First, let me say that I am not going to give you any deep theological arguments here. I’m also not going to give you any kind of history lesson. This is simply my opinion and the way our family felt we were to handle this holiday that has become so popular in American culture. Second, even though it is my opinion, it is based upon Scripture which, as a Christian, is the plumbline by which all things are measured in my life. In other words, if you have a differing opinion, that is perfectly fine. But please don’t just say I’m wrong; at least give a reasonable defense for your own opinion. I’m not trying to change your opinion but am simply offering an explanation for mine.

The fifth chapter of Ephesians talks about how Christians are of the light and non-Christians are of darkness. In Scripture darkness is frequently used to characterize Satan and anything that is in opposition to God. Ephesians 5:11a tells Christians not to “participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness.” This is the verse that always came to my mind when thinking of Halloween. No one can deny that the roots of this holiday as well as many modern-day practices of it are, indeed, characterized by darkness – ghosts, ghouls, demons, witches, blood and guts, etc. It never seemed like something that a child of the Light should participate in. One has only to do a Bible word search on witchcraft or sorcery to see what God thinks of that.

Since Halloween is geared so much towards children, we felt it was very important to handle this in a way that clearly taught our beliefs to our children from a very young age. Above all, we wanted to live out our faith in a way that was consistent with what we said we believed and, as best we could tell, lined up with the Word of God. However, we also did not want to give the impression that we thought anyone who took their children trick-or-treating was in essence worshiping the devil. A delicate balance, for sure.

So this is how we lived out our beliefs about Halloween:

♦ When our children were about 3-4 years of age and old enough to sorta kinda know something was afoot, on the night of Halloween we would go to Chuck E. Cheese (or somewhere similar). Since we did not eat out frequently, this was a special treat and, believe me, we had the place all to ourselves! Once they got a little older, we would let them choose where we would go the night of Halloween.

♦ If there was a fall festival either at our church or an area church, we would take our children to it. We believe that honoring God and thanking Him for the bountiful harvest of the season is a worthy tradition that is not unbiblical.

♦ If costumes were involved, then we encouraged our children to choose either a Bible character (much better heroes than Ninja turtles or Batman!) or one of God’s creatures.

♦ Once our children got to about age 10, we began passing out candy to trick-or-treaters and we would let our children choose what kind of Halloween candy they wanted to pass out. (Guess who got all the leftovers?!) We would stay home and have a party while they passed out candy. We would include with the candy Christian stickers or cartoon books. One year a favorite with the trick-or-treaters were the smashed pennies with the 10 Commandments on them that we passed out. Many times we would set up a fire pit in the front yard or driveway and cook hot dogs while the kids took turns at the candy station at the end of the driveway. They would alternate passing out candy with playing flashlight tag, jumping on the trampoline, and just running around the yard as kids like to do.

♦ Now that my children are grown, I continue to pass out candy with some type of inspirational treat.

I guess the title of this post isn’t really true. Our family does do Halloween. We just do it differently from most. I believe my children have many great “Halloween” memories. Hopefully, those memories are God-honoring and biblical. I know we did the best we could to live out our faith without compromise but also in a way that shared our faith with others in a loving way. And I can honestly say that I have no regrets!