This year as my kids are getting older I've been thinking a little bit more about what I want to teach them and how to guide them as they grow up.
One of the controversies in the Christian community is what to do about Halloween. I don't really think about it until it gets to this time of year. As a kid we didn't do much with Halloween. In my early years we either lived up in the mountains or out in the country. Never in a neighborhood with many houses so naturally we just didn't trick-or-treat. I remember going to a fall carnival at our church once. I honestly don't remember ever dressing up until probably 4th or 5th grade. As we got a little older we started going to the mall for our candy. Our costumes were basically what we could find around the house, nothing evil scary or identity hiding. We did this for a few years...my memory is hazy...probably because we just never made a big deal of Halloween. By the time we moved a "real" neighborhood I was in 8th grade and didn't do the trick-or-treat thing because I was too old. And thats all my memories of Halloween. I actually went to one Halloween sleep-over at a friends house in 8th grade. Not sure if I have good memories of that...lots of Halloween stuff that I just didn't grow up with. Nothing super evil but definitely darker than I was used to.
Now that I have kids I have to really think about how we're going to address this issue. You can't hide from it...Halloween is everywhere! Right now they are pretty oblivious to it all but I know they'll start asking questions and Charlie and I need to be prepared with answers and a strong conviction of how this family will celebrate, or rather not celebrate, Halloween. I don't like it at all. I don't want my kids desensitized to evil and scary stuff. Its not funny, witches are not funny. They are real and very evil. The whole background of Halloween is very dark and evil. There are people out there that do very evil things to children and animals around this "holiday". I don't want my family taking it lightly.
Yes, I am dressing them up in cute animal costumes and taking them to our church for a FALL carnival. I love doing that...nothing at our church will be related to Halloween. Its a fun night to play games and get candy and be kids. Halloween day...well, I want to live it like its just any other day of the year. I do not decorate my house, I don't send out Halloween cards, and I won't take my kids trick-or-treating. I'm not sure what we'll do Saturday night. I'd like to be out of the house so we'll try to find something to be out of the house part of the night. Maybe we'll find another church having a harvest party that night :)
I know that I'm in the minority on this issue. I don't want to judge other Christians who enjoy Halloween but please please think about it. I don't want to hide out, thats not what God wants us to do, but I really want to be different than the world.
Please check out this link to another blog with more info on the background and issues about Halloween.
Thanks!
http://www.jeremiahproject.com/culture/halloween.html
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