Trick Or Treat
I dress my kids up for Halloween.
They walk up to doors and say Trick or Treat.
I’ll dress Losiah up as a one armed Korean zombie.
I scare the crap out of them when they walk around the corner.
They scare me back.
I have some friends who don’t dress up their kids for Halloween.
They go to churches and “Harvest Festivals” and Trunk or Treat.
They dress their kids up as bible characters.
Different strokes for different folks.
And they are both ok.
What about you guys?
Did you do Halloween as a kid?
Do you let your kids do Halloween?
Will you let your kids do Halloween?
Talk…
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
i don’t have kids.
and i grew up in a rough neighborhood so we didn’t do a lot of trick or treating.
BUT my parents were really fun so we always had a trick or treat party at our house…us kids would go trick or treating door to door (or bedroom to bedroom) and then we would all watch/quote the princess bride (lame i know but hey, what is a good tradition if it isn’t just a little lame).
Well I might be attending this “great” event this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FkbgeR8LKs&feature=player_embedded
I just love the name: “Amazing Grace Baptist Church” Kind of ironic.
My kids haven’t been trick or treating. Not that I have anything against it, but we have been on staff at several churches and there’s always the “alternative” events. Being staff, we were sorta “required” to be at church events.
This year, they are going trick or treating! I can’t wait!
We didn’t trick or treat as kids. We went to the schools Halloween Carnival. My husband and I are coming out of a church that doesn’t think you should do anything. They have a night of worship and prayer. As for my husband and I…right now we’re indifferent because we don’t have kids. But our discussions have been that we would trick or treat or at least go to a carnival.
my kids will def do trick or treating
my parents never let me
but i don’t see the big deal w/ it
We dress up and go to my sister’s church’s huge harvest festival/carnival/candy blowout. Giant inflatable bounce house and slides, carnival games for different ages, a climbing wall, a maze, a princess booth, a duck pond…it gives me a headache just thinking about it, but the kids love it and would be heartbroken if they couldn’t play and get hyped up on sugar with their cousins. The kids have trick or treated at the homes of people we know, but there are so many alternatives to traditional trick or treating in our area (not just churches, either–the mall, rec centers, a living history museum, etc.) that no one else really seems to bother going the door to door route either.
My kids are still pretty little (5,4,2) so we don’t trick or treat door-to-door yet. My hubby’s work has a parade/trick or treat (aka show off your cute kids) and the local Park & Rec has a costume parade. So we do those two things and pretty much collect our fill of candy for a Long time.
Growing up we didn’t do Halloween, not even the parties at school. My parents felt Halloween was “a celebration of evil” thing so we always had to shut of all the lights and play in the basement during trick or treating.
I dated a girl who told a group of our friends that they would be held accountable by God for letting their kids practice a pagan holiday.
I can’t remember if I vomited and THEN we broke up or if we broke up and THEN I vomited.
I married a girl who can carve a seriously legit pumpkin.
I celebrated Halloween as a child, even won prizes for my costumes; I don’t anymore. It is a personal decision and I would never judge anyone who does do trick or treating or has an alternative church event in honor of the evening. For me, once I learned more about the very active church of Satan, for which Halloween is a High Holy Day, I no longer have any interest in celebrating anything on Oct 31. I love having kids dress up and getting candy is a fun extra, but for us, just not on the same evening when so much evil is being carried out behind closed doors. It is kinda like trying to innocently wear white sheets and walk down the street in a neighborhood where the Klan is active. I pray for the safety of all children on that night, and thank God this is not a point over which Christians should break fellowship.
I don’t celebrate Halloween. I don’t have kids, so it’s not really a big deal for me. My youth are in charge of helping with Trunk or Treat, so I’m there for that. I’m not a big fan of celebrating pagan holidays, but I also don’t spend a lot of time actively opposing them. Mostly I just don’t really care about Halloween. I’ve never enjoyed scary things, so I guess it’s just not my thing.
Also, being in college, Halloween is apparently the holiday of making every occupation slutty (eg slutty nurse, slutty axe murderer), and I’m definitely not into that either.
So yeah, mostly I ignore it. I am a fan of the snickers being on sale though.
i never got to do halloween as a kid. mom said it was the devils birthday or something like that. i dress my kids up and take ‘em trick or treating. it’s more about our time with the kids… and i like to eat all their candy.
what???
Yes, I did the Halloween thing as a kid.
Yes our kids do Halloween as well. They don’t dress as scary characters. The daughter is deciding between a ballerina or ‘ American Girl’. The 4 year old twins last year were ‘Clark Kent’ and Superman- perfect for their personalities! This year they want to be Buzz Lightyear and Woody! All candy is donated to our company grab bag to share with others and get out of the house!
A neighbor has a annual costume party. This year it’s a Black/White theme. Since I don’t have the creative brain I am borrowing the Chik-fil-a cow costume!
we dress our kids up, go out into the neighborhood and have a great time…
for me, I just want the candy they don’t like!
I always went trick or treating as a kid and so did Amy (my wife). We lived in Cleveland, TN when our girls were young and we always took them trick or treating. Since we moved to Raleigh, we attend a church that has a Fall Festival and they are very outspoken against Halloween (no scary/gory/Harry Potter costumes, etc.). We go and make the best of it (I went as Duct Tape Man last year) but I always feel sad leaving our neighborhood on a night when I know lots of neighbors will be out of their houses and knocking on my door. I feel like we’re missing an opportunity, not to proselytize, but to be a neighbor and show love to the people around us. Thanks for making me rethink this Los, you may have pushed me out of doing what is easy/comfortable/expected/path-of-least-resistance. And hey, I could finally dress up as Dumbledore.
I grew up in a Christian home but we always trick-or-treated. We just weren’t allowed to dress up as anything scary/evil-ish etc. I hold the same standard to my kids. Their dad (my ex) isn’t a Christian and this year my oldest son is at the age where he wants to be something gory (namely a spiked-leather-jacket-wearing-skeleton-skater-boy-complete with blood and gore…) and I told him no… He tried to use the arguement that his dad would let him… I held my ground and we started brainstorming some really fun ideas like covering him in glow sticks.
Oddly enough, most years my ex chooses to take them to the trunk-or-treat at the church down the street from his house, which is good. And most years, we all celebrate together, ex and all. It’s nice that we can show our kids how to get along and love each other despite our separation and difference in beliefs.
Plus I love that they all know my favorite candy (I have three kids) and they save them for me!! =)
Halloween issue
Between each one and Yahweh
Just make Jesus Lord
(ChristianHaiku.com)
We have four kids and most of their friends come calling on Halloween. So we get a large pumpkin and cut the word ‘JESUS’ into the pumpkin along with a large candle and make sure we have plenty of goodies to give to every child who knocks at the door.
I grew up in a Christian home, w/parents that were missionaries for several years before I came into the world. We always went trick or treating – We weren’t allowed to dress up as evil/ gory things, but whatever else we wanted to be, mom would make happen. My mom used Halloween as an opportunity to spend time with our neighbors, and she always did her best to make our house a place other kids wanted to come to on that night, and made them feel welcome to stay as long as they liked. She would even dress up and get completely into character for the whole night! A few years, we even set up a scarecrow on our porch a few weeks ahead of time, and my older brother would then dress in the same clothes, sit in the same manner, and scare the snot out of both kids and parents! Every year was a fun time for us, but mom always made sure we prayed for our community both before and after trick-or-treating time. She used Halloween to make memories with us as kids, but even more as a time to show love to our neighbors (and still does even though her kids all all grown). My husband and I now live overseas, and don’t yet have children, but when we do, I want to carry on my mom’s tradition with them. It’s the love she showed and memories she used to redeem the holiday that means alot to me.
Well..
I live in London, UK and here most Christians that I speak to are VERY anti-halloween. They say how evil it is and that they would NEVER let their kids get involved in it.
Then they go and sit their kids in front of the TV to watch Harry Potter, Mona the Vampire, Sabrina the teenage witch, etc.
In some ways im on the fence, because my fiancee thinks that it kind of glorifies the occult to the kids, and I think she has a point. However, I think that when the time comes, I will personally have nothing against my kids going out trick-or-treating.
We do the trick or treat thing. Our daughter is 3 this year. Last year we just went to our immediate neighbors because they wanted to see her costume and we passed out candy to the kids that came to our house. What a great outreach… and they’re coming to you! We load them up on the candy bars and treats and throw in a “Need Prayer” card with our church contact info. We are adding a reverse trick or treat to the mix this year and will be visiting a local nursing home. The kids at church are invited to join us and will be in their costumes and will give the residents treats from our pumpkins/bags. Looking forward to it!
Nice topic, Los. This is one of those that some people full-tilt, freak out over.
“Is it a ‘haloween festival’ or a ‘fall festival’? Because, I don’t let my kids go to satanic ‘haloween festivals’. ‘Fall Festivals’ are fine.”
My momma didn’t allow us to dress as evil/gory things when we were kids for halloween, but we would trick-or-treat every year. My kids do it. The objections that we’re “celebrating” a pagan holiday humor me in the same light that some people flip out over guitars and drum kits being used in worship service. We’re not celebrating anything pagan. We’re dressing up as star wars characters and getting candy. If my kids ask what halloween is, i’ll tell them its a day where we dress up and get candy, because that’s what it is. I could go into the history with them about the roots in the pagan Samhain roots or the Christian All Saints day roots, but where’s the fun in that? If my kids’ faith in Jesus Christ is bushwacked by a candy exchange gone wrong with an adult dressed as Nacho Libre, I’ve got bigger issues to address.
Seriously, how is it any less pagan to have a “harvest festival” on church grounds on halloween night?
How many Americans are actually “celebrating” the birth of Christ on December 25th, but yet they have a Christmas tree? Celebrating Christmas doesn’t make one a believer in Jesus.
Side note; halloween always reminds me of that Ghetto Boys song, “My Mind’s Playing Tricks on Me” and haloween actually does fall on a weekend this year.
Someday when I have 8 kids, I’ll take them all trick-or-treating. It’ll be a good lesson in restraint, planning, nutrition, and discipline…for them and me both!
I grew up trick or treating. Had a blast doing it. My boys have been in the past. I serve at a church that does an awesome fall festival. We use it as a community outreach event. We hold it at one of the local high schools. Games, blowing ups, rides, petting zoo, etc. We have popcorn, cotton candy, cupcakes, burgers & dogs, chips, drinks, all for free! My 8 year old Sam is going to be a biker this year. My 11 year old Ben says he is too old to dress up. We told him that I guess he didn’t need any candy this year. He said “Nope!” to which my youngest replied “I’m gettin mine!”
well.. our youth pastor is really against halloween.. plus church’s “holywin” event is plain boring for kids.. at least make it fun, spend some $$ for this event, and then i wont mind taking our kid there….
I don’t have kids but I always went as a kid. It was a blast talking to kids at school about what you were going to be and who got the most candy. That’s all it is to me. Halloween, like Christmas started as a pagan holiday and evolved into what it is.
I dressed up as a kid for halloween and I had lots of fun. It wasn’t until I was older that I even had the thought that halloween was a “bad thing” or whatever. I enjoyed it. My fiancé grew up the same way, dressing up, trick or treating, all fun. We plan on dressing our kids up and going trick or treating with them when they are younger. I’m looking forward to it. I saw a costume pair one time where the mom was a lion tamer and her little baby was a lion. It was awesome.
Our oldest is 3. Youngest is 3months. We’ll probably have a princess and a ladybug walking the block holding our hands on the 31st. For us it’s just fun time with the girls. Dress-up with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood – candy is just a bonus!
I did Halloween as a kid, my 2 kids did halloween as kids, they turned out fine..My Mother is now 79, she says that the people that get up in arms about Halloween and make such a big case against it are foolish.
I grew up in the 80s era of rumors of glass and poisoned candy. My mom bought into it big time. I’ve actually never trick-or-treated as in door-to-door. Done the harvest parties. Done the trunk or treat. Done the happy costumes. As an adult I still haven’t grasped the halloween point (since it has always been a foreign concept for me) but I am definitely more involved than I used to be as a kid. A couple years ago I actually won a costume contest when I went as “fat elvis.” My nephews are big into and I love seeing how much fun they have. I am fairly certain I will end up being the kind of mom that makes her house into a haunted mansion for her kids and their friends. Makes the carmel apples and hands out the full-sized candy bars. Imagination is one of the things our safe Christian culture is robbing from our kids today, I truly believe that. We can keep halloween fun and still love Jesus. Santa, too.
I trick or treated for 10 years as a kid. I never thought about the devil once – ever – it was all about the candy, the neighbors, and the joy of celebration. The Christian hoopla over Halloween makes me tired.
we don’t celebrate halloween or easter. we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus all year and the origin of easter is completely pagan. 1 Corinthians 10:23 says “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.” just because something is fun or involves presents or candy doesn’t mean it’s good. however, this is by NO means a heaven or hell issue, nor does it make one more spiritual than another. it’s simply based on whatever the Lord has convicted YOU of. thanks!!
Grew up in a Christian home and raised my kids in a Christian home….have always done costumes and trick-or-treating. A lot of Christian friends were against celebrating Halloween but my feeling was that it wasn’t evil in the context that we were participating. It was all about fun.
We dress and go to parties. Sometimes go house to house depending on what time allows. I don’t think it is a bad thing against my beliefts. Paganist rituals and Christian/religious rituals all go back and forth as to who started what and what means what, I think it is too much. Unless you are going to keep up with absolutely every word you say, every holiday, every meaning behind anything, then this also does not matter. The kids just see it as a fun time. I wouldn’t like to be the one to take my kids out of the fun stuff. Would I let them jump off a cliff if their friends did too? No. Unless they were attached to a bungee cord!
I went trick or treating as a kid, and we take our 3 girls. We don’t allow the girls to dress up as witches or any thing that we would deem demonic. My parents come over and hand out candy to the trick or treaters in our neighborhood. My Mom buys the candy with coupons, so we tend to give out the full sized candy bars, so our house is popular I guess.
Blessings!
I’m a Pastor, my wife and I have four kids. We let our kids dress up for Halloween and have fun with friends running around the neighborhood. We give them some input about customs but they do the scary bloody stuff, it’s pretty funny. My Daughter (age 9), wanted to be a devil, we told her no… she tried to reason with us… I don’t want to be “the Devil” just “a” devil… we bought her a witch hat.
Trick or treat smell my feet!
I’m mostly with Liz… Christian home, etc. and trick-or-treated my butt off as long as it was ok age-wise…and maybe a little past that! HA! I didn’t, however, really know anything about people opposed to trick-or-treating until I was an adult – and I grew up So. Bapt! Anyway…my mom always said she had nothing to fear from Halloween because God had already defeated evil. Plus, she made me some MAD costumes and that was way fun and fulfilling for her.
I always worry when we take things like Halloween a little too seriously…
i grew up in a rough neighborhood and so i never trick-or-treated.
don’t have kids but i’m hoping to go with my little cousins this year for the first time.
We didn’t let our kids trick-or-treat until we heard our elderly neighbors asking them to please come by when they went out trick-or-treating. We realized that we would be blessing the neighbors by letting our kids go out (it was a neighborhood of almost all elderly and young families). We did that for several years until we moved to the mission field. Halloween here in Mexico is a celebration and worship of the DEAD, and it’s dark and occultish. If we were to even hint at celebraing that we would be completely wrong. Cultural context and convictions, you know?
Would come home with pillow cases full as a kid. We scarfed down dinner and then hit the streets till well after dark.
As for me kid is two we will probably hit a couple houses this year in a passed down superman costume or a Harley biker. Haven’t decided yet. Might depend on the weather. But i am totally looking forward to him being a little older. I want to take him out where he is David with the sling and everything and I am Goliath with a stone in my head with all kinds of blood on my face. Totally biblical and totally fun.
How about a discussion on some fun Biblical costumes. Guy with leprosy, the rooster that crowed at Peter, The guy Peter cut the ear off of. Ya show up to “Harvest fest” with that costume. What its in 2 Samuel?
My parents weren’t really deep Christians growing up. We did trick or treat every year and loved it.
My husband and I don’t have kids (unless I’m three weeks pregnant and don’t know it), but we won’t do trick or treating. We don’t freak out at people, we just don’t participate. When someone asks I usually say something like, “It’s just not our faith/culture. We don’t celebrate Kwanza either.”
We do use it as an opportunity to reach out, though, by doing Trunk or Treat at our church. Our children’s ministry really aims to make it an outreach event every year, not just a pacify-the-Christian-kids event, so it’s pretty rad.
Did Halloween. Will let my kids do Halloween. But for now I have to do the “Harvest Festival” Trunk or Treat think, because being on church staff, I don’t have a choice.
When it’s my call to make, I’m thinking I probably won’t ask our body to come to a church on the only day in the entire year that all of their neighbors actually walk right up to their front door.
just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
i’m not against halloween, but as you (@loswhit) said, “everytime i type, my fingers become possessed by Satan.”
but seeing as i lack self control…
if you don’t like celebrating pagan holidays then you need to do some things.
On Christmas:
don’t have an evergreen tree in your house.
don’t put up any decorations
don’t have a family meal (a large scale one. eating as a family isn’t bad.)
no mistletoe
no gift giving
on Easter:
no bunnies
no big family meals
no dying of eggs
no hot cross buns (not that it is a common thing)
no gift giving
but it’s whatever. to each his own. ha.
so then what DO you do?
I trick or treated…then went to the fall festival. Dad was the pastor. Had to at least make an appearance
I always Trick or Treated. I loved it when I was little. At some point, I stopped enjoying dressing up but not for religious reasons, because I felt silly goofy ridiculous.
Not sure I understand the whole church-halloween-ban thing. I’m sure people have their reasons. I can appreciate that.
My mom played piano at our church so she’d always dress me up, take me to the Harvest Party but then we’d duck out early and hit the neighborhood trick-or-treat without our church friends ever know what heathens we were
My husband and I intentionally chose a church where no one would frown at us for dressing our kids up and saying, “Happy Halloween!”
I think previous commenter heather nailed it.
In my opinion, there are much bigger things we need to tackle as Christians than kids dressing up as butterflies…. so trick or treat
This is one of those days that have stupid social rules attached to it. If you choose not to you suffer the wrath of those who do, if you choose to do it you suffer the….you get the point. What if you just don’t want to for the sake of not wanting to. You’d rather say at home and chill. Candy is way overrated for kids and we’d prefer our kid’s teeth to not rot out of their heads.
But…
If you’re one of those Christians who look down on those who do – get over yourselves. You’ve got issues that are far worse than going out for Halloween.
If you’re one of those Christians who do just to fit in so you can “relate” to the world – get over yourselves too. Yeah – them seeing you dressed up for Halloween is really going to influence them for Christ. TO THE IDIOT MOBILE!!!
Definitely went trick or treating as a kid. Had some of the most fun with costumes.
In college it was “Bum Rush the Devil” parties as to not celebrate the celebration of being someone/something else
I’ll cross the bridge when I get to it since I don’t have kids but as of NOW, I’m all about letting my kids go as long as it’s easy to delineate between dress up and dressing up because you like what/who you are in character better than yourself.
i grew up a youth pastor’s (now pastor’s) daughter. we usually had a fall festival at church & then would come home and trick or treat. i don’t ever remember NOT trick or treating. it has become one of my favorite times of year. my son is 3 and this will be his 2nd year of knocking on doors to get candy. fun times and good memories are made.
Halloween is retarded!!
It strikes me as a bit strange when it’s about dark or occultish stuff, but I wonder if horror films really have any redeeming benefits. Dressing up like a loony on the other hand is probably pretty fun.
My mother did not “believe” in Halloween when I was a kid. We went to Harvest Festivals at our church, but back then we called them Hallelujah Nights. I remember dressing up as Noah’s Ark. Yes, Noah’s Ark. It was a pretty elaborate costume that my mother had made. I, to this day, have actually never trick-or-treated.
Now I have a kid of my own. No, she’s not old enough to trick-or-treat yet or even know that I exist, but boy can she drool on herself! Anyway, Judi and I will be dressing her up in a costume, probably a pirate, and walking her around with my brother and sister-in-law as their kids trick-or-treat. When June is old enough I’m sure we will take her trick-or-treating and pray that she doesn’t become demon possessed, haha! Or should I say “mmwahahahaha!”
I’m 20. I have planned not only my costume this year, but also that of the guy I’m seeing. We’re going out with friends and will be at church Sunday morning. Quite frankly, I don’t feel like the two have anything to do with each other. Halloween has become such a commercial entity that most children (barring lesson plans in most schools) would even know that the holiday is about anything more than costumes and candy.
Our oldest daughter is finishing up her last year of college and our youngest is in 1st grade this year, so we’ve been trick or treating for a long time in this family! My husband loves to come up with creative Halloween costumes and it’s been fun over the last few years to hear the older kids impart their Halloween experiences to their youngest sibling. It’s a great family activity for us and it’s provided some really great family memories. The older kids have been everything from – a basket of dirty laundry to my favorite costume ever-our son’s “deviled egg” costume! I can’t think that God would ever be opposed to that kind of family bonding and love that we’ve experienced over the years! Not to mention our traditional pumpkin carving night…what family shouldn’t experience that great mess!!!!
God will always know the intentions of our heart, so I’m not even sure there should be a debate about a lot of things that christians want to debate. If God knows the intention of my heart is to love my family and build memories for my children to take with them when they leave my house…then I probably don’t need someone that doesn’t know me trying to censor my family’s life. Let’s worry about the important stuff…like taking care of the widows and the orphans like God calls us to do. Imagine how much we could get done!! Just a thought.
I haven’t had time to read through all these comments, so forgive me if I’m repetitive.
But last year I did a little research on Halloween…and guess what? It is orginally a Christian holiday. It’s OUR holiday!!! Long story short, Halloween is the Christian holiday set in place back in the day to celebrate the martyrs of our faith. Believers moved it to Oct. 31st b/c it was the evening before a pagan holiday- The day of the Dead. So it was a move to redeem the holiday in the culture, and eventurally, they sort of just got blended together.
However, God owns everything, everything is His, and He is big on redemption. So I’ve heard some suggestions to redeem the holiday in your family.
Your kids can dress up as whatever they want…just have it represent a people group, in some form, that you want to see reached for Jesus. Spend the month before Halloween learning about and praying for this people group. Make the point of the holiday honoring Jesus and his heart for people.
I think we need to stop being afraid of the world, change our attitudes, and infilitrate with love and a focus on Jesus. Halloween is nothing to be afraid of!
I think Halloween in the US has just become another way of making money. In other countries it’s taken more seriously, in Mexico the day of the dead is a day to remember your loved ones that have gone to a better life and it’s no seem as an evil or bad tradition, in fact, that is why they do the sugar skulls because death is part of life and they try to take it the best way possible (it’s a satire). So I guess it all depends on how we’re a brought up.
Hello, my name is Sarah im 12 and i want to go trick-or-treating, but
My older sister has 2 work
My mom dosnt let me go with my friends
I never have a good time with my mom trick-or-treating, because she wants 2 go home after 2 streets
Can’t go alone
Im crying and would like somebody to please answer me!!!!!
So sad today..My X will not let my daughter dress up or trick or treat. I still took her out when she was 1,2,3,4,5 and 6..7,8,and nine he had her and she was sad. Tomorrow We both have to work and he wont let anyone watch her who dresses up. She has nowhere to go… All her friends dress up.. I cant tell them they can not.. Now he’s mad at me and wants me to take off work…I would never had married him if I knew he was like this..Maybe I would respect christian wishes, but that would be after he stops cursing and drinking..We are not married anymore..But I still have this to go through every year..In a couple years my daughter will be too old..Let The Kid Dress Up And Eat Candy