Regardless of what you decide to do today, here are some suggested ways you can make ‘spiritual use’ out of Halloween: you can have spiritual conversations with your kids, you can participate in whatever way and at whatever level you’re comfortable with, or you can provide an alternative.
1. Use this opportunity to teach your children. Teach them about the spiritual world. Teach them about church history. Teach them about how to respond to the culture around them, about when and how to engage that culture, and when and how to diverge from it. Teach them that life with Christ has power over darkness. Teach them that they don’t have to be afraid and that they don’t have to be angry. This is a great occasion to tell your kids that there is a spiritual world filled with goodness from God and evil from Satan (see Ephesians 2.1-10); but also that life with Christ has power over darkness (see I John 4.4).
2. Participate in only those aspects or portions of Halloween with which you are comfortable. For example, you may be alright with Trick-or-Treat, but not with Halloween parties that feature scary (or seductive) themes. You may find it enjoyable to pass out treats to children, providing that those treats are edifying somehow (giving away Veggie Tales movies is a popular, albeit costly, solution). Finally, you may simply draw the line at the occult and/or demonic-oriented movies that are often released around Halloween, recognizing that – while little kids are not involved in that stuff at all and for them Halloween is innocent – there are some weirdos out there who want to stay in love with the darkness.
3. Throw a neighborhood party that celebrates life and laughter, joy and goodness, and invite everyone to come to your Halloween party. Invite the ghosts and ghouls and grave robbers to experience an alternative to death and dismemberment. Show them a good time. There could be no better witness than throwing the most remarkable party on Halloween that honors glory over grotesque. Rather than “hide” in the face of evil, we should unabashedly and boldly create an alternative that is positive and uplifting; that celebrates good over evil and the triumph of God over Satan. We need to provide an environment that also makes room for heaps of fun while using the day as a “teachable moment” to celebrate God’s protection, provision and purpose for our lives.