Harvest or Halloween?

Do you celebrate Halloween? What about Harvest? It doesn’t have to be either-or of the two but I thought I’d share my thoughts on harvest or Halloween with you here.

A lot of people make an amazing case for doing a Reformation study during this time as well.  So let’s chat!

In our family, we really don’t do either. I can’t say the last time we did them. Growing up I have some lovely memories of Halloween but not of the trick or treating part. My memories are of the gathering together and fun/fellowship that it offered.

Memories

My parents held a dinner at their house every Halloween for the elderly in the community to have a safe place to be so they didn’t feel alone or even scared at home. We’d have sloppy joes and play cards until the trick or treaters stopped coming.  For dessert, my mom and I would always make these fun cut-out pumpkin sugar cookies. 

Once I got married it was a subject we had to agree on. My husband grew up not celebrating Halloween, in fact, he grew up with it being the devil’s holiday. I grew up with it being a time of fun and fellowship. So we had to compromise.

We still went to my parent’s house as long as they had their get together because it was a fun time of fellowship, but our children did not dress up or participate in the holiday.

A funny story is when one of our girls did not share or understand our stance on the holiday. It’s not a holiday for us and we don’t do anything for it now. She told her little friend who was talking about what she was going to be dressing up as that it was Satan’s day and she wasn’t sure if they could be friends anymore. Her parents and I had a good laugh but it opened the door for us to have a good conversation.

Alternatives

I know a lot of churches are now doing alternatives to Halloween.  They have a trunk or treat.  They do harvest parties.  While we don’t participate in these it’s in no way saying we don’t think others should.  Just for us personally, we have chosen not to.  

Depending on your religion and what denomination you grew up in you may have done a Reformation Day Party or celebrated All Saint’s Day.  I’ve never done either of those though I have done small mini units on Martin Luther with my children.  I grew up in a Southern Baptist home so I actually didn’t know much about it myself. 

Mostly in our home now though we do birthday prep on October 31st.  My oldest boy has a birthday on the 1st of November or All Saint’s Day.  My whole pregnancy with him I was worried I’d give birth on Halloween and really did not want to.  So he came the next day. 

Allergies

Having children with food allergies is another great reason to come up with an alternative to a traditional Halloween.  If you have kids with this you know the struggle.  So many candies aren’t safe for kids with a peanut allergy or a gluten allergy.  In our house, I also have one child with hives from food dyes.  As I look back to why we decided to not do any of the alternatives for Halloween part of it was that it’s another holiday centered around food.  

Holidays can be really hard if you have food allergies because most of them, at least in our culture, revolves around the eating of food.  Ways to get around this are to always host the meals so you can control what is coming into your home and into your children.  But this isn’t always a foolproof plan. 

I’d love to hear what your family traditions are and WHY!  It’s the why that always interests me. 

Maybe you always carve ten pumpkins.  Why? 

Maybe you go out to eat each year.  Why?

Share them all please!