Halloween is coming up...what will you be doing with your kids?
With Halloween coming up, what are you planning to do with your kids? Will you celebrate this holiday? Will you focus more on All Saints day and All Souls day? What are your ideas?
We like to enjoy this day as a fun day. Our children like to wear costumes and even more fun than that is thinking of an idea for a costume and figuring out how to achieve it. We don't allow anything sexy/scary/gory/bloody/evil. They've gone as robots, basketball hoops, "Martha Stewart in jail," Curious George, a frog, a mouse, knight in shining armor, to name a few. Of course the next day is All Saints Day and the children all attend church as part of their schools' observance of the holy day. You can enjoy Halloween without participating in the evil stuff. Why let the devil have a day for himself? Claim it as good family time and neighborhood fun!
My children are still young (2 and 3 months) however we are dressing up and going to my husbands work for a little trick or treating. Landen is going to be a Lion and Amelia a pea pod. Last year Landen was a pirate. I don't ever want the scary/bloody/gory or even sexy stuff in our house. It should be fun! We will then go to Church for All Saints Day! I hope others post because I'm curious as to what everyone does. =)
Thank you, Andrea for commenting! I can just imagine your little 3 month old pea pod and little lion! How cute! Thanks for sharing how you keep your children safe and happy and celebrate All Saints day too.
My children will be witches, vampires or whatever they choose this year. They will have a party and the house will be decorated with ghosts and spiders webs.
However, when they sit down to dead man's fingers sandwiches, vampire broth drinks and the like: They will first join hands, bow their heads and say grace. Nothing happens in our house without God's blessing. He is a permanent guest in our home.
The reason we can enjoy Halloween, is the kids understand the difference between fairy stories and real life and between good and evil. They understand where the festival came from and that through Jesus there is nothing to fear as our ancestors did.
I've even used it to teach the Bible: For example a Vampire (if one existed) is not evil in itself only its actions make it evil. If a Vampire lived a holy life and hurt no one (even at cost to itself) it would be exactly that a holy Vampire. This is what Mark 7 14:23 teaches us and the kids remember the point of the parable. I claim each day as God's, Halloween still belongs to God. Actually I never even thought about it until a girlfriend who is not religious got the shock of her life when the little "witchy" ones started praying to God at the dinner table. It is a matter of attitude and belief.
Ps. We don't go trick or treating because I think tricking is morally wrong and if the kids were refused a treat they would be under peer pressure to behave badly. Not going there. This is the only part of Halloween that the kids and I have boundary issues with. They understand why they can't go but they are not happy about missing out on the treats.
Thank you for sharing your plans with your children. Since you said that your kids miss out on the treats from "trick or treating," perhaps you could do it another way with your parish or at a fall or Halloween party.
6 comments:
We like to enjoy this day as a fun day. Our children like to wear costumes and even more fun than that is thinking of an idea for a costume and figuring out how to achieve it. We don't allow anything sexy/scary/gory/bloody/evil. They've gone as robots, basketball hoops, "Martha Stewart in jail," Curious George, a frog, a mouse, knight in shining armor, to name a few.
Of course the next day is All Saints Day and the children all attend church as part of their schools' observance of the holy day.
You can enjoy Halloween without participating in the evil stuff. Why let the devil have a day for himself? Claim it as good family time and neighborhood fun!
Thank you, Barb for sharing the great ideas!
My children are still young (2 and 3 months) however we are dressing up and going to my husbands work for a little trick or treating. Landen is going to be a Lion and Amelia a pea pod. Last year Landen was a pirate. I don't ever want the scary/bloody/gory or even sexy stuff in our house. It should be fun! We will then go to Church for All Saints Day! I hope others post because I'm curious as to what everyone does. =)
Thank you, Andrea for commenting! I can just imagine your little 3 month old pea pod and little lion! How cute! Thanks for sharing how you keep your children safe and happy and celebrate All Saints day too.
My children will be witches, vampires or whatever they choose this year. They will have a party and the house will be decorated with ghosts and spiders webs.
However, when they sit down to dead man's fingers sandwiches, vampire broth drinks and the like: They will first join hands, bow their heads and say grace. Nothing happens in our house without God's blessing. He is a permanent guest in our home.
The reason we can enjoy Halloween, is the kids understand the difference between fairy stories and real life and between good and evil. They understand where the festival came from and that through Jesus there is nothing to fear as our ancestors did.
I've even used it to teach the Bible: For example a Vampire (if one existed) is not evil in itself only its actions make it evil. If a Vampire lived a holy life and hurt no one (even at cost to itself) it would be exactly that a holy Vampire. This is what Mark 7 14:23 teaches us and the kids remember the point of the parable.
I claim each day as God's, Halloween still belongs to God. Actually I never even thought about it until a girlfriend who is not religious got the shock of her life when the little "witchy" ones started praying to God at the dinner table. It is a matter of attitude and belief.
Ps. We don't go trick or treating because I think tricking is morally wrong and if the kids were refused a treat they would be under peer pressure to behave badly. Not going there. This is the only part of Halloween that the kids and I have boundary issues with. They understand why they can't go but they are not happy about missing out on the treats.
Hi Andi,
Thank you for sharing your plans with your children. Since you said that your kids miss out on the treats from "trick or treating," perhaps you could do it another way with your parish or at a fall or Halloween party.
God bless,
Donna
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