What’s your take on Halloween? Some Christians have no problem with celebrating Halloween. They love scary movies, dress up their kids, and go all out on decorations. Others shake their heads, praying for their friends as they seem to be inviting all sorts of demonic activity into their home. And most probably fall somewhere in between. 

How Some Think About Halloween

This is one of those conversations about which it’s easy to have a firm conviction and silently judge those who disagree. It’s also easy to make straw man arguments for the other side:
“Christians who don’t celebrate Halloween are silly superstitious fundamentalists, exaggerating spiritual things.” Or on the other side, “Christians who celebrate Halloween are recklessly ignoring the existence of evil as if it’s all fun and games.”

But perhaps, we can seek the best arguments for both sides, and thus, come to a conclusion through thoughtful engagement with Halloween. Then, we can not only love our Christian brothers and sisters better, but the world at large. 

Taking Evil Seriously

In the western world where the enemy enjoys working within our material, anti-spiritual imagination, it’s easy to forget the spiritual realities around us. But if you are a Christian, you really can’t get around the fact that there is a populated spiritual realm with good and evil that actively meddles in our everyday lives. You may not be well attuned to it. But it is there, and it would behoove us to remember that. 

The world of the gospels with evil spirits being exposed all over the place is the same world we live in today. Ask any missionary who has worked in places more readily accepting of a spiritual reality that overlays ours. They’ve seen spiritual warfare. And the letter to the Ephesians is riddled with language about the invisible powers at work in our world. The “spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” is the one we must remember we are fighting (Eph 2:2). It is “the devil’s schemes… the powers of this dark world and… the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” that we are at war with (Eph 6:11-12). 

For help in integrating that into your routine considerations, I highly recommend reading C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, a short fictional book that shines a light on the sly ways the enemy might work in a society that is not particularly spiritually minded.

But what do we do once we accept the reality of the evil portion of the spiritual realm at work around us? How do we take evil seriously? Is Halloween foolish for Christians to celebrate? Here are a few thoughts:

• Don’t Take Non-Christian Spirituality Lightly. Whether it’s watching movies about the demonic, playing with ouija boards, or dabbling in other religions/cults/witchcraft, stay away from it. If our battle is against evil spirits, assuming they are harmless is a bad idea. It’s an invitation for their participation in your life. And while one may think it’s just one night, Scripture shows us, they can cling.
• Pray. How does one fight a spiritual battle? One way to participate in the war is to partner with the Holy Spirit in prayer. While it’s good to take evil seriously, we can also be extremely confident in God’s power over evil. Jesus (and the early Church!) were always kicking butt against evil spirits terrorizing humanity. And we have the same power within us that they did– God’s manifest presence and power, the Holy Spirit! So partner up and pray fervently against evil, for protection, against fear, and for sensitivity to His leading.
• Put on the Armor of God. In his treatise on remembering our battle is against evil spirits and not humans, Paul lays out a plan for you to be ready to stand your ground in Ephesians 6:13-18. We would do well to meditate on this passage and consider how to practically integrate each aspect into our lives. But the short version is this: If you want to defeat evil, stand firm in truth, right relationships, and readiness compelled by the good news of shalom. Hold onto faith that puts to shame Satan’s attacks, salvation and the Scriptures. With all of these as the consistent environment of your life, pray in partnership with the Spirit. 

Loving Neighbors Seriously

So should we not celebrate Halloween, then? Personally, I don’t think that is a necessary response. While each person should follow their own conviction on the matter (and meditate on Romans 14), I think one can take evil seriously and participate in Halloween from a motivation of loving God and neighbor. In fact, I think Halloween is a unique opportunity. In a day when neighbors no longer know one another, trick-or-treating seems to be a final sentry of neighborhood engagement. It’s true that some people drive to fancy neighborhoods hoping they’ll have better candy, but there are many who live in neighborhoods and, thus, walk their sidewalks, speaking to their neighbors for the only time all year. So what’re Christians going to do about it?

If we want to love neighbors seriously, as I think Jesus exhorts us to, then we have to consider what we can do to engage them. Here are some ideas to avoid missing out on this opportunity:

• Be outside. Being visible is the first step to a conversation.
• Create an inviting space. In my family's own life, we borrow our friend’s portable firepit so we can set up in our driveway, and then we set out a snack table for adults. The kids get candy and the adults get a variety of other snacks. By announcing we had snacks for them, it initiated multiple conversations, allowing us to learn what part of the neighborhood people lived in. What does it look like on your street to make it inviting? Or if your street doesn’t get trick-or-treaters, can you throw a Halloween party, bonfire, or movie night and invite your neighbors or coworkers, mixing up your Christian and non-Christian circles?
• Think about the future. After you’ve had initial conversations or perhaps exchanged names, how can you see them again in the future? It may be as simple as drinking your coffee outside in the morning. Or if you take your kids to the park, going frequently the following two weeks so you can remember faces and strike up a conversation. Lots of brief interactions of “good morning” and “it’s getting chilly!” eventually lead to one slightly longer conversation. And then a couple more after that. And soon enough, you learn that their loved one is sick and you can pray for them. 

Decorate to Their Heart’s Content

Let’s talk decorations. Decorations are an area where thinking deeply to put others’ needs above our own is a way to love others. Let me illustrate the point by throwing myself under the bus. 

I love Halloween decorations. I generally have not gone the “cutesy” animated route. Instead, I like bats, cats, skeletons, and spider webs. A little spooky, but not demonic. In that vein, I put a bird skeleton on our bookshelf. It had cavernous holes where the eyes would be. 

Have you ever wondered when a child starts to have fears? My husband and I had done a fairly intentional job of never calling things scary and using the word startled instead of scared to help our daughter not internalize things as frightening just because other people said they were. Unfortunately, it seems there are some things that are inherently scary to humans, and at the age of two years and three months old, our daughter internalized her first fear. We’re pretty sure she had nightmares from the bird on the shelf, and she didn’t want to go into our living room. A year later, she seems to have a fear of things with big eyes and my husband is pretty sure it’s because of the bird skeleton. Whoops!

So while it goes against my preferred decorative aesthetic, I’ve determined that choosing decorations that are more fall-centric and less spooky is a way I can love not only our oldest daughter, but any kids who come to our home for years to come. I’m not prescribing what decorative style is right, but rather am encouraging you to consider both the spiritual implications and the neighborly implications of your choices. 

Whatever you determine your conviction on Halloween to be, may it be one that takes seriously our call to the battle against evil and the battle for love. May you be an example to those around you of compassion and holiness, of steadfast love of Jesus and our world.