Decorations For This Coming Halloween...How Far Would You Go?

You bring up a good point. Many times we assume that everyone celebrates Halloween. The truth of the matter is that Halloween varies depending upon those celebrating the Holiday. Some go out trick or treating, some go to parties, some have a Halloween party, and some have a different tradition. Keep in mind for those with religious beliefs that Halloween is a pagean holiday that is not celebrated. Trust me, I know people that view the holiday as quite a sensitive matter. Personally, I have come to realize that Halloween may just be the most controversial of all the American Holidays.

That assumotion is probably because Halloween is observed not only in America but all over the world. However, you are correct to point that now all people celebrate it. It could be because of their beliefs or religion. People do celebrate them differently and watching a movie specially a scary one is preferred. Others would go out on parties in costumes and of course for our little kids they would also dress up as cartoon characters. Here in Canada, I see a lot of adults in costumes riding the subway on those days. I am sure that a lot of these people participating in the event dont even know how it originated. To them it looks like fun. And honestly as long as no one is hurt in celebrating this occassion, why not...

You know before I started working in the education field, I always saw Halloween as that fun holiday for children to dress up. It was not until one year that the teacher I was working with had planned an all out celebration, and one of the little girls in our class came to school with a note from her parents saying that she was not allowed to participate that I started to look at the holiday from a different point of view. It is interesting how so aspects of American culture has become such a part of American life that we seldom stop to think that their may be different culture beliefs that go against it in our society. I mean it is amazing we preach religious freedom in American society, but truthfully we do not have the insights to understand people's religious beliefs nor the understanding to be culturally sensitive to those beliefs. Trust me, it was nearly heartbreaking to see how hard it was on the little girl who trully did not understand why she could not also dress up and eat candy. It was so sad. The parents wanted their religious beliefs respected. For their child it was agony to feel left out of a joyous fun celebration. It was from this day that my view on the Holiday shifted to it being a controversial holiday. From my point of view, I could see both sides. The hard part was that Halloween is such a cultural norm, but why isn't cultural sensitivity understanding of everyone's belief systems not a cultural norm that is ingrained into the American culture? As a teacher, I have pretty much refrained from the pushing the Halloween holiday because I trully see it more as a personal choice that families and parents should make regarding the traditions that they teach their children regarding this holiday.

My wife and I are also debating if we will let our kids join the trick or treating. Halloween is not in line with our belief. Anyway, I hope that you are able to raise good children after you have built a strong foundation. Cheers!

I agree with you on that. I would not spend so much time and energy to decorate the house for Halloween. As far as I remember, we did decorate just one time. The reason for that is because my eldest son went on a field trip and they were all given a large pumpkin to carve for Halloween.

Yes, I agree those decorations get quite expensive. The other day I was behind a parent and her son at Sprouts. They were buying a pumpkin. The little boy was quite excited about the pumpkin. He even knew the price $3.00. As he quoted, the price to the cashier ringing up the order. I have to admit is enjoyable to carve pumpkins with young children. I recall my little brother was very into carving pumpkins. We would clean them out together although he did not like to get his hands dirty. I recall one year he wanted a Scooby Doo Pumpkin. Our mother did carve out a Scooby Doo picture onto the face of the pumpkin. I would have to say it was one of the coolest pumpkins when lit up with a candle. The amazing part was it did not seem near as difficult as our father had made it seem when I was little. I recall that when my sister and I were young the whole concept of carving pumpkins was given up on after our father's gripping of how hard and complex he made it out to carve a simple Jack-o_latern. I think that when it comes to celebrating the holidy, the focus should be on having fun together as a family. Personally, I look back at found memories of cleaning pumpkins with my baby brother.

When we were living in an apartment, the superintendent would post in the main entrance that door to door trick or treating in the apartments are not allowed. They however, put a big container with lots of treats in the main lobby where kids can get treats. Kids do not have to go outside the apartment and they are safe. That works too

That was nice of the apartment complex. Hopefully the kids were respectful about getting candy. I have worked at apartment complexes were kids would just come in and grab all the candy. I hope the kids realized the kindness of the bowl of candy and chose to only take a piece or two rather than gobs of hand fulls that left none for other children in the complex.

That is the reason why me and my wife accompany the kids when they go trick or treating. There are some individuals who don't like this events and might do harm to little children. There was even news before of pins found on candies. I sure hope that it was not intentional and the only reason for that is because the container they used was for sewing accessories and it was not completely emptied before being used as a candy container .

As I read your post, I was thinking about how much times have changed since when I was a child going trick or treating. We lived in a housing community knew some of the neighbors. The neighborhoods had that safe friendly feel of community where you tended to trust the people that lived around you. Nowadays, we live in a community where many times we do not know our neighbors, mistrust the people around us because their are so many people out their that you never know if it is really safe to trust them or not. When you think about all this I do think that Halloween has changed so drastically over the years.

That is awful that pins were in the candy. I truthfully hope it was an accident. I agree that in today's society it is so important for parents to actively supervise their children to ensure their safety.

I hope no one got hurt because of that. Nice to hear that you guys can find the time and effort to do the decorations. As for me decorating during Christmas is enough.

Real tombstones huh!? I would love to have seen people's reaction to seeing real tombstones AND a coffin in ur yard...the look in their faces must've been priceless! The first year my sister moves with us way back when she only had one kid she went crazy! She found an old shoe and filled it wih days old hamburger meat and made it look like a real decapitated leg and she put it in the middle of the street on Halloween night and ppl would drive down that street and swerve to about hitting the "body part"! It was funny. She told me that some ppl even got out of their cars just to see if they could find the body that was missing lol!

no one got hurt but it was soo funny! Everyone thought it was a real foot one rotting at that!

Same goes with my family. Christmas is the time we go all out. I even set-up our Thomas the tank train set under the Christmas tree. Kids eyes light up when they see the trains chugging along the long and winding railroad tracks.

Well, you really do not have to decorate to make trick or treaters aware that you are giving away treats. I was told that if you have your lights on, that means they are welcomed to knock. If the light on the front door or porch is off, that means keep off.