Growing up, we always celebrated Halloween--at least I did until I was in 4th grade and 5'8" and people told me I was "too old" to go Trick or Treating. I cried.
Traumatic childhood moments aside, I maybe had one or two friends who didn't celebrate Halloween, but none that I can really remember. The same goes for college at PLU (Pacific Lutheran)...I'm sure there were people who didn't celebrate Halloween, but I don't remember anyone specifically or any specific reasons why they didn't celebrate. Justin has told me that he's experienced essentially the same thing growing up--Halloween was always celebrated, and he didn't really know many (if any) families who didn't celebrate.
But, I've noticed quite a few blog friends make reference to the fact that they don't celebrate Halloween. I've noticed quite a few posts like {this one} taking one side or the other as to whether or not Christians should celebrate the day. I've seen some other people talk about not celebrating Halloween because they dislike the politically uncorrectness of a lot of Halloween costumes. And it has recently occurred to me that the percentage of people who choose not to celebrate Halloween (for a variety of reasons, not just religious) is probably closer to the percentage of people who do celebrate the day than I realized. And y'all know that I was a Sociology major in college, and so I'm probably more interested in hearing why people do the mundane things that they do than most...so, for today's Burning Question of the Day, I'm curious:
Does your family celebrate Halloween? Why or why not?
*Note: Let's all please play nice and be respectful of each other and one another's beliefs. I'm just genuinely curious, and hope we can cultivate an environment where people feel comfortable enough to share why they do what they do.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
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We do celebrate, and both came from families that did as well (he's Catholic, I'm Lutheran). We know it is fantasy and not meant to take place of our teachings in the home. I can't really say why, just that it's fun to play dress up once a year. :-) We've never bean into the sexy or ghoulish costumes - usually they are something super nerdy, so that makes it more bearable for me too.
ReplyDeleteI don't really celebrate Halloween anymore; not because of religious reasons, but because I hate dressing up. I'm a Hallow-weenie.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid I dressed up and went trick-or-treating but living in the country meant that Mom or Dad drove us around to the home of families nearby (mostly ones that went to our church). As teenagers we didn't really do much on the day except hand out treats to kids that came to our door.
ReplyDeleteI think when we have kids we will encourage them to dress up.
That's terrible, I hate it when adults say you're too old to trick or treat! Apparently you're never too old to be a jerk. Hmph. But I haven't really celebrated Halloween since middle school, just handing out candy and being a general party-pooper. Or Hallow-weenie, that's a better word!
ReplyDeleteMy family always celebrated Halloween. I went to a Christian school and we always had Halloween-related activities. They've since gotten away from "Halloween" and more "Fall" or "Fall Festival", which seems to be the norm.
ReplyDeleteThese days neither my husband nor I dress up, but we'll buy a couple of bags of candy and pass it out to neighborhood kids. We don't go all out decorating, but it's definitely around in our house.
We won't "celebrate" Halloween, like do scary movies, decorate with ghosts, etc. But, we will let our kids dress up and go trick or treating, that's just fun. :) And we'll decorate for fall instead of just Halloween. And we're also going to put a big focus on celebrating All Saints Day (Nov 1st), and All Souls Day (Nov 2nd), which are Feast days in the Catholic Church.
ReplyDeleteWe do celebrate Halloween. In fact, Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. It's just so much fun and I can't wait to share it with our daughter.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say we celebrate Halloween. We will let Jaxon dress up and take him to a few houses of people here on base that we know and let him "trick or treat".... We decorate the house, but it's more for fall than Halloween. I have pumpkins and corn stalks and a few other fall-ish things up in the house. :)
ReplyDeleteEh, sorta. But not really. Make sense? haha.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, we did trick or treat until I was maybe in 4th grade, but then our church started putting on a "fall festival" on Halloween night, so we would always attend that.
With Isaac, we dressed him up the first year just cause I wanted a costume for him, but I only took pictures - we didn't do any trick or treating.
Our church now does block parties on Halloween and we are hosting one. Isaac won't be in a costume and we won't be trick or treating, but we will be passing out candy to kids and we'll have games and food in our yard. It's just a fun way to connect with our neighbors without doing an all out Halloween celebration.
I love Halloween and might even go so far as to say it's my favorite holiday. . . Which is a super bummer since I moved away from the US haha. As far as the scary/ ghoulish business, that's cool with me. It's not the highlit though. I tend to like other types of costumes/ decorations better but I have nothing against it either. I love fall and I love that we have man excuse to dress up and be something totally different for one night. Plus the cookies. I love seasonal sugar cookies with sprinkles...you know the pumpkins and bats that Albertsons always sells? Ahhhh so good. I eat them until my stomach says stop!
ReplyDeleteYep! I believe in getting candy and dressing up, lol! That's my idea of a great Halloween!
ReplyDeleteDitto Kristal, "sorta, but not really" :)
ReplyDeleteI never trick-or-treated growing up, as my parents were majorly majorly anti the holiday, so much that they pulled us out of school to avoid the Halloween parties that our classes always had.
We don't "celebrate" it, but my boys do dress up and we go to a church fall festival.
Deep down I'd prefer not to celebrate Halloween [or do the whole Santa Claus thing] but I feel like we kind of don't have a choice. Between family and the fact that these things are constantly in our face, I feel like there's no way we could dodge it. And I can't imagine telling my kids no to trick or treating when a million kids are running around our neighborhood having a great time.
ReplyDeleteWe did it growing up, and I plan on celebrating with Ryann as well. For us though, it is more about the costume parties and getting candy, not really trying to be creepy or anything of that nature. I completely understand why some people don't celebrate, I just love having an excuse to dress my kiddo up in a really cute costume.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a Christian home too but we did trick or treat when we were younger. I've always that been told that Halloween is referred to as "Satan's holiday" and the church we attend still refers to it as that.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, I wouldn't say we celebrate Halloween. We will let the kids participate in trick or treating activities as they grow up, but we do not go all out by decorating with skulls/scary things, etc. It's just not a holiday we particularly like.
Growing up we trick or treated..then we started going to a church that was all anti-halloween and I hated that. It was very much one of THOSE churches--and now, I am part of a church that looks at halloween as an opportunity to love and be part of your community, and why the heck not? So do we dress up & go trick or treating? yes. our kids will. definitely. Do I decorate and do gory things around this time of year? nope, b/c I'm scared of all things "scary".
ReplyDeleteWe don't really celebrate. I think we use it as more of a fun time to do fun things with the kiddos. Like pumpkin carving and trick or treating and making cookies. ,,,we don't really decorate though not at all this year and only our front window last year. I know lots of Christians who love Halloween and some who do not celebrate or make reference.
ReplyDeletenope :) {surprise, surprise! lol} but, we have found "replacements" so that there isn't just a complete absence of any festivities for our girl ... so we've gone to a local harvest party the past several years, as well as one at our church.
ReplyDeleteinteresting ... last year i let her get a costume ( a harmless princess one at walmart) and thought, there is no real harm in trick-or-treating. so we went, and after one house, SHE wanted to go home. she said she didn't feel right. and i thought, thank you LORD for providing clarity, even (and especially) to a child, when her mama is getting caught up in the culture.
Just like Kristal, we had Isaac in a costume the first year, which I dubbed Costume Day, but we don't celebrate the holiday.
ReplyDeleteEveryone keeps asking me at work what the boys are going to be and I've got nothing for them.
Our pastor and his family could have written the blog you linked and it's really challenged me.