Faith and Fun: Hosting a Christ-Centered Halloween Celebration

Halloween is a tricky topic in Christian culture. Some of us embrace it all, ghosts and goblins included. Others pretend it doesn’t exist. A blend of Reformation Day and Halloween festivities suits others. We may even feel conflicted about the holiday and need help with how to proceed.

The world will always try to darken things that were actually rooted in light, such as a day to celebrate the saints of the faith. Our role as Christians is to be the light, and holidays are an easy time to keep that light burning in unique and fun ways as we celebrate.

If Halloween has been confusing, consider hosting a celebration that brings love, community, and joy into the picture.

Embrace the Season

There is no need to pretend that autumn doesn’t exist. Cook up some pumpkin treats, string up some twinkle lights, and pick your favorite pumpkins from the patch. Enter into the preparatory fun that all holidays spark. Plan, decorate, and invite. Our family listens to biographies of Martin Luther leading up to Reformation Day, and we also visit the pumpkin patch and plan costumes. We have a lot of fun with our costumes and bake plenty of pumpkin treats. When questions arise from the kids as they see creepy decorations or costumes around town, it provides excellent opportunities to remind our children of the gospel and how much the world needs it. It also allows us to remind our children that darkness cannot overcome light, as John 1:5 explains.

Plan a Theme

To keep the spirit of the evening fun, choose a theme for all costumes to adhere to. This way, you can avoid any dark or questionable costumes and keep the dressing up fun. Consider challenging families to coordinate their costumes. Families from history could be fun and could range from Bible times to Shakespeare plays to the Kelce family of NFL fame. Try to coordinate some games and treats that fit into the theme as well to avoid focusing on the darker themes that secular Halloween celebrations might include.

Our family hosted a backyard carnival one year, and every family had to run a booth. The kids wore costumes, played games like trying to eat a donut that was swinging on a string, and had a great time.

Embrace Traditions

Carving pumpkins is a Halloween rite of passage, but if you want to skip the evil eyes and barfing pumpkins, consider printing out templates ahead of time, choosing a category, or making it a competition. Read a book such as The Parable of the Pumpkin and talk about the concept of being a light to the world as you light the candles and place them on the front porch for all to see. Read Matthew 5:14-16 as you light the pumpkins.

Embrace Others

In an attempt to redeem a broken holiday, our girls hand out Halloween-themed tracts at every house they trick-or-treat at. You can do something similar or even put the tracts into baggies with the candy you hand out to visitors. Invite neighbors to participate in your festivities or hold an after-party. We played a family-friendly fall movie in our driveway after trick-or-treating. Hot cider and popcorn were served, and a few neighbors joined us. Providing a safe alternative for friends and family can be an opportunity for outreach and showing others that fun and Jesus go together.

Embrace the Spirit

Have you ever thought about what a community-oriented holiday Halloween is? Festivals, parades, knocking on strangers’ doors? The spirit of the holiday is incredibly communal and welcoming despite its facade as a scary holiday. Even the act of sharing treats with others speaks of service. This is an excellent opportunity to focus on serving your community. Rather than waiting for the Christmas season to serve, plan a community service project. Have neighbors drop off canned food for the homeless shelter on your porch or drive around during the day delivering goody bags of hygiene essentials to those in need on the streets. Spend the day after Halloween cleaning up trash in your neighborhood.

Probably the best way we can redeem a holiday that has been shrouded in darkness is to imagine how Jesus would celebrate it if He were here. He celebrated a lot of holidays when He was on Earth, many of them ones that His death and resurrection rendered unnecessary. He attended feasts with believers and unbelievers, but He always brought the light with Him. Jesus wanted little children to come to Him, and Halloween is definitely child-centered. Consider His life and actions and make a plan that you believe would honor Him. Be confident in your careful planning and have a blast while you shine like a jack-o-lantern.