Is a Christian Halloween Possible?

But! – any day that impacts nearly all your neighbors (and 72% of Americans!¹) deserves a look through another lens.

When my first kid was old enough for trick-or-treating, we started talking about what we wanted to do on October 31. The beauty of a relationship with Jesus is that we can all seek him for how to live our modern lives. Not all aspects of life are spoken about directly in the Bible. We wanted to be both wise and fun on a day that was full of both celebrations and contradictions. I’m sharing a few of our conclusions about Halloween. Even if you don’t agree with ours, I hope you’ll seek Jesus for how you can show up as light on a day that seems to welcome darkness.

We decided…

It’s about being a good neighbor. Everyone comes home from work early and comes out of their houses! This is the best part about Halloween in a residential area. Whether it’s a suburban street, apartment building, or rural community - neighbors seem to come out of the woodwork. We decided to have our kids stay in our own neighborhood and not go to their friend’s house just because there are no hills or the houses are closer together. (We have hills, and the houses are far apart, so you really gotta work for it in our neighborhood!) We view Halloween as a chance to further our ties to the community where we live. So we walk around with neighbors or sit in their driveway by a fire pit. Even if it’s on a weeknight, we try to stay out a little later just to chat. We didn’t want to miss the obvious chance to build good relationships with our neighbors and be good to them. We want the same foundation Jesus ministered from—genuine relationships.

It’s an opportunity to be generous. We’re the full-size-candy-bar-house. We want families to associate the Pattersons with generosity because we want them to associate Jesus with generosity. To us, the extra candy cost is a tiny way we can put the extravagant generosity of grace on display. We don’t hand out gospel pamphlets (kids hate that); we just want to freely give something they like. We have even sometimes organized a quick dinner before trick-or-treating to bless parents who are hurrying home from work at the last minute (think Chick-fil-A nuggets … just something so your kid doesn’t throw up from all the candy). God is unceasingly generous with us, so we want to reflect who he is to our neighbors whenever we can.

Pumpkins > Chainsaws. I always tell my kids that we don’t “celebrate death.” I’m not totally sure that’s the perfect language, but that phrase did stick. We believe the Kingdom of God is where there is abundant, overflowing life - so we don’t lift up death in any way. The letter in the Bible called 1 Corinthians says (speaking about Jesus), “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be eliminated is death.” Death is not our friend, so we don’t celebrate it with chainsaws, serial killers, or bloody scenes in the yard. When my daughter was four, she asked a woman in Target who was buying gravestones for her yard, “why she wanted to celebrate death.” That was awkward. But it was also a moment when I knew she understood what I meant! This is a line in the sand for us that means we don’t hang fake dead people from trees. We don’t make our yard a cemetery. We don’t dress up in costumes or as characters that are terrifying, bloody, or who kill. We keep our decor to pumpkins and fall leaves and wear costumes that would make you smile. This seems consistent with our belief that, in Christ, life will win out over death.

Hard pass on any activity with “spirits.” Halloween is a holiday where “spirits” are sought, discussed, and visible everywhere. This is a part of Halloween that is spoken directly to in scripture. The Bible always reinforces the existence of a spiritual realm you cannot see, where demons are actively seeding evil and doing the bidding of God’s enemy. I know plastic ghouls hanging on porches and people in demon masks aren’t the same thing, but I think we can accidentally desensitize ourselves to the severity of God’s instruction on evil spirits and spirits of the dead. The Bible makes it clear that seeking or interacting in the realm of the dead is dangerous and out-of-bounds. The Bible never says it is not possible, just that it’s forbidden. We are not to seek connection or conversation with the dead—including fortunes from psychics, reading tarot cards, and other methods of spiritual intervention. We aren’t to seek or welcome evil spirits. If you want to know more, read Leviticus 20, 1 Samuel 28, or Acts 16 for different angles on the fact that we are not to welcome spirits like this. On a day our culture deems it “innocent fun”- I want to keep myself aligned with God instead.

For my family, Halloween provides the chance to connect with and give to the people around us. We want to engage our culture—not run from it or be blown around by it. We want to put the truth and grace of Jesus on display wherever we can. We’ve decided there is a chance to do that on October 31. So, this year, maybe ask God a few questions about how you celebrate Halloween so your faith impacts your neighbors in a positive way. And if you ring our doorbell, you can choose from a full-size Hershey bar, M&Ms, 3 Musketeers, or Skittles. If you try to take two, chances are good that I’ll let you.

¹ National Retail Federation - Halloween Data Center

Disclaimer: This article is 100% human-generated.

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