Halloween is one of those subjects that tends to stir up interesting discussion among Christians. My husband’s family and mine were very similar in a lot of ways growing up; this was not one of them!

I think I remember dressing up once, when I was very small. Most years we avoided Halloween; some years we handed out candy with Halloween-themed Gospel tracts. Yep, we were those people. ;) For many of my growing up years, we lived in an area with a more obvious cultic presence which made Halloween a horrible, evil-feeling night. It is not overstating to say that I truly HATE Halloween.

My husband’s family was on the other end of the Christian spectrum on this subject. They loved trick-or-treating through the neighborhoods around them. They often got together with good family friends before trick-or-treating and Nate’s mom and her friend (who is now my kids’ “pretend grandma” in our area!) would make a Halloween dinner with dishes named things like “worms and eyeballs.” Halloween is a fun and special memory in their family, free of the things that made me hate it.

Needless to say, we’re not 100% in agreement on what we should and should not do for Halloween. Each year we discuss, evaluate, decide. I am certainly not going to tell you what to do one way or the other. My friend Courtney has done a great job articulating how her family handles Halloween. I also love what Amber has written about her reflections on Halloween and alternative “Christianized” celebrations.

Right now with our 3-year old (LB is obviously unaware at this point!), this is what we have done/ not done.

• AG always is afraid of the ugly Halloween decorations, especially the monstrous ones that dominate the isles at our local Sams club! From the time she started noticing those, I have not encouraged her to not be afraid of it. Seriously – an ugly, decaying skeleton with glowing red eyes is talking to you? I don’t like that, either!

• After we see those ugly decorations, I often talk with her as we push the cart through the isles that Halloween is a day that is all about death, ugliness, and fear. God is the author of life and beauty and His love casts out fear! Right now this explanation has been quite sufficient for her.

• Several times (and we plan to again this year) we have taken her with friends of ours to a local Christian college where the students decorate their dorm halls in themes and hand out candy to staff/faculty (and smuggled in friends’) kids. To me this is about as innocuous as you can get with a trick-or-treat event. I admit to still not being 100% enthused about it, but I don’t see a compelling Biblical reason to not do it, either.

• This year we carved a pumpkin for the first time – definitely something we did not do growing up! I found a cute kids’ book called My Happy Pumpkin (written by Crystal Bowman, published by Zondervan). I love that this book explains the process of cleaning a carving a pumpkin, and then parallels that with our salvation – God picks us out, cleans us, scoops out our sin and throws it away, and puts His light in us that shines out through our happy faces.

If you like this idea, Courtney posted some poems that communicate this idea as you carve your pumpkins together.

How about you? What have you done in the past, what are you planning to do this year? Christians are split on this and our goal is not to be hateful and condemning to one another, but to spur one another on to think and act in a way that honors our Lord. Quoting Paul as he dealt with believer’s disagreement over a “gray area,”
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

Well said. May we all strive to do everything for the glory of our God.

For more reflections on Christians and Halloween, click over to Amber@ClassicHousewife’s “Hallow-what?” event. She’s encouraging bloggers to link up with suggestions for building Christ-centered celebrations during Autumn and Halloween.