DH and I have given it a lot of thought in the past year. We’ve decided not to celebrate Halloween; not by trick or treating and not by dressing up to attend a church celebration. I am not saying anything about either of these activities except that we have chosen not to participate in either.
Family Thankfulness Month
This past year, with a lot of thought and prayer, we have decided that October is our family’s Thankfulness Month. During October we will be using activities and discussions to learn about how we should be thankful, why we should be thankful, all of things we should be thankful for and how we need to be content with what we have. Now John is completely oblivious at 1 this year but Chloe is 2 1/2 and really can understand quite a lot. For one of our activities, we purchased and wrapped small presents for Christine and Caleb, children in an orphanage, and talked about how some people do not have mommies and daddies. Since then, most nights she has prayed for them, and has also thanked God for her mommy and daddy.
The Grand Finale: October 31st
Anyway, the grand finale to our Thankfulness Month is October 31, the last day of the month, when we will spend the night away as family. It is not a Halloween substitute for us but, rather, simply the finale to something our family has been working on all month long. It doesn’t matter where we go, except that it has to have a pool. There are actually quite a few very reasonably priced hotels around and we won’t even spend $100. We’re going bring games to play, snacks to eat, we’ll swim and order a pizza. Since another focus in our thankfulness month is reduced spending and being content with what we have, there is a little bit extra to cover this night away. You see how well it all works out?
So What About the Neighbors?
I’m glad you asked! We made rice crispies, dyed a small amount green and the bulk of it orange. Oil your hands (a key point!) and make little orange balls, then squash and add green stems! Let harden. We wrapped them in baggies with ribbons. Then we made a card. On the front we made an ice cream cone and wrote things that “made life sweet” (things we were thankful for). Chloe actually came up with most of them on her own; swinging, dinosaurs, breakfast, mommy & daddy, worms, hayrides, Jesus, friends, ice cream and more! On the back of the card I put the following:
“October is here! With it comes Thanksgiving, and for some, Halloween. While our family chooses not to participate in Halloween, we are thankful for celebrate a beautiful fall and a bountiful harvest. If you are interested in the reasoning behind our decision, we would be most happy to share 🙂 Enjoy these little harvest treats from our family to yours!”
Dress Up Days
Our family plays ‘dress up’ year round. It is a normal sight in our home (or out walking, at the store etc.) for Chloe to be wearing a tutu, a tiara, butterfly wings or anything else so that isn’t something they are ‘missing out’ on either. In fact, she was wearing her tutu today 🙂
So Thankfulness Month is what works for me. I am undecided about closing the comments on this post or not. I wanted to share what our family is doing, but please do not leave malicious comments. If your family does Halloween, great for you! Ours doesn’t; great for us too (though you know how I feel about over-the top decorations!)
Happy Harvest!
I am SO thankful for this post, and the fact that you do not celebrate Halloween. I have been feeling very convicted about Halloween in the last few months, and I keep seeing article after article about families who choose to not celebrate it.
I brought this up to my husband, and HE has been convicted about Halloween, too!
We will dress up and attend our church's festival on Saturday, as we have already planned too, but I am quite certain this will be our last Halloween celebration.
Thank you for sharing! For me, it is just another godly confirmation about our family's decsion to forgo Halloween. 🙂
I agree, thanks for the post! I am totally on board with this, however, my DH is not quite there yet. I don't decorate for Halloween, only Fall Harvest and we don't dress up in scary costumes. We will be taking our daughter to the festival at church. Maybe I can tell DH about your family plans and see if that can settle in until next year!
My family hasen't celebrated Halloween for the past 3 years. It was a little difficult to implement as our oldest son was 9 at the time but he was fine with staying home ordering pizza and playing games. God confirmed our decision that first year by not having my son's school do a Halloween parade like they have every other year ~ thank you GOD! Now my son is 12 and has moved in with his Dad. He made a friend there who invited him to go trick-or-treating this weekend and ya know what my son said "no thanks, I don't do Halloween" . . . can you imagine???? PRAISE GOD! (this year will be nice because our local King Frost parade falls on Halloween night ~ so that will be fun).
I find the toughest part of our decision to be "selling" it to the rest of my family. They don't get it, I'm not trying to get them not to celebrate, it would just be nice for them to respect our decision without their negative comments "you are depriving your kids of a night of fun" OH PLEASE!!
Thanks so much for posting this…I love your terrific ideas. Our family does not participate in Halloween events either and we plan on keeping it that way. But, we did feel that we would like to give something to our neighbors and your idea with the cards and treats are just wonderful.
Next year we may try the month long Thankfulness celebration and hotel get away, too!
Thanks again for sharing
We don't celebrate either. Those are the CUTEST treats you made and I love the note that goes with them!!
We don't celebrate Halloween either. They kids are aware of the day, but we've chosen to focus on fall and the beauty of the season and God's gifts to us!
Wonderful! I LOVE this. What a neat idea!!!
It's undecided in this household whether halloween is innocent or of the devil. Please pray for my husband and me, that we would come to an agreement that aligns with God's word.
I appreciate that you've been so thoughtful on why and so non-judgmental on other people's whys. 🙂 Sounds like it was a wonderful month and those rice crispy treats are adorable. I'll have to keep those in mind for our neighbors next year!
Thanks for stopping by my blog and checkin' out my little Nemo. 🙂