Do you let your children participate in Halloween? If not, why not?

I won't deny my children the fun and excitement of joining halloween celebrations if it would just be as widely celebrated as it is in your country. I am from the Philippines. I had the chance to witness how fun it was when I went to Florida last year. I helped my sister with the decorations. My nephew had a nice Darth Vader costume and went around the village for the trick or treat. I don't see it as evil. For me, it is as exciting as Christmas.

yes i let my kids participate in halloween i think its more of a day for kids sometimes some parents dont let their kids participate because they say its not safe but along as a parent or adult is with a child i dont see anything wrong with halloween

halloween for us is not a big deal, it is more of a candy grab for our daughters but in saying that, i find halloween getting creepier and creepier and for us, as christians, we know that hell is a very real place. i used to hand out candy as well as a little gospel tract with the candy. why hide when you can use the day for your advantage? its stupid to decorate for halloween just because its only one day. at least christmas is a season (pretty much a whole month!)

I think Halloween is great. I believe people read into things all sorts of things that aren't REALLY THERE. Halloween is not evil. Religious and political reasons are just reasons/ways people try to separate or divide themselves from others and claim they are somehow better or 'more good' than someone else. I won't even attempt to get into how I feel about people who have that type of attitude, because my comments would not be very nice. All I can say is if you live your life a stuck up snob, you deserve whatever you get from people who don't appreciate your snobbiness. No one person is BETTER than another, and it doesn't matter where your beliefs lie religiously or politically. Bottom line, YOU aren't RIGHT, and I'm not WRONG, or vice versa. Be more accepting. My daughter's school does a halloween parade and we have a harvest festival. I'm excited about BOTH and GLAD that the school does both. I do not appreciate people catering to folks who think everything about particular holidays should not be celebrated. My feeling is if YOU don't want to celebrate, DON'T, but to make generalized rules to prevent THE GENERAL PUBLIC from celebrating? Screw you. As far as I'm aware, if you're that much against holidays, parties, and celebrations, you can keep your kids home for the day. Of course that leads to resentment from your kids that they have to miss celebrations and parties because their parents or guardians don't seem to ever want them to have fun. I think decorating is fun, celebrating is fun, and you can make ANY holiday about what YOU want to celebrate. It can be religious, it can be non religious, it can be centered around family and friends, it can be commercial. Honestly, I don't see why anybody gripes or complains. Nobody forces people to decorate or spend money, so I don't see any problem with the availability. It's still a choice.

I have no problem allowing my children to participate in Halloween. The main point of this holiday is to have fun for the children. I might take them around for "trick and treat". I might decorate the house with those scary skeleton, and Pumpkin head. But to the haunted house, that is totally forbidden. I might go with my friends, but no children.

My take is that Halloween was a HUGE part of my past time; the only thing I really looked forward to during the fall. It wasn't even ABOUT the candy, to me (although it turned out to be a nice bonus). Being able to dress up in goofy costumes once a year, carve pumpkins, and spend time with friends on a SCHOOL NIGHT was a HUGE plus for me growing up! It's just a fun holiday if you ask me - and I think there are people who take it WAY too seriously to be honest with you. I think it gives kids a chance to be, well, KIDS - and especially with so many kids growing up way too fast these days - these kinds of things are important, if you ask me. I will definitely allow my kids, should I ever have any, to participate in Halloween!

I don't let my kids participate in Halloween...but not for the reasons you mentioned. One of my reasons is my oldest is autistic. With him being special needs I can't just let him wander off with a group of kids to go trick-or-treating like I did when I was a kid. Going with him wouldn't do any good either, as he might run off and disappear. Not to mention I wouldn't want to confuse him into thinking it's okay to do this (trick-or-treat) on a regular basis. Another reason is because I'm out in the country. No one ever trick or treats out here! LOL Happy mylotting!

I always took my girls trick or treating when they were younger. I love halloween. I really don't understand all the negativity surrounding this holiday all of a sudden. It seems a bit overdone to me. I understand the religious reasoning. It is the fear of it teaching our kids bad things that I don't get. For us, it was always a fun and exciting time and even when they were older and didn't care to go trick or treating. There were the parties and there still are. My 15 yr old will be going to one this year. Creating a costume was always fun as is the decorating. For my kids and myself it's a time of creativity. I love handing out candy and seeing all the different costumes. I think negativity says more about the person than it does the holiday.

Halloween might have dark roots but it can be kept down to just something we celebrate without taking part in the dark roots, as you say it has. The thing is that nowadays people are consulting seers and astrologers and other spirit people more and more so they are having a different view of the Halloween business. I don't think its anything. Sweets are nothing to give children and witches went out with the middle ages. Unless, of course, you are back to dealing with them as I see some people are.

I live in a small town in the south and Halloween is a big deal around here. There's something going on in the park for the kids on Thursday and Trick Or Treating is a must! Many of the homes are decorated and lots of folks stop for a bit to chat with the folks sitting on the porch giving out candy so it takes quite a while to make the route. One of our nephews puts hay in a large wagon which he pulls behind his truck so most of our kids ride back there...with some of the moms, too. My daughter and I take her two youngests with us. It's fun and I've never seen anything wrong with it.

Like some one else has said, in Australia don't celebrate halloween on a big scale. My kids are going out trick or treating and they are getting dressed up. Not many kids dress up but I like seeing kids getting dressed up. One year even I got dressed up too for when I greeted kids at the door. That year, I gave kids extra treats if they got dressed up.

When I was a child, we participated fully every Halloween and now that I have children of my own, they are allowed to participate fully as well. I think it is fun to be able to let the kids dress up in costumes that may reflect a part of them that they aren't able to show every day of their lives and the fact that it is an evening that we are able to spend together as a family is a bonus as well. Oh yeah, and then there is the fact that we as parents are able to loot the children's candy bags after the holiday is over.

Bearballew- Nothing like a good controversial subject to rack up those pennies huh :-) On a serious note, I like the subject you have brought up, and most of the responses are frightening to me. Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge........." According to some of the posters here, if you ignore the origin or truth in something, then it's perfectly ok. If I seek a spell caster, and only ask for a money spell, does that mean it's not magic? Or is it then considered "white" magic which is some opinions is considered "good". Oxy moron. Seeing the type of ignorance and selfishness displayed in some of the responses are only proof that we are definately in the last days. If I say to you, "There's a rapist wandering in your neighborhood" and you choose not to believe me or believe he's there, then does that automatically mean he's not there, just because you don't want to believe he is? Who here believes in UFO's? Who believes in BigFoot? Have you ever seen them? Have you ever touched them ? Have you ever heard them? The answer would be no, no and no. But yet, we (humans) will believe in anything we can not see, hear or touch,just so long as we aren't expected to believe in God. Even fewer ppl believe in satan. He too, also believes in you though. The best trick satan ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist! Looks like he did a good job of it.

i dont think letting children participating in halloween is not a bad iudea...becoz people enjoy playing...those kinda games........and i think parents should allow their children in participating in hallooween becoz that some parents feel its unhealthy ....they donot allow their children to takepart

i personally like halloween even though it said to be the night of all evil. I just enjoy the activities that go along with it, the candy, and home decorations, and i especially like to see my kids dressed up in their costume. Now the one thing i can say is that i never let my kids dress up as any demon, devil or witch. They're always a tv character like a power ranger, police officer, and this year they are both going to be transformers. My 5 year old is going to be the megatron, and my 1 year old will be optimus prime.

I live in Australia and, although Halloween is recognised here it is not a huge event. The stores do sell Halloween paraphernalia and my daughter’s school is holding a Halloween themed disco on Friday night but not too many kids go out trick or treating. My little girl is going to go with her dad just on our street. I don’t have a problem with it as long as one of us is with her and as far as what Halloween means; we only see it as a bit of fun and don’t take it too seriously.

Oh, we LOVE Halloween. My little one has participated in Halloween from the year she was born . . . and it's something we look foward to every October!!! People can bring religion and politics into everything. We are not religious by any means, but still our family celebrates Christmas, Easter and any other holidays / celebrations that come our way. It's a reason to celebrate, is all. We can apply greed an glutony to any of the holidays . . . don't blame it on the holiday itself . . . it's all in how and what we teach our children. I see Halloween as the one day we can dress up and pretend to be something we are not. Pretend play is so important in childhood . . . so it's a great opportunity for them to express themselves . . . and why not as an adult as well. It's a good teaching opportunity for kids too . . . show them to be polite and safe during trick or treating, care for your health and teeth, etc.