Halloween
So I read this post by Elizabeth Esther about Halloween. I also got word that my niece and her husband have decided NOT to celebrate Halloween or teach their kids to believe in Santa. I totally respect that. But we’ve made other decisions in our family.
We “do” Halloween. I grew up with it, even as a pentecostal preacher’s kid. We had Halloween parties at church where we bobbed for apples, ate candy and dressed up (whatever was cheapest to put together). As a young adult I went to a church that decided to ignore it. I went along with that for a season. Then I got married, we had kids, and we decided we wanted candy and loved seeing our neighbors (sometimes meeting them for the first time) come around. Then we started going to a church that puts on a Fall Festival and also was the first place I learned about All Saint’s Day and what Halloween was in relation to that. We do teach our children that there is a real Satan and there is real evil out there. But on Halloween we choose candy with our friends and neighbors.
Hey Sheila! Been enjoying your blog. We live in Charlotte. I saw your comment on another blog I frequent. We have similar views about things.
But…I'm guilty of telling my kids there is no Santa. My youngest sister was SO SO heart broken when she found out. So we decided it would be best to leave out Santa, Easter Bunny, and The Tooth Fairy. But…we LOVE taking pictures with "fake" Santas and Easter Bunnies. We LOVE hiding eggs at Easter and we LOVE going trick or treating for Halloween. No "creepy" costumes are allowed. We like things cute and simple. We just leave certain things out… because we don't want to have to explain things later. Hope that makes sense. 🙂
Wishing you TONS of chocolate on Halloween! 😉
Thanks Angie, I appreciate the comments. I grew up with no Santa, my husband did. My two oldest know the "truth" (I admit we botched it with the middle child) and I'm pretty sure my youngest (she's about to turn 11) knows the truth since she keeps telling me NOT to tell her anything. That she wants to believe and doens't want me to tell her otherwise. We did keep the Tooth Fairy alive for them all, but no Easter bunnies (though we do have a chocolate easter egg hunt at Grandma's).
Parenting isn't always easy, but I think as long as well all respect each other's decisions it's okay.
Hope you get tons of chocolate too!