Alot of people discourage Halloween and the “trick or treating” that is associated with the holiday.  Due to the clearly negative associations of Halloween, people have chosen to not be part.  I thoroughly understand that logic. 

On the other hand, you get a lot of candy and that can’t be bad.

Really, my logic is a bit more rational than that.  Our neighborhood is largely populated by young families.  About 12 or 13 kids came from our subdivision to our churches Vacation Bible School this last summer.  That is a small portion of the kids.  The night of Halloween, the streets are full of people walking up and down them in cute (or not so cute) costumes.  There were a couple teenage girls dressed up as cheerleaders (they were teens from our youth group), but the majority were in elementary and younger.  We found this to be a good way of meeting our neighbors.  I’m assuming that the vast majority of those who celebrate in this fashion are not part of the often associated evils of Halloween.  As others have secularized Christmas and taken all profitable meaning away (at least for them), I would like to attempt to secularize Halloween. (Don’t worry, I’m not going to take any effort or time to do so.  I realize it would be just easier to ignore it.)

Hoping for some interaction with our neighbors, this seemed like one viable option to use as a relationship buildig tool.  Molly was a princess and Spencer was a basketball player.  They were cute, they got a lot of candy, and I met a number of our neighbors. 

This year Spencer has stepped up a bit from the vaguely dressed basketball player and has received a bumblebee outfit from some friends of ours at church.  When this picture was taken, he was flapping his arms (like a bumblebee).  That is why his hands are a bit distorted.  I tried to blend the rest of his outfit with his hands, and this was my poor attempt.

Since Halloween is on Wednesday this year, our kids will not be trick or treating in our neighborhood.  Instead, the AWANA leaders have determined to have “trunk or treat” at church.  After church the leaders will go car to car giving out candy.  Molly’s group is dressing like bible characters and Spencer’s group is dressing like animals, hence the bumblebee.

If someone has a conviction against Halloween, I’m not sure that dressing up like animals and bible characters and calling it “trunk or treat” is going to soothe their conscience . . . But, once again, they will get a lot of candy – Hopefully!