I didn't really grow up celebrating Halloween. When I was little, we dressed up in one of my dad's referee shirts and a whistle and we were ready to go. Or a baseball shirt and a hat. Our church in South Florida often had a Bible festival on the 31st of October, and we dressed in Bible costumes and ate lots of candy. We never put up decorations or went to haunted houses. We celebrated, guardedly, I suppose you can say.I never thought much about Halloween.
Until now.
Now I have two little kiddos. Well three. But two that are old enough to participate in the festivities. Now John and I have to decide. How do we celebrate a holiday that does not align with our Christian faith?
So we have decided. We've decided to let the kids dress up (like they did last year for the first time.) No witches or dead people or anything like that. Just fun characters.
But the other big thing that we plan on doing is taking what was intended for evil and using it for good. Looking at the pagan part of the holiday as Christians.
An example?
Check out: Crystal Bowman's My Happy Pumpkin book. Crystal is a friend of Joan's, and when Isaac was born, Joan gave me a TON of Crystal's books. I love them! My Happy Pumpkin tells the story of pumpkin carving in a Christian way. When we clean out the pumpkin and put in a light, it is like Jesus taking the sin out of our life and putting his light in us. How cool is that?!
I understand if you decide not to let your kiddos participate in the holiday. However, it is my belief that I have to raise my kiddos to be "in the world but not of it." This means that I can raise them to participate in things of the world but see Christ in it. When we carve a pumpkin, we can talk about how God takes the sin out of our hearts when we ask Him to love forever with us. We can discuss the parts of Halloween we won't participate in and why.
Books like this are a great tool for young children. Crystal has books for nearly every holiday -- there's one about the symbolism in a candy cane, and another about the star on the top of the Christmas tree. I recommend her works wholeheartedly as a way to remind our children of the real reasons behind the seasons.
5 comments:
Love the idea! Our little one is too young to really celebrate or be involved with Halloween but I'm planning to get the book you recommended. Someone recommended another one called Redeeming Halloween that I plan to pick up too. Thanks!
I will be certain to purchase that book. We've been so torn this year (me, mostly) about how much or little to do that is halloweeny. We've just opted out of it all together this year.
I totally agree!! I think we have single book that Crystal Bowman ever wrote. Love them!
Like this. I hate Halloween, but love that you are bringing Christ into it for your boys.
Many years ago (before the internet.. ;) Oct. 31 used to be the International UNICEF day..Our Kindergarten Teacher would hand out little UNICEF donation baskets, and we would go "Trick or Treating" with those... Instead of asking for candy, we would ask people for a donation (even if it was only 25 cents) for UNICEF. We were all SOO proud to fill up our baskets and know we were helping children around the world who would never had the opportunites we had (including "Trick or Treating") Up until know, this is the fondest memory I have of my childhood "halloweens"...I honestly don't remember any candy. I didn't realize at the time, that our Teacher was really teaching us how to be selfless, giving, and compassionate. Who would think Halloween could be a "Season for giving", huh? ;)
-P
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