have candy. (It was SO exciting!!!) Back then kids would dress up as doctors, ballerinas, cheerleaders, etc. Now I feel like the general idea is, the scarier the better. So, I'm not sure we'll even pass out candy this year due to the fact that the kids will want to see who is at the door and be exposed to some of these costumes. Just my 2cents.... or 40.
p.s. Just wanted to put out there that this is what works for our family and in no way do we feel everyone should feel the way we do.
We are still planning to make it a fun time for the kids so they don't feel like they are missing out. Something like going out to eat, renting a DVD, going to the store to pick out candy that don't contain eggs, dairy or nuts. Willy Wonka here we come!
Marisa - you are so right...back when we went Trick or Treating, things were a little different. I was a smurf - not something really scary!
The kiddos do love it. And since they are so young, they just think it's a night to wear your princess dresses outside and go door to door for candy...they don't really pay any attention to the scary side of it.
Hmmm...
Kate, we do trick or treat. We definitely don't do the scary part and we are very open with our children (now that they are older and able to understand)about the scary side of Halloween. We make sure they understand that this is not how we celebrate the holiday. We focus on fun costumes and the joy of going door to door as a family to get lots of wonderful candy!
We don't participate in Trick or Treating. I did as a child, and loved it, but things have changed since then. I agree totally with what Kim said.
Kate,
We have opted to not participate in any way. As a child, I remember my parents becoming aware of the roots of the holiday and we stopped participating before I was school age. This left a deep impression on me.
Also, there were areas around where I grew up where the occult and witchcraft had a deep hold. This has emphasized for me the reason for this particular holiday.
Ralph and I have chosen at this time to not recognize it any way. We decorate for fall but not Halloween.
I know both my sisters hold similar but different views that I respect. Also, I know of others that see it as the one time a year their neighborhood comes to them so they use it as outreach. I respect that as well.
I think the most important thing is to be where God leads your family at this time. It's awesome you're thinking through it--I know many parents don't.
Kate...I'll be publishing a post in regards to this later tonight...it's a touchy subject for sure. I basically feel Satan doesn't get a day to himself...each day is a day the Lord has made. As Christians we are called to be a light in the darkness...not to hide...giving glory to God in all situations and circumstances.Tim Kimmel's "Grace Based Parenting" is a fantastic book that touches on this too :)
We haven't done trick-or-treating in several years, but the girls LOVE dressing up! So we embrace that part :) Our church does a "fall festival" and we won't get to go this year, but we did go to our small town's "Pumpkinfest" this weekend and had a ball. The girls love playing dress-up, I think it's great to have a day where everyone dresses up! :) I think another comment touched on this... but why can't we reclaim the darkness, so to speak? We aren't going to convince the world to forget about halloween... so why not make it something very positive... at least for those in our circle of influence.
This is a complicated decision. We do let our kids trick-or-treat. Every year we re-evaluate our decision and pray through it. We are very careful to avoid the houses that are at all "spooky", our kids are not allowed to dress up as anything scary, and we have found it to be a great way to reach out within our neighborhood. Our street is a dead-end street in a very safe neighborhood...several neighbors have cookouts in their driveways and pass out hot cocoa etc. and we have found it to be a night that we really interact with our neighbors in a way that we don't get to many other times of the year (a lot of the households are dual-income families so they aren't around much during the week). Also, I usually make a big pot of chili or something and my parents come over, and this year my bro, SIL, and new nephew are going with us....our kids are ecstatic to go trick-or-treating with their cousin. So, for us, it has been a very fun event so far....but we completely respect the reasoning not to participate. Great discussion from your post over a difficult topic.
We do it (trick or treating) but just to people's houses in the neighborhood that we know and they don't dress scary. I have mixed emotions about halloween.
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