It’s
Halloween today. Today is my 6th
year Trick or Treating. I didn’t Trick
or Treat growing up because my parents didn’t allow my brother and I to. So my first year Trick or Treating was when
my son was 3 years old.
I grew up in a conservative
Christian home, where my parents were the same inside the home that they were in
public. I mention this because I know
that a lot of people criticize Christians for being hypocrites, and the truth
is we all are, Christians or not. I
wasn’t allowed to celebrate Halloween because it’s a Pagan holiday. I didn’t Trick or Treat. I didn’t get to participate in Halloween
crafts at school that included witches, ghosts, or anything that was more than
Fall-themed.
I was asked recently by a friend if I felt left out as a kid. My
answer was a surprising “no”. My Mom is a professional artist so when Halloween
came around she would volunteer to lead a craft in our classes, which meant it
was going to be an alternative to what the teacher had planned, and it was
always way cooler. When it came to Trick
or Treating we didn’t get to go, but we always attended our church’s “Harvest
Party” and played games and won candy. I
grew up being apart of an amazing community and didn’t think I was missing out
on much.
Then I met Randall. He didn’t grow up like me. His favorite
holiday is Halloween-what?!? That didn’t
make sense to me. I’m a Christian so my
favorite holiday is Christmas, of course. When we started comparing stories of how we grew up I quickly understood
why Randall loves Halloween so much. He
explained to me that Halloween isn’t a holiday for rich or poor people, it’s
doesn’t matter if your parents are married or divorced, what neighborhood you
live in or who your friends are. Halloween is for everyone. Every kid can get a costume from what’s lying
around their house, grab a bag to put candy in and run from house to house, in
whatever neighborhood you wanted, and people were happy to see you and give you
candy. Randall is a Christian too. He’s
the kind of guy who says what he does and does what he says. He’s real. And he made a good point when he said “You make it what it is”.
So, that’s what we’ve done. We’ve been married for 15 years now and our family
loves Halloween. We love to dress up, go
to a local Harvest party then Trick or Treat. We love to come home and hand out candy to others. We love to compliment people on their cool
costumes and Trick or Treat with lots and lots of friends (too many to be
honest but it’s so fun!). We’ve made it about family and community. We have refused to be dark and scary. We refuse to stay home and shut the rest of
the world out. We refuse to believe that we are better than anyone else. And I refuse to judge anyone else for the
decisions they make about Halloween. Oh, also my son went as Harry Potter (the audience gasps)-that's a whole other subject for a whole other blog!
Happy Halloween everyone!
