Christian Halloween Alternatives for Family and Community Fun

Many Christian homes do not acknowledge Halloween, but, this is hard to do when children are in the household.  It’s hard to expect children to understand Christian convictions, when they see their classmates and other children in the neighborhood having fun, dressing up and receiving treats.  This can be a bit heartbreaking and cause Christian children to feel a bit odd and left out.  

To eliminate the possibility of making a child feel deprived or isolated, more and more Christian families are turning to Halloween alternatives.  Here are a few ideas that can, not only be used within a family, but, used to make a community stronger.

• Use Halloween as an opportunity to show God’s love.  Look at the world the way a child does, simplistic and adventurous.  Share that with others around you; the spirit of giving isn’t just for Christmas.  
• Host a pumpkin carving contest.  This can be done strictly as a family and friends thing, or invite neighbors to participate.  Have prizes, refreshments, treat bags.
• A Halloween alternative to use for decorating is going with an Autumn or harvest theme.  Hang colorful lanterns of the season, along with pumpkins and haystacks.
• Turn your lawn into a graveyard by placing headstones around.  Inscribe positive messages on them.  The headstones will get people’s attention, but, the messages will leave them with a warm fuzzy feeling.
• Make your home the place to go for sources of amusement.  Offer face painting for neighborhood children, along with special treats and place positive messages in their treat bags.
• Have movie night, complete with popcorn, games and treats.  Decorate with a theme other than Halloween.  Children don’t care, they just want to have fun.
• Have a treasure hunt.  Place skulls around the house and/or yard, then, have the children turn them in for nicer, more positive treats.  Just remember to have a special prize for each skull hidden.  Have extra treats for the tiny ones, who may not be that good at finding the skulls; or give them some assistance.
• A Halloween alternative for dressing up, is to allow children to dress up as other characters, rather than images of Halloween.  They can be their favorite singer, actor, fairy tale character, or, even, a biblical character.
• Check out what’s going on with churches and other religious organizations.  Use this opportunity to mingle with people who are not of your faith.  Children have a way of bringing together families and communities.

Taking the time to spend more time with family and friends; building and improving neighbor relations should be a daily goal.  So, why not use these Halloween alternatives to do this, or, make up some of your own.  Halloween doesn’t have to have a negative connotation; everyday is what we make it.

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