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OT: Halloween
- This topic has 53 replies, 41 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 6 months ago by
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@Britney, thank you for sharing your story. It is easy to forget such darkness surrounds. And it is good to be reminded we must always be armed with the armor of God.
@Christy, can I just say thank you and I agree.
@dztamra, thank you as well. These are excellent points. We do not do Jesus’ birthday at our home. We don’t find it scripturally directed either.
I have to say I almost didn’t comment on this thread. I knew I’d be in the minority. I appreciate everyone’s viewpoints, but it seems to me some of the statements made are quite legalistic. I also find using Xmas for Christmas quite off-putting which just shows how far apart many of our convictions truly are. All any of us can do is seek God and His direction.
We do not usually celebrate it because my children don’t like the scary costumes of other people. My husband decided to let the children attend Boo at the Zoo two years ago Because his brother wanted us to go with his family. We supposed from the description that it was for children so it would be family friendly, pumpkins and silly fun. The kids dug in their dress up bin and I had two princesses and a firefighter with no money spent.
I didn’t want to go. I personally hate Halloween. I hate scary movies, and anything like that. Im sensitive to things like that and I feel the evil intensely. It makes me sick. I deferred to my husband and figured a family event would be better.
My children are sensitive to those things too. So it was quite a shock when the family event had a lot of teenagers and adults running around in scary costumes, horror scenes displayed like a decapitated person, and a “haunted house” you had to walk through that made my little girl scream.
There was no where to leave, we had to stay on the path. We shielded them as best we could, got out, and my husband said never again.
So that’s that. Nothing deep. We celebrate harvest type things and stay in and watch a family movie with popcorn and hot chocolate on Halloween. No candy passing out. The sight of little monsters on our porch would give my children nightmares.
If we found a truly child friendly trunk or treat or something we might participate for fun. The children were discussing Halloween recently and I heard them choosing what costume they wanted and I was like “since when do we go trick or treating?” and they all wanted to go this year. I mentioned our last experience and scary costumes and haven’t heard another word about it.
We don’t like scary. So we don’t do it. 🙂
Tara
We do not celebrate it. My children were convicted. I just followed suit. it is a pagan ritual with many terriable deaths by pagans over thousands of years. They are still being practiced today. This is a good topic about how it comes and the meanings. Many of you don’t know but all of the holidays we celebrate are pagan. All centering around Red and Green and the soltices. They are celebrated by even our Presidents (shock going out yet?) This even goes as far as Valentines day and Easter. If you don’t celebrate G-d who will you celebrate?
I thought why should we do anything special for these pagan days???? Why? Just because it was bred in us too? As for me and my house we will serve the Lo-d! We stay home. We forget it is a holiday. If we remember or have others remind us then we usually pray for that person and all the others that don’t know about how pagan the ritual is. One year I watched a movie about a christian who use to be a former accult leader. (very large) He told of what the meanings of all the Holidays are. Even what the wreath meant! After that I had a hard time looking at holidays the same. I was happy when I met my husband that he felt the same way. We lightly followed suit not knowing that the other really didn’t care about the holidays. It was our children that decided it wasn’t for them. Then we talked about why we were celebrating it and realized we were thinking we were keeping it going for the other… LOL So, now I am blessed that we have gotten that off of our shoulders.
It was a burden as is Christmas. ect… We don’t have to spend all that money, time, ect.. Doing something that doesn’t please him and just makes our lives more hectic. BTW Jesus was to be born during the Feast of Harvest. Which is this time of year. It has nothing to do with Christmas. If you want another bit of insite. It also has to do with 9/11. That is why we were supposably bombed on that date. It was a holiday. do the research and you will see there is more to Halloween and Christmas, Easter and all the other holidays then you may know.
Look up any pagan website and see the holidays they celebrate and why… Then, try to convince yourself you are celebrating something G-dly!
BLessings! Everyone!
We have been all over the map regarding Halloween. But, a few years ago I listened to a Focus on the Family broadcast interviewing the author of Redeeming Halloween, and then checked out what Christian Research Institute had published on the subject. I decided to let ds participate with the neighborhood trick-or-treating. I usually buy or print tracts to hand out with candy. Its the only time your neighbors are coming to your door asking for something. 😉 We had a “Fear Not” party 2 or 3 years ago and are planning to have one again this year, per ds’s request. We’re just starting to talk about planning it; guess we’d better get busy. 🙂 Anyway, that is where we are now regarding Halloween.
“The Fear-Not Halloween Party is not an alternative to a Halloween event. Instead, it celebrates the very heart of the season by rejoicing in God’s goodness and communicating the message that faith drives out fear.” Redeeming Halloween, by Kim Wier & Pam McCune, pg. 76
Melissa
Melissa, I would love to know more about your fear not party. You can pm me or I can pm my email add to you. Tanks, christie
Our does not partake in any recognition of Halloween, although before we became Christians, we did. I grew up in a non-Christian home in the city, and remember Halloween as anything but innocent & fun, so it has been a good thing to leave behind. Just my personal experience.
Although the Lord has convicted us strongly in this area, for the same reasons already expressed by many others, I really appreciate the viewpoints given here by others who do choose to celebrate it. Thank you to all posters for your perspectives.
I would highly recommend getting the book I mentioned if you can. But here are some of the ideas from that chapter:
~If local city regulations allow it, a campfire will really set the mood for the party and the devotional story. The kids will also love making s’mores over the fire. . . If a fire isn’t an option, use a barbeque grill or even an indoor fireplace.
~Play Flashlight Tag, renamed Romans-versus-Christians Flashlight Tag. Tell the story of Roman persecution of Christians and how that led to ‘All Saints Day’ etc…
~Have a costume parade (non-scary costumes).
~Gather for s’mores/snacks and lead into the devotional story. The author recommends several books for stories: Jesus Freaks, Volume I and II by dc Talk, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs by John Foxe and The New Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Heroic Faith and Extreme Devotion by The Voice of the Martyrs. I used a story from The Voice of the Martyrs magazine for kids last time we did the party. The author gives suggestions for discussion after the story focusing on God’s promises (like Matthew 10:28, 1 John 4:18), closing in prayer.
~After the party, pray with your own children that the message their friends heard would help them to live a life of faith in Christ, not fear of the unknown.
The Fear Not Party is geared for elementary age kids. She has another chapter with a party suggestion for junior high through college age that she calls a Fill-in-the-Gap Party. There’s another great chapter called Tricky Treaters that offers suggestions for having your family or group go on missions of encouragement. And there is a portion of the book focused on commemorating the faithful with a focus on All Saints Day.
Hope that’s helpful to folks that were interested. 🙂
Melissa
We do not do halloween or put up a Christmas tree. A video I found helpful is “Christmas Unwrapped” made by the History Channel.
Ditto what Tristan said. Thank you all for sharing your points.
Like Tara (Tecrz1), my dd is very sensitive to the scary stuff. It is so bad that we limit going to stores and outings this time of year because we find their “decorations” so evil and offensive. My dd hides behind me and is scared even though she knows they are fake. We also had a similar experience with a family outing at the zoo one October. I have learned to stay away from these places in October. What is really bad is how this stuff makes their way into stores 6 to 8 weeks before the holiday!
My children do have fun playing dress up in various non-scary costumes and imaginative play. And a great way to find a deal on these is after the holiday.
Well we don’t do Halloween because scary/evil is the main theme. When you go to the store, drive by people’s yards, or watch tv you don’t see princesses and Superman. No, you see all the freaky stuff. I don’t like celebrating something I have to constantly shield my kid’s eyes (and mine) from.
However, we do celebrate Reformation Day! Which just happens to be the same night. My kids dress up as monks, nuns, kings, queens, or peasants. I truly believe it is something that Christians should celebrate. I tell the story of Martin Luther. We play games that I come up with. We invite friends and have a great time while I teach about a very important time in our history.
We do a Chistmas tree because God made trees. Same with eggs. I love nature, and so does God. Trees and eggs don’t belong to pagans. They belong to the one who created them! We don’t “do” Santa, in that I don’t lie to my kids, ever. I have no problem with the jolly guy though. My kids watch Santa movies, we have a few ornaments, ect… They just know he’s not real. None of these things give me the chills. Halloween makes my skin crawl.
@coralloyd- We do almost the exact same thing you do! This year will be our first year doing a Reformation thing as we just joined a reformed baptist church a year ago. (Before that we were long time members of a small non-reformed baptist church). We are so excited to start this tradition! We do Christmas similar to you too. However, we don’t do anything that has to do with Santa except we read the Voice of the Martyrs Book “The Story of Saint Nicholas”, which is about the real man and how he was persecuted for being a chrisitian. It prompts us to pray for persecuted believers all over the world. VOM has a whole set of of these books. There is one on Saint Valentine and Saint Patrick also. I’m like you though, Halloween gives me the creeps. My kids were actually the ones who started the conversation about not participating around 4 years ago. Thanks for sharing!
I have heard a lot of these types of discussions before but really enjoyed skimming all the responses, thank you!
We don’t really celebrate Halloween. We have enough fun activities to plan and participate in with fall/harvest and Thanksgiving and Christmas. We obviously don’t celebrate or joke about evil, and candy is something we try to limit anyway, so there’s really nothing left to “celebrate”.
Our kids are pretty young yet (4 and almost 2), and I hope sometime in their lives they get the opportunity to make some creative and fun costumes for other occasions (a play, costume party, historical re-enactments?), because costumes can be fun and I’ve seen some really creative ones.
We do celebrate Reformation Day and often have church services for that in the evening of that day (Oct 31), or on the nearest Sunday. It is usually several churches getting together, so it is kind of special.
Our oldest has been asking about witches because of reading “The Wizard of Oz”, and if they are real or not, so I suspect that with all the Halloween decorations we will be addressing that kind of question again over the next few weeks.
This has been a most insightful post, thank you for bumping it! Halloween has never been an issue in my house because that is my birthday, we celebrate me! (Hope that doesn’t sound vain!) When my dd was itsy bitsy she was terrified of the ghouls that came to the door and that fixed it for her! My ds has never asked to go TT until this year. We have moved to a different neighborhood and there are 6 boys for him to play with and they love to do things together all the time. We bought him a Roman gladiator outfit (I have to make a tunic) and he is very excited. He will go with them and not bring home candy since it will just be thrown away. I appreciate misceegee’s links to Christian and halloween. We are not to live in fear of the devil and those that worship him, “greater is He that is within us…” As Christians we need to remember that Satan is a defeated enemy, resist him and he will flee! And like LindseyD, November 1st is our anniversary too, purposely planned for my dh’s benefit!
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