Taking a pause from my simplifying series due to my child’s needs at our house…
Curious as to the history behind Halloween? For an very interesting read, sit down with your family and discuss this article. It started out as a pagan festival by the Celts of Ireland, and progressed to be a holiday to remember the dead by the Roman Catholic Church.
Halloween has become a time that encompasses darkness and fear. The Bible tells us that God is light and therefore we are let our “light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in Heaven.” (Matt. 5:16)
Although our family has concluded not to “celebrate” Halloween in the traditional way, we still want to let our lights shine from our doorstep or by going out together and distribute the truth. Whether or not you decide to celebrate this holiday is a decision you need to prayerfully make as a family, but overall there are souls to be saved that are flooding out in force on this one evening of the year.
Rather than just turning out all the lights and closing the doors, have you considered how you might minister the love of Christ to the children in your neighborhood?
What if I live out in the country and no one comes to my door? Have you considered going to them? I honestly have never lived in large housing developments to have children come to our doorstep, so have ignored the holiday for the most part, but I am asking myself this year, why could we not go to them? Find a lively neighborhood, dress up in biblical characters if desired, or simply go and hand out treats and tracts and share Christ’s love.
Gospel Resources
Free Tract – check out this free printable tract to go with lifesavers! This is a great idea!
Make your Own Scarecrow lollipop and tract – a fun family activity and devotional. Make your own candy gifts to distribute.
Other Halloween tracts that you could purchase:
American Tract Society
Living Waters – this company provides a wealth of fun tracts for all ages. Throw in a 10 commandment coin with the candy!
“Healthier” Candy Options
When choosing candy, check out some more nutritional “healthier” options. Spare them the overload of artificial colors, dyes, and replace with a more healthy naturally sweetened alternative
Yummy Earth
Pure Fun
Sunspire
You can get a 100 piece PureFun Halloween assortment candy pack for just $20 here.
Read this encouraging story of a godly woman who did not “celebrate” Halloween but took advantage of the opportunity to share the truth by handing out candy, tracts, and showing a large outdoor presentation of a Veggie tales movie. What a witness!
Will you join us? Gather some friends together and let’s make this a fun Christ-glorifying evening!
Do you have any creative ideas of sharing the gospel during Halloween?
Page looks fine in Safari but looks really weird with broken images on my Macbook with the web browser Faleon – Otherwise, stellar blog post.
Lindsay, I just want to say I am so grateful for your website and all your helpful hints and recipes. Most of all though your encouragement in our Lord Jesus. I have really been struggling with this Halloween issue. I was just talking to my G-mom today about it and I thought, Lindsay has to have something about this! I grew up not participatng in Halloween and for the most part me and my sister were ok with that. Now that my daughter is 4 years old I was debating what to do. You see, she associates Halloween with pretend or dress up, which I explained to her today that Satan has many ways to entice us, but once you give in a little into darkness you end up giving in alot. And I, as a follower of Jesus cannot participate or let my children partake in this holiday when it is centered around evil and corruption. Not to mention,”Trick or Treat” what are we teaching our children. So I was very encourged to learn that others feel the same way and that I am not alone. Thank you and God bless!
We hand out flyers and invite everyone in our neighborhood to join us for Halloweenies and BOO-gers. We serve up hamburgers and hot dogs to all our guests in our front yard. We give them a goody bag with treats (not edible) and a kids tract. We also hand out candy. Then we are ready to share the gospel with anyone who asks us why we are doing this. Basically we do it to be a light in a dark world on the night that everyone will come to us. We want to make it known that we are Christians, we offer to pray for anyone who seems to have a need. It’s amazing how people will open up to you when you do something nice for them. We have our Bible study group and anyone else who wants to help join us. Last year we handed out 304 goody bags and 500 pieces of meat.
Yay! I like your idea. so very tired of all the negativity and darkness of the people that stomp on this eve of all hallows.. my kids volunteer, they serve, they have happy hearts, my entire street is ‘DARK’.we are one of the few families to pass out treats…my kids have been told that they are doing the work of the devil by trick or treating…how judgemental and pathetic can you get. my kids are are not dark….they are lights of the world. we celebrate and have a halloween party… Too bad so many people want to pass judgement on my family…
Suanna, I like the idea of handing out hotdogs and hamburgers and being ready to share the gospel to anyone that asks. I think sometimes Christians can be seen as fun-spoilers or stingy and I think this is a great way to represent Christ’s love and graciousness to the world
. Our church does a “trunk-or-treat” where everybody shows up with their cars and decorates them and hands out candy to kids that show up from the community. Everybody gets an opportunity to vote for the best car and let us know if they want more information about the church 
. Through activities like this, our church has a good reputation in the community and so therefore, God has a good reputation in our community too!
I have found this site very helpful, educational, and last, but definitely not least,very spiritually uplifting. This is my first time posting on this site. It is so astonishing at how the subject of Halloween can cause such division upon Christians. This is exactly what Satan’s mission is….. to divide….. as he knows the power we hold when we are united. Our family does not celebrate Halloween, although we have been to the Church’s “Fall Celebrations” before, we now no longer participate in those either. I am not posting this with any thoughts of malice towards anyone choosing to celebrate, but I felt an emotional need to post a message. It is breaking my heart to see such division, but I understand a conviction upon the heart is something worth fighting for, but just maybe we, as Christians, are fighting too hard for the wrong things. It should be souls we are trying to win, not whether we are right or not. I will only be moved from my convictions by my SAVIOR, and I can almost bet it would be the same for most of you. I can only share my faith with those who want it shared, I cannot force feed anything to anyone else, even if it be God’s word. I, too, have seen the horrors of what evil can and will do if you allow the door to be opened, and I have been told on numerous occasions as to how we are to be the light in this dark world, but there is no place I have found that the Bible tells me to sacrifice my family to Satan (and his evil) to be that light. There are so many ways to shine a light in this dark world and many times it will be shone without a word ever being uttered. There is a reason that Christians have the same divorce rate as unbelievers, are losing the faith of thier children by a whopping 75-88% thier first year at college, and why when going in a church’s youth group is scarcely different from a secular youth activity. We are conforming to those around us, we are not bringing more into Christ’s loving arms. There is very little difference in our children, as those of unbelievers…. this is a tragedy. There was a time when it would be unheard of to be participating in many of the youth group’s activities of today….. yet now all we hear is this will bring the lost in. But we must ask ourselves at what cost? How many must we lose to hopefully save another? I find it rather amusing that I keep hearing how we must be cool, edgy, and up to date to reach the lost…. but when at a home school conference you can’t even wedge your way into a Mennonite’s booth …. these from the same one’s who continually say we must be the light. Unbelievers are often drawn to those who have an inner light, and upon my experience, you do not have to be a part of a sinner’s element to bring them to the Lord… you want to bring them to Jesus…. don’t conform, but set yourself apart and be the example they are longing for and desire. I have often been told how well behaved my children are from other church members… within the same conversation being told how we are too strict with our children. Can it not be what they are considering too strict, is the boundaries my children needed? I have witnessed too many of those same parents losing thier own children to the world. We desire our children to be viritous, but we do not bring virtue to them to know. I know I have said too much, but I do feel we need to express our hearts and if we do not agree, then we need to agree that we will just not agree on that and move on.
Very well stated and I think many will agree with your sentiments!
More emphasis should be placed on leading by example rather than compromising one’s beliefs in order to seem more cool or up-to-date.
The Bible does not promise that following Christ will be easy or met without resistance from others. It’s good to remember that pop culture always changes…the teachings of Christ do not.
There should be an even greater concern to Christians, however, is the fact that Halloween and celebrations like it are steeped in paganism. The apostle Paul wrote: “I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.” (1 Corinthians 10:20-22, New International Version) He also asked: “What common interest can there be between goodness and evil? How can light and darkness share life together? How can there be harmony between Christ and the devil? What can a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16, Phillips) The Bible thus condemns the whole idea of putting a Christian mask on a pagan practice!
Also, the Bible warns against the practice of spiritism. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12) While it is true that the majority of those who celebrate Halloween would claim to spurn Satanic practices, we should, nevertheless, be aware that historically this holiday has close connections with the occult. So that being said it can serve as a door leading to spiritism, especially for impressionable youths. Pagan rites and traditions tainted by spiritism simply have no place in Christian worship; they are far from harmless.
Finallywe have the fact that Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day are all based on the beliefs that the dead suffer or that they can somehow bring harm to the living. However, the Bible clearly shows that such beliefs are not true, saying: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) For that reason, the Bible counsels: “All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol [the common grave of mankind], the place to which you are going.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10) Since the dead are unconscious and thus incapable of harming others or suffering themselves, we have nothing to fear from them. At the same time, prayers to help them are of no use whatsoever. Does this mean that there is no hope for our dead loved ones? No. The Bible assures us that “there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.”—Acts 24:15.
With knowledge comes the freedom to choose. We cannot be expected to make intelligent decisions if we do not have all the facts. After considering the facts, what will you decide?
“The Bible thus condemns the whole idea of putting a Christian mask on a pagan practice!”
This rarely stops the practice of celebrating Christ’s birthday on December 25, even though there is no biblical support that He was born on this day. The Bible makes no mention of the day or even month of His birth.
Dec. 25 was chosen by the Roman Catholics because it was originally a pagan festival day that celebrated the annual return of the sun (as they had not yet established that Dec. 21 is actually the shortest day of the year in terms of sunlight.) The Church simply wanted to replace a pagan festival with a holy day because it was an easier transition.
This then raises two questions:
1.) If, we as Christians, agree that “the Bible thus condemns the whole idea of putting a Christian mask on a pagan practice” should we discontinue the use of celebrating Christ’s birth on Dec. 25? (Note: Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas for this very reason.)
2.) If we agree that it’s okay to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25, then we need to ask ourselves why the practice is justified in one circumstance but not the other?
Because on Christmas, people don’t dress up and do eveil things. Only on Halloween do people act this foolish. , and seem to get away w/it.
I’ve done the history of Halloween and have NO intention of practicing it.
A lot of people don’t celebrate Christmas, some for ht reason you stated. Some it’s against their religion. ,
Judaism comes to mind.
Interesting conversation. I like the idea that people celebrate Reformation Day and have a party for that instead. I will say I’m not against the fun stuff during this season. We sometimes go to trunk or treats, church activities, a safe dress up at the zoo. I understand not celebrating the darkness or even letting your kids go to activities that would. But for me, its just a fun time for my kids to dress up. As they get older, we can then teach them about the darkness of this holiday (don’t need to scare a 2 and 4 year old right now.
) We actually had a “fall festival” this year (it was a week ago), but I do agree that sometimes that comes across like “we’re celebrating, but don’t dress up because that’s wrong, that’s Halloween.” As if the costumes make it evil. We actually did ours as a fall outreach and we’re having a trunk or treat where the kids can dress up. This will be another outreach for our church, because I know there are alot of families wanting a safe place for their kids to get way too much candy. 
We figure, if someone asked our girls to a dress up party in September, we wouldn’t have a problem so why should we have a problem in October. I have read how it started out — but I’ve also read how Christmas started out and it was trying to bring a Christian substitution to a pagan one that already existed (along with Christmas traditions like the tree, mistletoe, etc.) I appreciated your husband’s statement “This is just a small way of sharing the gospel and redeeming one of the most widely celebrated holidays in America.” Thanks for the Gospel resources, we don’t normally hand out candy because we are at the end of a small culdesac so we maybe get 5 kids to come, so we’re normally not even here. But if we are here, I’ll have to look into some of those ideas. Of course, everyone’s convictions are different. We just don’t feel like we’ve ever actually “celebrated” Halloween. Until kids we never did anything, now we’ve just used October as a fun fall month. And we hope that somehow we can be used as a light in this dark world as I know that Satan is at work on that night as well as every night!
I couldn’t agree more!
Hi Lindsay, thanks for the info. I am having a hard time with this, I grew up going to haunted houses, watched scary movies and dressed up and trick or treated. Now that we have Azlyn, my thinking on this is different. I do not want her celebrating a demonic holiday. However, I am not sure how or what is considered celebrating. For example, my mommy and me class is having a halloween party, where the little ones dress up and we all share goodies. I am wrestling with, if I go and dress her up in a non demonic costume is this still celebrating the holiday?
In my opinion, yes.
Don’t be torn about it, just pray. God will give you the RIGHT answer.
We give out temporary tattoos. Kids love them, and they don’t raise blood sugar levels!
wow, that is a great idea, they are so fun:)
My parents decided not to celebrate this holiday before I was born, not being able to find a satisfactory way to celebrate this day “to the Lord” (Rom 14:5-6). I too have found conviction in not celebrating Halloween and my sweet husband has his own convictions. It is a relief to know that we are united in raising our children to have nothing to do with this celebration of darkness.
Most of the time while growing up, my parents would take us someplace where we wouldn’t be bothered by the ringing doorbell on Oct. 31, but one year we lived in a tightly packed military housing complex. Dad and Mom decided that to turn out the lights and leave would be a bad example and chose to buy buckets of candy to which we stappled Bible verses and invitations to Sunday School. We had fun being evangelistic and got many positive responses out of our “visitors.”
What I don’t know what to do with is the pseudo-halloween celebrations put on by the church. I would really much rather everyone ignored the day completely rather than renaming it so that it doesn’t hurt our consciences. However, everyone does not share my conviction and if people want to meet together in fellowship to play goofy carnival games and eat candy instead of dressing like witches and walking around in the dark, shouldn’t I support that and be there? I still don’t know. I’ll probably just let my husband lead us spiritually here and celebrate all we do with Christians “to the Lord.”
This is something I feel rather torn about as well. It seems to me though, that the church that we previously attended hosted their “Fall Festival” in an effort to reach out to the unchurched of the community. I truly think that as with most things there is no one “right” answer but I do think that providing a fun and welcoming and accepting environment to children and their parents who have never been to your church before may result in some of those families choosing to visit for an actual church service.
It seems to me that this is similar to the idea of going out to be “in” the outdoor celebration of Halloween in an effort to shine Christ’s light. Isn’t the church then trying to be a larger “light” in the community? My husband and I haven’t reached a decision yet but this is a glimpse into our thought process.
I think if we decide to go to a “Harvest Party” this year with our children we will be discussing with our children what the true purpose of the event is – to shine our lights to others who don’t know Jesus and hope that God will soften their hearts and and hopefully send them back to the church in an effort to quench the longing in their souls.
This is a very interesting discussion and I sometimes think it is MORE tempting for Christians to just run away from potential “conflicts” which is not what Jesus did. I think it is very important for us to be constantly seeking what God desires of us when he calls us to be “in” the world but not “of” the world.
We’ve struggled with what we want to do as well. We don’t feel led to participate in any traditional halloween activities since this day is a celebration of evil and cultivates fear.
Growing up, I went to harvest festivals at my church. Many of the kids in our neighborhood went with us and preferred the carnival experience to trick or treating. Over the years we had a powerful effect on our neighbors and I led several friends to the Lord. Of course, the harvest festival was such a small part of that…
With my young children we’ve tried reaching out to our neighbors by handing out candy and found that no one wanted to talk to us. We tried and felt strongly after last year that the outreach opportunity was not all it was cracked up to be…
We also tried a festival at the church we do AWANA’s at and were appalled to discover a lot of games centered around witches, death and traditional halloween stuff. Needless to say, we won’t be trying that again either.
This year we had a fun family dinner at my parents and let the kids search for candy in the backyard, so they wouldn’t feel like they missed out on anything and ended our family night with a movie.
We are looking forward to utilizing the Christmas season to reach out to our neighbors with some homemade treats. Halloween is certainly not the only night we can reach out to our neighbors…
You don’t have to go to church, just skip it.
We don’t celebrate Halloween at all. We turn out the light etc. We don’t even get too many visitors, so it’s okay. Our church doesn’t have any functions so we aren’t bothered by having to go or not go.
This is such an interesting topic. Growing up in the “wilds” of Borneo, Indonesia(I was a missionary kid), I went boarding school for a number of years. It was a Christian school and we would “celebrate” Halloween by having a carnival and costume contest. It was ALWAYS so much fun. The funny thing is that we were ALL from different denominations and never was there any talk of NOT doing anything for Halloween. ALL of the kiddos knew the truth, and we had seen Satan at work in our different village settings. I never knew Halloween as anything bad because we didn’t celebrate it that way.
When we moved back to the US at 13 years old, my youth group would “Trick-or-treat, So-others-may-eat.” I was really too old to be asking for candy anyway, but I had a blast asking for canned food goods to fill up our church pantry. It was amazing how God would provide. There would be some people who would give whole flats of canned goods and we would somehow have to get it to the car waiting for us. We always had a contest of who collected the most. Great fun!!
After I became a parent, I knew we would eventually have to make the decision about this whole thing. So, two years ago, I dressed up my kiddos and we went trick or treating. I found out that a family down the street uses that night to host a neighborhood party. They grill hotdogs, serve chips, water, soda, beer, and candy!!! So now, I use the night to meet and talk to my neighbors. Last year, I was craving chocolate and our budget didn’t have money for me to buy it, so we went trick or treating and came home with some chocolate to fill my craving.
My daughter is going to a public charter school for kindergarten this year. The middle school is having a haunted house. Now that bothers me(maybe cuz I don’t handle them well, anyway), but it gave me a really good opportunity to let her know why we wouldn’t be going. She and I get nightmares very easily and so after explaining what she might see there, she made the decision for herself that she didn’t want to go. I love the opportunities that I have to explain to her how other people who don’t know Jesus do things. Soon we’ll have Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Pearl Harbor Day, and Christmas. All are wonderful opportunities for teaching about our country’s history and our spiritual heritage.
What I’ve learned is that you have to prayerfully decide where the Lord is leading YOU. To do anything other than what He says would be disobedience.
Lindsay, thanks for this timely post. I grew up celebrating Halloween, going to haunted houses, etc. But when I came to know the Lord, I definitely got out of the whole scary end of it. As a Christian, I am COMPLETELY confused about what to do with Oct. 31st. My husband, whose bday is on the 31st, wants nothing whatsoever to do with Halloween. Like another reader mentioned, he thinks of the 31st as Reformation Day. I don’t see anything wrong with Trunk or Treats or other church events, but he does. I even suggested the tract idea, because, really, when do you ever have people willingly coming to your door??? It is so hard, because I know I’m missing out on something fun! I love seeing children dressed up and the smiles on their faces when they receive candy. But as a wife, I am called to submit to my husband. I feel like a coward, hiding in our home with the lights off and ignoring the doorbell. We have been invited by some of our Christian friends to go their costume parties, but we always have to turn them down. Is it just me, or do big girls still like to play dress up?! I don’t understand why Oct. 31st is so confusing!!! I truly like the idea of ‘redeeming’ the holiday. But for now, it looks like we won’t be doing anything.
Megan – just wanted to encourage you that just as Christ is the head of the church your husband is your head. Both of you are under Christs’ authority but you are under your husband’s. Our culture doesn’t get submission b/c they don’t see the reason for submission. Submitting to our husbands shines forth the gospel to a dark world. For the culture to see us willingly choosing to submit shows how the church should choose to willingly submit to Christ (just as your husband is called to love you as Christ did for the church). Husband’s have a high calling of love to live up to – why wouldn’t I want to submit to my husband, for instance, in this type of love/submission realtionship even though it won’t ever be ‘perfect’ right now cause we’re both human and both sinful. In fact, the realtionship we have with our hubbys also even points to the relationship Christ has with the Father (look at all those places in John where he talks about the ‘oneness’ of him and the Father and doing the Father’s will.
All this to say, you should always talk to your husband about your feelings but you should joyfully submit to any decisions he makes on not wanting to ‘celebrate’ Halloween, whatever that might mean for your family. Obedience is more desireable than burnt offerings (forgot where this is in the Bible) but basically, to obey is better than to put forth something that we think we can give the Lord (in your case, using Halloween for sharing the gospel or fun). The gospel can shine on Halloween by you submitting to your husband even if the culture looks down on that.
We don’t celebrate OR dress up for Oct 31, evil connotation or not we don’t feel it’s right. Our church has a Fall Harvest party every Oct 31. No costumes, just fun, food, games and music. it gives children and teens an alternative to Oct 31.
Last year my boys made frig. magnets out of foam sheets, painted them and we wrote “Jesus Loves You” with a glitter pen, stuck a magnet on the back and handed them out to trick-or-treaters. We really didn’t know what impact it made in our neighborhood until a few weeks ago. Our boys were playing with some neighbor children, and the mother commented on last year’s Halloween gift and how much she appreciated it and said she still had it on the frig! Surprised me!
Until then, I hadn’t decided whether to do anything this year or not, but when I heard that comment, it wasn’t a hard decision. This year, we’re going to re-create another frig magnet that one of my boys made at church several years ago.
Take 2 craft sticks and paint them brown. Glue them into a cross formation. Then stick on some foam fall decor, leaves and such, put a magnet on the back and also write some biblical message on it.
My boys had a blast handing out something last year…even though we don’t celebrate Halloween, it gave them something to do and people to pray for.
Love this idea! Fridge magnets won’t so easily get thrown away. And it’s right in front of their eyes all year long. Thanks for sharing.
I grew up with a very close family member who was associated with more if the “dark side” of Halloween. You would be surprised at all of the demonic practices that actually do happen on that night of the year. As a result, I have ever since dedicated that night as a night of prayer and fasting. Rather than becoming a night to take people away from God, I pray that His spirit can work in their lives. It has been an amazing experience.
My family choose not to celebrate Halloween too. We never kept our daughter for enjoy dress up every year, as long as the make believe wasn’t ‘dark’ and we enjoyed giving out candy and tracts to the few visitor’s we had, but I have never thought to show an outdoor movie OR join the door to door procession and GIVE to the homeowner! What a novel idea!
Thanks for the ideas. I was looking for some ideas of what to do. Last year we lived in downtown San Jose and we were able to give out nearly 300 tracts! This year we live in North Pole where it’s too cold to go trick or treating!
Thanks again!
I enjoy reading your blog and was wondering if I could link to your blog from mine?
Thanks,
Laura
this is a great idea, and not one i have ever thought of. i agree that halloween celebrates fear and death, and we are not to be of that mind (2 timothy 1:7), so we pretty much ignore the holiday too–choosing instead to make it a family night and go bowling or out to eat. but your idea might be worth exploring!
We do not celebrate Halloween, but we will allow our kids to go trick-or-treating when they are old enough. What we DO want to emphasize in our family is that October 31st is not just Halloween, but Reformation Day as well. It is the anniversary of the day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the wall at Wittenberg University. Its a VERY important event in the history of the church and I still can’t figure out why it is shuffled aside in favor of “Harvest Festivals” (which, to me, sound more pagan than Halloween) in most evangelical churches today.
Personally, I think its a bit disingenuous to hand out tracts instead of or in addition to candy on Halloween. As a parent and as a Christian, I would be both annoyed and offended by such a gesture. To me, that seems to fit just about every stereotype of evangelicals that exists out there. Frankly, handing out tracts is not the way to win souls. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Instead, I would invite interested family and friends to our church’s Reformation Conference (which is actually a Hymn Festival this year!).
If you’ve got a conviction that “celebrating” Halloween is wrong (although I doubt there is a single Christian out there who actually celebrates it), then I think its best to actually turn out the light. That’s probably going to be an unpopular option, but its my thinking nonetheless.
Hi Re4mdmom. Thanks for stopping by. Sounds like you have some great ideas for celebrating Reformation Day. Our family will be going to a Reformation Day party this Saturday with members of our church and possibly some international students. Lindsay forgot to mention it in her post.
But I really have a hard time seeing how someone could be offended or even annoyed at discovering a tract or a coin with the 10 commandments attached to a piece of candy. Kids are walking up to your door asking for a treat. Why not give something that could really impact a young (or even old) heart and mind with the Word of God? The Bible says that the Gospel will be offensive to those do not believe (1 Peter 2:7-8) so it sounds like there will be some that will be offended or annoyed, but does that mean we shouldn’t try? I think not.
This is just a small way of sharing the gospel and redeeming one of the most widely celebrated holidays in America.
I really appreciate the desire to reach out to people on a “pagan” holiday though. Not sure that passing out tracts along with candy is the best way, but I think trying to “redeem the times”, er, holiday, is a wonderful idea. Maybe a better thing to do would be to leave the tracts out where people could take one if they wanted…
And on a different note- I saw a totally unique Halloween idea the other day. Why not pass out little tins of play dough? I guess they are selling little canisters of play dough for Halloween and I thought it was a great candy free alternative.
Thank you so much for your gracious reply! Its very refreshing to see thoughtful Christians who don’t totally shun Halloween.
I’ll second Aaron’s comments … I think it is a great way to share the gospel, especially if you use something interesting like a few of the cool ones from Living Waters – the 100 funny one-liners or the million dollar tract – both of which have the gospel message at the end. Why not use it as an opportunity to evangelize? Frankly, I think that tracts are the least threatening way to do so. God uses us to get the message out; He does the rest.
Our family attends a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran Church (the most conservative of the Lutherans) and they, of course, are very diligent in teaching about the Reformation. It should be a celebration in every Protestant (not Catholic) church. They do not celebrate Halloween at all at the church school which my children attend.
Our family does not celebrate Halloween, but my husband and I do allow our children to trick or treat in “non-morbid” costumes.
Just trying to understand the reasoning “I don’t
celebrate Halloween but we do allow our children to
trick or treat”. Is that not participating/celebrating
Halloween? I don’t mean to be argumentative I would
really like to understand what the difference is.
I think your question is a fair one … I recently read up on where most of the traditions come from for halloween today. I agree that the roots of halloween are un-Christian. However, when discussing this with my husband recently, he said it’s about the intention of the holiday now, not then. We don’t put out Jack o’lanterns on our doorstep to ward off evil spirits, nor do we give treats out to keep them from playing tricks on us. We do not dwell on the dark side of halloween, and we have explained how witchcraft in any form is wrong. So, with that said, we aren’t going to stop participating in trick or treating or carving faces in pumpkins because neither has the same meaning as it did in previous times.
Sara, I have the same opinion as your husband. Halloween may have pagan origins, and maybe a minority of people still do evil things on that day, but today dressing up and carving pumpkins are harmless activities with no evil intentions. However, I understand why other Christians have different opinions, so I say, let everyone be fully convinced in his own mind and if you can’t do it in faith, or if you have any doubt that it may be sin, then don’t do it. I believe this falls under “Don’t judge the brother that believes it’s ok, and don’t despise the brother that thinks it’s sin”. Personally, I want my children to have fun, I don’t believe it’s wrong, but I will still fellowship with Christians that think differently.
This was very convicting for me.
The Five Scariest Things
You Can Do This Halloween
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. (Proverbs 8:13)
By Doug Phillips
Our country is in the grip of a fear crisis. The tension because of this fear is almost palpable. There is fear over elections, fear over the economy, and fear over hundreds of other issues ranging from the environment to terrorism.
The one fear that America is missing is a fear of the Lord. As a people, we no longer fear God. Because we do not fear God, we no longer hate evil (Proverbs 8:13).
Instead of hating evil, Americans toy with it. We toy with holidays like Halloween that were conceived in evil and that promote the “cute-ification” of evil, whether that evil takes the form of witchcraft, sorcery, ghoulishness, or some other form of malevolent imagery paraded before our children. We laugh at the very things that the Lord describes as “abominations,” and we find ourselves obsessively fascinated by, and attracted to, all things dark.
Yet we do not fear the Lord.
Those who “hate evil” are very scary to a secular society that fears man more than God. They are scary because they dare to declare that there are absolute standards by which society must be governed. They are scary because, if they are successful, industries like Hollywood that make billions of dollars by promoting ungodly fear will lose their influence. They are scary because such people will not be swayed by political candidates who use fear as a tool for manipulation.
With this in mind, I offer you the five “scariest” things you can do this Halloween:
The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to not make light of evil. Halloween was conceived in evil and has remained a celebration that uses children to promote a fascination with darkness and superstitious fear. Simultaneously, it makes light of things that the Bible describes as evil. Stand against such things, and the world will find you very scary indeed. The fear of the Lord makes men turn from evil (Proverbs 16:6).
The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to not be fearful. The media wants you to be afraid of everything from overpopulation to global warming. The politicians want you to be afraid of the economy and political instability. God wants you to do what is morally right, trust Him completely, and never be gripped by an ungodly spirit of fear. You can place your trust and hope for this nation in the King of Kings. Jesus said: “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Luke 12:4-5). Believe this, and you will be light to the world.
The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to completely skip Halloween and remember Reformation Day. It was 493 years ago that Martin Luther nailed his world-changing 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church. These theses included rebukes to ungodly fear and superstition. 501 years ago, sometime near October 31, a baby named John Calvin was conceived who would dedicate his life to eradicating an ungodly fear of superstitious beliefs and proclaiming the gospel of grace. His emphasis on reformation, revival, and the sufficiency of Scripture had such far-reaching implications for nations like the United States that he has been described by Christian and secular scholars alike as the true founding father of America. The Reformers did something that was very scary to the world of their day. They stood against all forms of dark superstitions which grip the minds and souls of men. It was their emphasis on the fear of the Lord and the wisdom of Holy Scripture that was used by God to liberate untold numbers of men and women. But to remember the Reformers instead of Halloween is very scary to the world. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).
The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to refuse to watch or allow your children to watch any of the toxic Halloween and horror films emerging from Hollywood. America’s fascination with ungodly fear has made horror the most popular and fastest-growing film genre amoung youth. When parents allow their children to toy with this genre, they promote ungodly fear, and they contribute to the fear-factories in Hollywood that prey upon the youth of our culture. Say “no” to Hollywood horror and you will be dangerously scary to the media elite. “Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence….?” (Jeremiah 5:22).
The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to get on your knees as a mother and father and pray that the Lord will send you many, children who will fear God, not man — children who will especially shun the glorification of witchcraft, the bondage of ungodly fear, and the “cute-ification” of evil that is promoted through holidays like Halloween. Cultures that toy with evil end up being cultures of death. The Christian response is to be a people of life. That means babies. It means fearing God by honoring His command to “be fruitful and multiply.” It means remembering that the Scripture describes children as a “blessing” and a “reward.” Raise children that fear God more than man, and that will be answer enough to our Halloween- and darkness-obsessed culture; for if you trust God over your womb and commit your children to a holy education, you will be very scary to the modern world. “Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Psalm 34:11).
so glad that you’re encouraging your readers to shine like Jesus at Halloween. yes, it is a pagan holiday, but seldom is the one who knows this (besides Christians!) My family and I love that pagans come to our door on Oct 31 – when else do they do this? What other day of the year is it perfectly normal to talk to your neighbors? and, heaven forbid, get to know them?! Eek! that is scary.
Ha! So true, Julie. We could go all year and not have the same opportunity to freely visit and get to know our neighbors and their children. Even at Christmas we’re all so busy. This is a good opportunity when going door-to-door, or handing out treats is perfectly normal. It’s the wise who take advantage of this.
My family didn’t ever celebrate Halloween, but we gave out healthy treats to the neighbor kids. Not sure what I will do when I have kids.