EP 103: How Should Christians Handle Halloween?

How Should We Handle Halloween?

Full transcript from Episode 103

Hello, friend. Welcome to Episode 103 of Loving Life at Home. Today, I want to talk about Halloween. Because few things stir up as much controversy or elicit as many strongly held opinions in Christian circles this time of year as the question of how believers should handle this holiday.

On one hand, there are some Christians who grew up trick-or-treating and have fond memories of dressing up as favorite cartoon characters or super-heros or some other innocuous persona like fairy princesses or firefighters. They view Halloween as innocent fun and family time strolling the block, showing off their costumes, and collecting candy from the neighbors.

On the other end of the spectrum, some Christians view Halloween as a day of irredeemable darkness and devil worship from which believers should distance themselves as far as they possibly can. They want nothing to do with Halloween and view with suspicion anybody who claims to be a Christian but does not share their strong aversion to this pagan holiday and all its demonic celebrations.

And somewhere in the middle, you have believers who recognize the dangers of playing with fire but also yearn to bring the light of the gospel to those who’ve never received it, and view Halloween as an opportune time to do exactly that.

Honestly, in my 60 years on this earth, I’ve fallen into all three categories of believer at one age and stage or other. My goal is not to convince you to swap sides, wherever on this spectrum you may find yourself. Rather, I desire that you would (1) consider what – if anything – the Bible has to say on the matter and (2) patiently extend grace to anybody who isn’t presently in your same camp.

So, what does the Bible say?

Well, folks in that first, fun-loving group might point to verses like:

While people who think Halloween is of the devil and should be avoided entirely will probably cite verses like:

And the ones who advocate a missional approach to Halloween might refer to verses such as:

That last one is a good passage for all of us to keep in mind as we prayerfully decide how we are going to handle Halloween, both individually and – at least, when our children are younger –as a nuclear family. When they grow up and leave home, the LORD may convict them to do things differently than you did during their childhood. And you’ll need to be at peace with that fact and trust that the LORD will lead them in the way they should go, even if it looks different from the way He led you. We all need to hold our opinions on this matter with an attitude of humility.

So…Should believers reject “All Hallows Eve” or celebrate it? Ban trick-or-treating or grab their buckets and traipse door to door collecting candy along with everyone else? Ignore the day’s festivities or try to redeem them in some way? Is there a way to honor God on this holiday? A middle ground? How, exactly, should Christians handle Halloween?

Many believers wrestle with these questions, and my advice to you is to pray it through.  The same Paul who tells us, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness” also pointed to a pagan altar on Mars Hill and used it to preach the gospel.

In Acts 17:22-23 we read, “So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:22-23)

Paul used the Athenian’s idolatry as a starting point to share the gospel with a bunch of pagans. And he did it right there where they were already in the habit of congregating, in the Areopagus, which the Romans called Mars Hill.

I don’t feel qualified to give a definitive answer as to whether Christians should celebrate Halloween (other than to prayerfully follow the Lord’s leading). But I can share with you how our family has handled it.

Alternatives to Trick-or-Treating

When our children were little, we were able to avoid Halloween altogether. And that’s the tack we normally took. But as they got older, we had to find new ways of navigating this holiday.

Shining as a bright light on a dark night

…But then, nearly 15 years ago, we moved to a neighborhood that has a reputation for being the best place in town for trick-or-treating. Kids would come by the busload to knock on our doors.

So I began to wonder if there might be some way to use that fact to take advantage of that situation? Some way to use Halloween to point others to Christ, just as Paul used that pagan altar to proclaim the gospel on Mars Hill? Might there be a way we way we could shine as a light in the darkness? A more mission-minded way to approach Halloween?

Sure enough, we were swamped with 1000+ visitors our first year here. We even installed extra lighting in our front yard that year and invited friends over to share the gospel with parents while we passed out candy to the kids and entertained them with a couple slight-of-hand tricks.

We stocked up on gospel tracts and about ten times as much candy as we normally buy for Halloween. Even so, we ended up having to raid the pantry for PopTarts and granola bars when we ran out of candy with a throng of costumed kids still on our porch.

The following year, we were better prepared. I designed my own cute, Halloween-themed gospel tract to pass out — along with the best candy we could afford — to the horde of Disney princesses and superheros who would soon descend upon our front porch to trick-or-treat.

We included the tract in little goody bags we assembled a couple of days in advance. That was such a fun family project – our kids loved helping fill the bags — and it made the distribution process go much more smoothly.

Some years we’ve handed the tracts out with full-sized bars. Other years we’ve assembled our treat bags in advance. Either way, I made a new trick-or-treat tract each year we lived in that neighborhood, in an effort to keep repeat customers engaged. We even translated a few of those tracts into Spanish, so as to have something to offer the Spanish speakers who came to our door. I’ve added all those designs to our family website as a free printable resource. I’ll include a link in the show notes in case you’re interested in doing something similar where you live.

What a great opportunity trick-or-treating has been to share the gospel! I like to think of it as reverse door-to-door evangelism: The crowds come to us!

Since our kids love any excuse to dress up, they don costumes to help pass out tracts and goodies to the neighborhood children (or to collect a few themselves).

I’m certainly not the first person to notice October 31 provides a ripe opportunity for sharing the gospel. Several years ago, Revive our Hearts ran an excellent article on redeeming Halloween that sums up our family’s evolving attitude toward this holiday beautifully. The article was called Being Missional on Fright Night. I’ll be sure to link it in today’s show notes.

I love the writer’s tradition of giving out King-Sized candy bars on Halloween — “because there’s no King as generous as ours.” That story was what first prompted us to do the same. It inspired me to make “King-Sized” gospel tract, just one of 10 or 12 different trick-or-treat tracts we have to choose from. As I said before, we rotate the designs from year to year, so neighbors won’t get the same tract in their bag every October.

Other great ideas for being mission-minded on Halloween

We moved out of that popular neighborhood about 3-4 years ago, and we haven’t had any trick-or-treaters at all where we live now. I don’t know whether that is how it has always been in our current neck of the woods or if trick-or-treating has fallen by the wayside in the wake of COVID like so many other fun things, including factory tours and Cow-Appreciation Day and Kids-Eat-Free nights at local restaurants. But that’s another episode for another day.

In the meantime, tell me: How does your family handle Halloween? Do you hide from it? Run with it? Redeem it for the glory of God and the furtherance of the gospel? I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have time. Just shoot me an email to let me know

And however you choose to pass the 31st, I hope it’s a blessed and beautiful day for you and your family. Thanks for listening!

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