This post originally ran on October 28, 2011, but it still perfectly captures my thoughts about today. Happy Halloween!
Nobody I know is lukewarm about Halloween: they either love it or they hate it.
There is a lot about Halloween that I don’t like. Its got a shady past, for starters. And all the scary decorations my neighbors have in their front yards–which have been on sale at Target since August 1–have me driving home with my kids in a weird, fuel-inefficient, zigzaggy pattern so I can bypass the seriously scary yards in favor of the relatively innocuous ghost trees and giant inflatable black cats.
Costumes for kids are generally cute and fun (except there is way too much Disney Princess involved, which I’m not wild about). But costumes for adults range from the objectionable to the awkward (I am shocked at the number of people coming to my site searching “matching girl and dog Kate Middleton costumes.” What does that even mean?) Top choices for women this year include “sexy queen bee,” “sexy pirate,” and “Jersey Shore.” In a word: Don’t!
And the candy! My family eats pretty healthy and we’re now gluten-free, and I’ve spent hours answering questions like “Why can’t we have twinkies? Why can’t we eat skittles?” Am I really going to send my kids out to canvas the neighborhood for smarties and laffy taffy by the bucketful?
Well, yes. Yes I am.
Because Halloween is the one day of the year where our neighbors come to our doorstep, and we visit theirs. And I love that about Halloween.
We don’t live in a real tight-knit neighborhood. We know all (well, most) of our neighbor’s first names, but not their last. I only have a few phone numbers.
But on Halloween, the kids love to don their costumes. They’ve been planning for months–this year we’ve got a football player, Little Red Riding Hood, a princess of some sort, and a puppy dog. And we’ll ring the doorbells and take it slowly and chat with the neighbors, and we will make sure we visit the families who’ve only recently moved in. Which is tricky, because I place a pretty high priority on avoiding the majorly-scary decorations, but we’ll do our best.
And at my house, we’ll be ready and waiting with our porch lights on and good candy in our bucket.
Because there’s only one day a year when the neighborhood comes to our doorstep, and it’s Halloween. I love that about Halloween and I don’t want to miss it.
Where do you stand on Halloween? Love it or hate it?
photo by Halloween Haunt via ZombieGirl on Pinterest
For free updates, subscribe to this blog in a reader or by email.
Modern Mrs Darcy, a blog that puts a timely spin on timeless women's issues. Read more 
I was {THIS CLOSE} to writing a similar post to go up on the 31st – in fact, I DID write it, but then deleted the majority of it. It just didn’t seem like the place to get into a big discussion about the holiday that causes people who normally agree, to suddenly become like ice when they realize you carve pumpkins.
I have very happy memories from my childhood of pumpkin carving and going around to all of our neighbor’s houses to demand candy – there was nothing scary or evil about how we celebrated. However, I’m well aware of the darker side and in all honesty, it’s just not the same now as it was, even 25 years ago. Now people are afraid of their neighbors and they drive their kids to malls and downtown events and church parking lot Trunk-or-Treat events and its.just.not.the.same.
I love handing out candy, but after the third year of no one coming to our door and me being forced to eat all the Starbursts that I purchased, I gave up. Now when Halloween comes around, you can find us with a Papa Murphy’s pumpkin-shaped pizza, watching fun little films like “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken”, and carving pumkins.
Enjoy your night out with your kids! I’m glad to hear you’re still neighborhood people!
Halloween is growing on me. As a kid, I used to love it! As an adult, I didn’t (and still don’t) like the pressure of having to buy and overpriced and cheap costume (I cannot sew) that is usually way to revealing. However, now that I have kids, I really look forward to decorating, dressing up the kids, handing out candy, having my house smell like Fall…all of it!
I apologize for souding dense, but what is Halloween’s shady past? I tried to research it, and other than finding its origins and evolution into what it is today, I really didn’t find anything too sinister or evil…
We invented the Time Change Bunny who fills your sock drawer with candy when he comes to change the clocks. He’s also handy for avoiding celebrating the most important day in the history of the universe with chicks & bunnies in the spring
As far as candy goes, a number of my friends plan to invite the Sugar Plum Fairy to visit their house the night of Halloween and whisk away all but a few pieces of candy to help her build her castle. She leaves behind a small, non-edible gift as a thank you, of course!
http://higherthings.org/myht/articles/current_events/gospel-of-halloween.html
Anne, I found this link on facebook yesterday. It’s written from a Lutheran perspective, but considering that Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses on October 31 affected pretty much every Reformed denomination that exists today, it’s relevant for a lot of people. And it make some VERY good points.
Being too old to trick-or-treat and too young to have kids who are going, I don’t think we’re going to do much with the holiday for a while. But the article I linked to explains pretty well how I feel about it.
I am one who is lukewarm about Halloween. I have gone back and forth about celebrating it my whole life. I recently wrote a post about it ~
http://lorialexander.blogspot.com/2011/10/celebrating-halloween.html
There were a lot of emotions in the comment section. Many believers thinks it is terrible! So I just say, “Go with your convictions!”
Blessings,
Lori
We don’t have children of our own, and I love having all the little ones in our neighborhood come to our house for candy! I love praising their costumes and saying a kind word to their parents.
We are healthy eaters too, but last night our school had it’s Fall Carnival, my kids came home with what amounted to a paper grocery bag of candy each(well the two younger ones did, the older one worked the event.). They dressed up, they LOVE dressing up anyway. They created their own costumes for the most part. We will go trick or treating on Monday. But for us it is a social event. We get to see most of the kids from school when we trick or treat. My kids will get to eat a little bit of candy each day but by the end of the week, the candy leaves the house. To dh’s work or to back to school for the the next event.
Love it. Why? Cause I love seeing the creativity they utilize in making their costumes and the excitement in their eyes. And they do walk at least 2 miles so I don’t mind them having some candy. Besides, hubby and I need to check the candy for safety reasons, and then, then there’s the candy checker fee of one candy. ( ;
I love Halloween and choose the quaint witch and ghost decorations. For the first time in my adult life, I have long hair so I thought that I should do the classic Pippi Lomgstocking costume. I was horrified at the adult Pippi longstocking costumes. I mean, when did Pippi start hanging out with Snooki?
I feel pretty much the same way. It saddens me that this is the time of year where it’s a community event and many Christians stay hidden inside in protest. I don’t believe Jesus would have done that. I believe He came to redeem evenings like this for His glory. I am sure you read this already, but if not, here is a great article by Challies:
http://www.challies.com/articles/my-halloween-theory
Thanks for the link, Cheryl–I hadn’t seen that. But I totally agree: the opportunity for community is the best part of Halloween for me.
I LOVE Halloween.
What I HATE about it though is how rampant the judging of the skimpy outfits to be “whorish”, “skanky”, and “slutty” is.
I feel like women should be able to dress how they want to dress without having to worry about being called a slut. If you want to be a sexy cat? Be a sexy cat. Being a sexy cat does not make you promiscuous.
Oi.
Linda, this reminds me sooo much of Mean Girls: “In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.”
I grew up totally without it in Switzerland. We did have dress up in February for Mardi Gras/Carnival, “Fasnacht”, we called it. When we had little children, we didn’t celebrate it, but once the oldest was about 2, we did, and now of course, we did. My husband LOVES the candy. I try to put out candles and celebrate LIGHT, instead of darkness and think of the Saints.
I must admit I’m lukewarm about Halloween. But, I do it for the sake of my kids and seeing my neighbors. I do wish it took place in July though. Same with New Year’s Eve. It’s purely a weather and time of sun set thing.
I’m glad we don’t have one of those houses in our neighborhood that tries to scare kids. We had one of those growing up and it scared the heck out of me.
I love Halloween! It’s one of my favorite holidays, but then I have a huge sweet tooth, so that could be why.
I also enjoy the scary decorations, and going to Haunted Houses. It’s just cool!
We don’t have as many Trick-or-Treaters as we use to have, most of the neighborhood kids are grown up now. I miss having lots of visitors. Like you said, it is the one time of year when you would get to see everyone, and it was always fun seeing the neighborhood kids dressed up and seeing how much they had grown.
I was just thinking the other day about how much I love Halloween. When you really think about it, it’s a very VERY odd holiday in which you surround yourself with very strange and questionable objects and ideas: death, ghosts, vampires, blood, gore and the lists goes on. And I love it precisely because it so strange and macabre and NOTHING like our everyday lives.
It give us an opportunity for at least one day of the year to step out of the everyday. I really enjoy scary movies, the paranormal and being scared in general (as in going to Haunted Houses, scary rides etc) so I’m very much biased.
Maria xx
http://www.cheekypinktulip.blogspot.com
I’m one of those who always were lukewarm toward Halloween. We never had any money to buy costumes, and my mom does. not. sew, so we always dressed up in what we had (I think one year I basically wore normal clothes and carried a magnifying glass and that made me Nancy Drew). We would put up that fake spiderweb and paper cutouts of black cats and some cardboard tombstones and carve pumpkins and traipse around the neighborhood with our dog, who had a special Halloween glow-in-the-dark bandanna to wear, and the houses that actually put effort into being scary were my favorite. It was just fun! All our candy was pooled into a giant bowl and shared among the family and usually lasted until Thanksgiving or longer.
My mother-in-law, though, is vehemently opposed to Halloween. The DDH never carved a pumpkin until college. They would hide inside and watch scary movies (where’s the logic there?) with the porch light off. The MIL still makes just obnoxious comments like, “Oh, it’s so saddening to think that my grandchildren will celebrate Halloween,” like she thinks we’re going to paint pentagrams in blood and perform Satanic rites with them or something.
As usual, it just makes the DDH more determined to celebrate enthusiastically, so some years we get more into it than I would otherwise! Because I don’t really care, until you tell me I can’t do it.
So I pretty much agree with my year-ago self, except that at 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant I cannot muster enthusiasm for anything. But I’m enjoying all the Reese’s peanut butter cups I bought.
I think it makes a big difference, too, whether you’re used to/think you have to buy a pre-made costume or whether you’re used to using Halloween as an opportunity to play dress up and make it yourself. This year I’m the Virgin Mary on the road to Bethlehem–blue maxi dress, blue blanket draped over my head, leather sandals, all that I already owned. Blanket on the dog to make him a donkey. That sort of thing.
One year in college, two of my friends and I went as a lion, a witch, and a wardrobe–it’s so much fun to do clever things like that. Why shell out all the money for cheaply made skank outfits?
As for the scary factor, I’m half-German. We invented a creepy man who follows Santa around and eats the bad children, because getting coal in your stocking is for pansies. Pssh, Halloween, I laugh at your haunted houses.
The creepy man sounds exquisitely horrid, Katie!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus
Scroll down to see the little postcard of Krampus licking a tasty child on a rocking horse. The German translates, “Greetings from Krampus.” How’s that for a Christmas card?
Love that continental humor!
That’s awesome!!!
I LOVE that you’re the Virgin Mary! How perfectly perfect for 38 weeks and 3 days! (Maybe you’ll go into labor on the road? Would that be a good thing at this point?)
And I minored in German in college. I read a LOT of those scary German fairy tales. And you’re right, they sure don’t mess around!
I totally thought you were going to go the other way when you started…and I was thinking, sigh, I’ll just skip leaving a comment so I don’t get into a whole debate debacle…and then, bam, you surprised me!
I personally am lukewarmish on Halloween. I adore Fall, so I love the trees and the feel of trick or treating. My kids LOVE Halloween, and they have been so excited for two months now. Our costumes are pretty dang cool this year (as opposed to every other year, where I wait too long, then am too broke for anything good at Goodwill). There will be a lot of teeth brushing for the next month until their stash is gone, but oh well. Childhood! THAT’S what I love about Halloween.
We didn’t do Halloween with the kids. This upset our son a bit when he got old enough to understand. That lasted just until we told him that all the candy went on sale the next day and we’d be glad to buy him a big bag all for himself. No more upsettedness.
Once the kids got old enough to make their own decisions about it they started going to Haloween parties with their friends. Fine by us.
“We told him that all the candy went on sale the next day and we’d be glad to buy him a big bag all for himself.”
This kills me, Tim! You must have gotten there before they sold out of all the good stuff
I’m torn. I was raised not celebrating it because of its roots, but my parents let us choose if we wanted to dress up once we were in high school. We don’t have kids yet, so I haven’t had to take a hard stand on the issue (I’ve avoided Halloween parties for years), but love an excuse to come up with a costume.
I also work on a college campus and get a front row seat to what everyone is wearing (or not wearing). I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and appreciate your perspective on it being a chance to get to know the neighbors.
I am SO curious about what you see on campus! I can’t even begin to imagine…
I totally agree that it’s a love/hate thing. Our household has never observed it. BUT I will say that your post sparked a great conversation between my husband and I. Nice post!
Lori, I’m so glad! Thanks for letting me know.
I love the community idea, Anne. Thanks for the fresh perspective on Halloween. I’ve been torn with what to do with all the candy. I have a friend who asked her dentist about it, and he said that eating one or two pieces a day over a period of time was the worst for your teeth. He suggested letting the kids eat all they can possibly eat on Halloween night and then throwing the rest away. I’m not sure how great that much sugar on one night would be for their little bodies, but I’m tempted to do that tonight. I get so tired of having candy in the house!
I know you don’t know me, but I am one of those “lukewarm” people. My son gets to put on a costume and we go to fall festivals/trunk-or-treats at area churches (we generally attend just two of them). He gets plenty of candy… More than I’d like, but I have a plan: let him donate it somewhere and then give him something non-edible in return. We don’t go door to door, though. Not because we’re necessarily against it; he just gets so much candy at the fall festivals that he doesn’t need anymore.
I was never really interested in carving pumpkins until my grandmother sent me a printout that said something like, “Christians are like pumpkins… God picks you out and washes the dirt off…” I can’t remember it all but I thought it was a great way to share the gospel through something fun!
Around here we love Halloween and always have. I learned to sew just so I could help my kids be whoever they imagined they were for Halloween.
We go to our friend’s neighborhood because we don’t live in a spot where anyone trick or treats at all. I would love the opportunity to see all my neighbors faces for Halloween but it just doesn’t happen here.