Participating in Halloween

Halloween has been a tough "holiday" for me to figure out.  The weight on my conscience concerning participating in anything pagan (as a Christian) and the negative feelings I have about the darkness of the whole event.  Then, the fact that this is the day our neighbors actually come out of their houses, knock on each others doors and open themselves up to an introduction.  I mean this, of all days.  

I read something this year that stated people can't see Jesus on this day if we, as Christians, hide away, turn off our lights and pretend we don't exist.  Truth is, most people participate in Halloween because it is fun and kids get to dress up.  I totally get this.  How can we meet our neighbors if we pretend we aren't there, or we attend a fall festival at a church?

So, this year, we decided to hand out candy and hot chocolate along with an invitation to a cul-de-sac bbq the following Sunday.  The kids, of course because they dress up all the time, wanted to dress up and trick or treat.  We decided we weren't going to buy costumes, I mean why spend $100+ for costumes for a holiday I don't really love.  But, they could dress up and walk the neighborhood with Justin and hand out flyers.  

Then, in addition to this, we were going to do a switcheroo---the kids were allowed to pick 15 pieces of candy and the rest would be traded in to me for a small gift.  This way we could eliminated the amounts of candy they had access to and this would take some of the thrill of the candy out of the picture.  This went over with flying colors.  

With each piece of candy we handed out I threw in a little pumpkin poem about Christ.  Hopefully some read it.  

I'm really hoping we have a large amount of guests at our cul-de-sac bbq this Sunday.  Then we can really get to know our neighbors.  

A few days before Halloween we went to the boys friends house and played games and did some Halloween themed crafts. We also went to my moms church to a little carnival block party.

I was encouraged by a mentor of mine to make things fun and try not to make things too serious.  So, this was my attempt to do so.  I took plenty of opportunities to talk to the kids about Halloween and what our intentions really were with participating this year.  Then, to make things fun was the secondary goal.  

All-in-all it was a successful time.  Looking forward to the bbq now!