we decided not to have emma trick or treat again this year, and probably won't make the whole halloween event a big deal until she starts asking. but we did throw on her tutu, some tights and her skull and cross bones shirt for when she helped pass out candy.
i know it may sound like we're depriving our poor daughter of the whole experience (or you'll think i'm wacko if you continue reading), but it's something we've been very convicted of. the history of the "holiday" itself is not something we care to align with, so every year we try and re-asses our decision in having her (and us as a family) participate. but at the same time, giving out treats to other children is a wonderful way to share God's love, and in no way encouraging some of the negative aspects (you know...the gorey stuff) of halloween.
aside from that stuff, i think it's very easy for kids to get caught up in the whole commercialization of halloween (much like any other holiday, i guess), which we are trying to keep to a minimum with emma as much as possible. the sunday catalogs are filled with pre-made, branded costumes. whatever happened to "make your own costumes?" or non-branded costumes like a robot instead of a transformer? or a fairy instead of tinkerbell? there isn't much room for creativity to thrive when advertisements are telling you to just go out and buy one.
where does that leave us now? well, i think every year, we'll end up passing out candy. and we'll let tyler dress up as long as it's not anything negative or scary. and we'll probably keep halloween low-key for emma until she tells us she's ready to try out the whole experience. we always feel torn about halloween. part of us wants to go one way and another part wants to go another way.
aside from my unintentional tangent (so sorry), emma had a blast passing out candy, though some of the kids who dressed up in scary costumes freaked her out a little bit. i do enjoy seeing what people come up with each year. i think the most original one i saw was this kid who put a huge box over his head, cut out holes for his arms, holes for his eyes and then just drew on a smile. it's simple but so funny. we gave him extra candy for originality. aaron busted out tyler's old, home-made optimus prime costume, which was a hit with some of the kids. and emma took a little visit to our neighbor's house and made out with a couple bags of m&ms.
5 comments:
You put into words (much more eloquently) exactly how I feel about Halloween too. Even before Layla was born, we discussed whether or not to participate and have opted out the past 2 years. I have a feeling we will be reassessing every year too. I recently read up on the history of Halloween which did not leave me feeling any better! I even brought it up with Todd a few weeks ago to get the input of a pastor. I'm glad Layla and Ben had fun last night and hope we made an appropriate decision to let her go.
Maybe have your own Harvest Party-use all the fun elements and skip the blood and gore. Have it before or after Halloween-make it a non commercial, non scary dress up affair and focus on the fun things without bringing the bad elements of Halloween. Have a holiday that you and your kids can enjoy AND feel good about: and skip the begging for candy thing all together...Just an idea....
thanks for the suggestion! i think just allowing the kids to dress up whenever and making it fun (and party-like) would definitely take the focus off of dressing up solely on halloween. and what small child needs a pound of candy anyway?
There is also something called Halloween Gives Back where after trick or treating you let your child have a certain amount of candy (be it 5 pieces or 20) and then everything else gets put into little candy bags and you give them to women and kids at the local women's shelter.
It wasn't particularly your blog that got me, there was another pretty vicious one who attacked non-Christians and people who celebrated Halloween that really got me going.
I fully understand that not being Christian has a lot to do with the difference in how we see things, I just have fun with the holidays and don't really get too serious about the originations of any of them, from Christmas to the 4th of July. For my family it is just a reason to have fun, dress up, and have some candy which is not something I keep in the house. =)
the other year, a sweet little girl w/ her daddy went trick or treating. but instead of asking for candy, she was collecting 1 canned food item from each home to be donated to the cleveland food bank. i have never in my life met anyone who trick or treats for canned goods. there is always a wonderful opportunity to show and share love in everything you do.
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