This time of year we're always caught in that "do we or don't we" conundrum regarding Halloween. It's the kind of thing we could completely ignore and our kids might be none the wiser, although we have seen more and more Halloween paraphenalia out and about this year. I have friends here (Americans no less) whose kids don't even know what Halloween is.
I am not against Halloween, although I'm pretty sure I should be if I'm sticking to the Christian homeschool stereotype, but I'm not all that keen on celebrating it either. My kids don't really like to dress up much, and I'm not excited about them focusing on dark images like witches, ghosts and monsters while I saturate them with candy. Still, we hate for them to miss out on good times with friends. Last year we participated in our first and last trip to the Woodlands for real trick or treating. This year we wanted to do something a little more low key. Thank God for like minded friends! Our friend Carmen and her husband Trace did a stellar job of decorating their house like a frat house in the fall - college pennants hung all around, football and fall decor on tables. The kids dressed up (I finally hit on "cowgirl" as something Megan would like to be - she's not into being the princess!) and played the whole time while the adults were able to socialize around the feeding trough. That's my kind of party! Gerard took a picture of all the women together, so I'll post that when I get it. Below are the ones I took.
Winding Down
12 years ago
1 comment:
Hi,
I understand about the decisions. When my kids were babies, we chose to ignore the day. They had no idea that they were missing anything and we didn't have to feel like we were celebrating something that we shouldn't have. This was all fine and good until they started school. With the students being asked to dress up that day and participate in parties and all, it was impossible. Now, if we were really compromising our beliefs, we wouldn't have done it, but we found that we could dress the kids in "non-evil" things and let them enjoy the day for what it is to most people....a day to celebrate fall and get candy :). Now, even though we are homeschooling and we don't have the school pressure, my kids are HOOKED on that "free pass to eat candy all day" holiday. We do take them trick or treating some in small, safe neighborhoods sometimes, but will probably spend this Halloween evening at our church festival with all of our friends. Whatever we do, they will enjoy it. The funnest part to them is coming home and spreading all of the candy out on the living room floor. I can relate :)!
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