I’m not one of those dads who is extremely opinionated in the direction against what everyone else is doing.  Why we don’t celebrate Halloween kind of falls into that category for me. My wife and I are both Christians  We both grew up in Christian homes, and both grew up celebrating Halloween to the extent of dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating in our neighborhoods in rural Northern Indiana.

Halloween was a time of fun, costumes, and candy.  To a kid, that’s all it seems to be.  I don’t deny that for me, that’s as far as it went for Halloween, and that’s okay.

My wife and I have been married for ten years and we have three kids. When our first was born, I was in college and we lived in Cleveland.  Our daughter was young and we didn’t know anybody, so in those days we didn’t celebrate Halloween.  No reason other than that it would have been for us and not our daughter.  We may have dressed her in some animal outfit and sent photos to the grandparents, but that is the extent of the celebration.

Once I graduated from college and we moved back home to rural Northern Indiana, we knew everybody, and everybody knew us.  Our daughter turned 3 or 4 and we let her go trick-or-treating.  She was our princess, and she walked the neighborhood with her “mamaw” and was paraded about to the friends and relatives.  Much candy was consumed.  Still though, we didn’t really celebrate Halloween.  It was just a foot in the door to this holiday.

This continued through the birth of our son, and our third, a girl.

Half-in half-out, why we don’t celebrate Halloween hadn’t hit me yet.  Each year, we would not really celebrate, but we didn’t avoid celebrating Halloween.  It avoided us.

The answer for why, this year, we don’t celebrate Halloween is definite.  We don’t want to send mixed signals to our kids.  They know God, and they know that we their parents also know Him. Why then should we celebrate a holiday that doesn’t edify God?  I can’t really think of a good reason. That is a good enough reason for me.

Real witchcraft isn’t attractive like they make it on TV.

Do you celebrate Halloween?  How do you celebrate? Leave a comment below or tweet @HandyFather.

Related: Teach Your Kids About God.

There is a pretty good book available to explain to kids why we don’t celebrate Halloween: Mommy, Why Don’t We Celebrate Halloween?