Candy, costumes and pumpkins! That’s what Halloween is all about in our house. For 10 years I have held a strict no scary or gross costume rule. As a Christian, I have heard many families opt out of this holiday or attempt to call it by another name to make it okay for them. But I decided that as long as we knew where our hearts were, there was nothing wrong with the fun side of Halloween.
My one caveat was that we didn’t do scary costumes.
Over the years my boys have been a large array of Disney characters and super heroes. They’ve been soft, cuddly creatures and super tough crime fighters. In the beginning, ‘no scary’ is easy. They don’t like the scary stuff; often refusing to even go down that aisle in the Halloween section at stores. But now we’ve hit the tweens. And the fascination with all things scary and gross has hit. With friends being bloody zombies and the like, the complaints about their restrictions has mounted.
So this Halloween, I caved . . . a little. My oldest son is a skeleton this year. It’s certainly not the scariest skeleton costume I’ve seen but the mask isn’t exactly a smiley, happy face. My son is thrilled about his more mature costume. And I only feel slightly like a sell out. I mean, it’s still about the candy and dressing up and having fun. But this year we have a new rule . . . if and when the mask scares someone, he takes it off.
I think it’s a decent compromise.
What will next year bring? I’m not sure, but I hope that we’ll be able to agree on something that allows everyone to have a fun Halloween!
