Happy Saturday (or whatever today is). Hope all is well and your week was blessed. I hope you are enjoying your Fall (or whatever season you are in).
This is TGI Saturdays 40th week. Yeah me! I am so proud of myself for keeping up with this party week after week for 40 weeks no matter what my week looked like. That is quite an accomplishment considering the season of motherhood and life I’m in.
This party has been doing well the last few weeks and that’s thanks to you. I’m grateful. A special thank you to all who take the time to drop me a line (via comment box). I know that isn’t always an easy thing to do. Like I’ve mentioned before, it truly makes my weekend brighter when we connect. Thank you so much.
So Halloween is a week away, and I’ve been told by a neighbor that we’ve moved into a Halloween neighborhood. One of those suburban areas that people bring kids to trick-or-treat. The last neighborhood (not in the Suburbs) we lived in was not like that at all. There was very little semblance of Halloween.So Halloween, not really being our thing wasn’t that big a deal.
Now my kids are older, they get a bit excited about the holiday. And to be truthful, some of my favorite non-scary Halloween movies (e.g- Ernest Scared Stupid, Hocus Pocus, Corpse Bride, Monster House, etc.) and kid t.v shows Halloween episodes make Halloween look like fun. So I do get a little tiny bit excited about it too.
As a Christian, the fundamentals of Halloween clashes with my fundamental beliefs. Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, where as Halloween mainly celebrates death and darkness. Darker things like the devil, demons, murder and murderers, fear, spirits, witches, zombies, get my drift.
Adults and kids dress up in costume (which is a fun thing to do), but it just doesn’t feel right to me to let kids dress up as the things mentioned above and go to a stranger’s door and ask them for candy, even in the spirit of Halloween. That’s scary to me. Don’t we tell our kids don’t take candy from strangers. It’s weird that it’s okay to do that, when dressed in costume. Do bad people stop being bad people on Halloween night?
However, Halloween is also a time we think about pumpkins, bats, spiders, cats (mostly black cats) owls, etc. and use them as scary decorations or to tell scary stories, but truly these are beautiful creations of God, not created by Him to inflict fear, but to serve a greater purpose in the well being of man. I celebrate and appreciate these gifts from God.
For me personally, I’d rather celebrate the beauty, colors, wonder and harvest of Fall, than the scary/dark things of Halloween.
Please forgive me if I don’t get it. I was born and raise in the Caribbean, and Halloween was never a part of my life growing up.
Please note, I do understand there is more to Halloween (good and bad) than what I briefly talked about.
I hope I didn’t offend anyone, that was not my intention. Don’t misunderstand me either, I’m not judging anyone or making a rule that you can’t share your family-friendly Halloween related post at this blog hop. I’m just sharing my summarized take on this spooky holiday.
Feel free to share your take on Halloween.
Blessings to you!
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30 Things you may want to know about Halloween, Candy Corn, Pumpkins and Spiders.
I don’t get to watch television as much as I use to, but there are two channels I highly enjoy watching and I set my DVR to, every time there is a new original movie on their schedule. I’m talking about Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. Lately, These channels have been doing an awesome job in providing lots of good clean, inspirational, fun, romance and/or mysteries for a woman like me to watch. Do you watch these channels?
So some great news! Hallmark Channel will be premiering a new movie or two every weekend from September 19th to Valentine’s Weekend 2016.
Last week I watched the third movie premiere of Hallmark Channel’s Fall Harvest movie line-up “October Kiss”, starring Ashley Williams. It was really, really nice. It featured all the elements of Fall and Halloween fun- Fall Festivals, pumpkin carving, Halloween shopping, Halloween decorating, Halloween baking, Halloween costumes, romance,etc. It would really get you into the Halloween spirit. I enjoyed this film very much.
I also watched “Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise” starring Tom Selleck. This is my first time watching a Jesse Stone movie, even though this is the ninth one. It is a little more intense and mature (use of adult language) than Hallmark’s usual type of movies, but it was very interesting to watch.Â
Tonight (Saturday), October 24th, 9p.m/8c Hallmark Channel’s Fall Harvest will end with the premiere of “Good Witch Halloween”, starring the beautiful and elegant Catherine Bell. This is a sneak peek at the second season of the Good Witch t.v series (not sure when that’s going to begin). This was another one of my favorite Hallmark movie series (now a t.v series), I watched every single Good Witch movie from the very beginning. So i’m excited.
Then next weekend, Hallmark will be kicking off “Countdown to Christmas” Saturday, October 31st, and premiering it’s first 2015 original Christmas movie “Tis the Season For Love,” starring Sarah Lancaster, Sunday, November 1st 8/7c.
What more can a Hallmark T.V /Christmas lover ask for.
Hope You Tune in!
How to make your carved pumpkins last longer!
At the Red Sea- A Poem from Sharon at Sharon Sharing God
Trust When You Do Not Understand from Dr. Michelle Bengtson from drmichellebengtson.com
A Mom Conference You Can Attend Right From Your Own Home from womenabiding.com
I love this cool looking Hawaii Halloween shirt made by Lisa Grable from thecasabouquet.com, you can’t deny how cool it looks, in more ways than one- She’ll tell you all about it in this post “Halloween Shirts, Aloha Style.”
I also found it very interesting to read a christian perspective on Halloween in this post from Donna Reidland at donnareidland.com –“Christians and Halloween.”
Please feel free to enjoy these free printables, in celebration of this new Fall season. An Autumn Blessings Wordsearch, a printout of an original poem written by myself (Latisha) and if you still haven’t written down your Autumn season hopes as yet, enjoy my Autumn Wishlist printout. Plus these two new Halloween inspired wordsearches below-The Symbols, Traditions & History of Halloween and Cats, Bats, Spiders, Owls & Pumpkins.
I’m over here jumping up and down! Thank you so much, Latisha! My husband and all my Casa Bouquet family will be so thrilled to be featured by you. A blessing!
We embrace Halloween as the first Christian holiday in the end of Pentecost. It is really about All Saints Day on Nov. 1. I hope you can help your family celebrate and join your new community while being educated about how to do it in a Christian, non-evil way. I love your idea of focusing on the beauty and harvest of fall.
Hi Lisa,
You are very much welcome. Thanks for sharing that really cool looking Hawaii Halloween shirt with us.
We’re still trying to find our balance as a Christian family where Halloween is concerned.
Blessings to you.
Your feelings on Halloween, my sentiments exactly. Our family didn’t participate in Halloween when raising our girls. We feel as Christ followers and the culture we live in, too much evil exists and we chose not to partake in what the world seems to find worthy of celebrating. With that said, we also taught our children not to judge or criticize others for their beliefs. Everyone has to stand up and takes a stand for what works for them. When they got older, it didn’t effect them one way or another. We always downplayed it. I also stood strong on the teaching them about not taking things from others, and that included dressing in costumes and trick or treating. I felt like it sent a double message. Evil happens everyday. We get that, but in a child’s mind, it is either black or white for many years until they can separate the in-betweens.
Michelle
New here! Pinned it to our collaborative — Bloggers Spotlight. I would like to invite you to join our collaborative board. Just follow A Bountiful Love or the board and I will add you. Hope you have an amazing weekend and it is such a blessing to link up at your party.
Thanks so much for the comment and invite. I’ll check it out. Blessings to you.
Hey there. I don’t get into all the celebration of evil. However, I did go out trick or treating as a child and did the same with my children. Many times, if their school hosted an event we would attend that. If not, I would go to the homes of people I knew. Our church used to have carnivals when I was a child. We could dress in our costumes and go bob for apples, pin the bone on the skeleton, and we all would leave with a bag of candy from our church congregation. I used to look forward to this. Once my boys and I moved away from our “safe” community of family and friends and had to get to know new neighbors in our new city, I again would look for church events or take them to the homes of people I had grown to know and trust. It was a little easier for me to do this because I worked in the schools and got to know people easily. Hopefully, you will be able to find others that you trust as well that you can visit if you choose to do so. You don’t have to celebrate and please don’t feel guilty about not doing so. There are times that I do not give out candy so I leave my light off to signify this.
Hi Lowanda,
Thanks for your comment. That church carnival sounds like fun. I wouldn’t mind my children enjoying Halloween safely in that way. As time progress, our family will figure out for sure just how we will approach this holiday. I really appreciate you sharing the way you have done it with your family, through the years. Blessings to you.
Hey Latish,
I came over on Mommy Moments to find your post tonight, and I’m glad to find your site.
I’m with you on Halloween. It’s never been a really big deal for us and our kids. It seems like our church always had a party for the kids or some Halloween alternative for the youth.
I love fall too, but I don’t like all of the creepy and scary stuff. Nothing about it really makes me love Jesus more.
So, thanks for your honest comments and sharing.
Hope you have a blessed week~
Melanie
Latisha, like you, I would rather celebrate the beauty of Autumn than Halloween. I love candy, but I’ve never been able to get into the scary, dark aspect of the holiday. Just not my thing. Anyway, great to visit and link-up with you! GOD bless you! :-)
I agree with you completely. People don’t really understand these days that they are celebrating the dark side of Halloween with symbols of evil, etc. We simply decorate and celebrate God’s creation during the fall season with all of the beautiful colors and scents. Thanks for sharing! BTW – looks like we have a lot in common as I am a homeschooling mommy of four as well! :) Visiting you from the Good Morning Monday Link up. Have a blessed week!
Latisha, I applaud you for standing firm in your beliefs, which I happen to agree with. You presented your “case” in a very non-offensive way, so I think that if anyone is offended, well, maybe there is more going on with them. It’s your blog-you can write what you want! I stumbled over here from Monday’s Musings and I’m glad I found you! I’ll be linking up (hopefully) weekly, and will include your button on my linkup page.
What a great post! Such great ideas and links to make the holiday more fun! Many blessings to you and your family!
Latisha, thank you for featuring my article, Trust When You Do Not Understand. This month’s posts have been focused on how to more intentionally and deeply trust God. I’m thrilled to hear it was a top clicked post! Because of Him, #HopePrevails!
Hi Dr. Michelle,
You’re most welcomed. It is a beautiful encouragement. Blessings to you.
Hi, I’m dropping in from Australia and I’m with you about Halloween. Even though Halloween hasn’t been traditionally celebrated in Australia, over the last decade corporate business has been trying to establish it here. Now most major stores will line there shelves with costumes etc. I don’t know how well trick and treating has been received but we do get a few children in our neighbourhood coming around. So without judging others this is my stance. Just because something is a tradition of man doesn’t make it right. As Christians we are instructed to be in this world but not to conform to it. We are also told to meditate on things that are edifying and lovely not morbid and evil. I know that many people try to get around this by dressing their children as cartoon characters etc but for me the true origins of Halloween can not be disputed and for me personally I don’t want anything to do with it. I love your idea about Autumn. You can still decorate your house with an Autumn theme and enjoy things that hilight the coming of cooler weather such as toasting marsh mellows over a campfire or pumpkin soup. I don’t know if they do this in America but many farming communities in various cultures used to celebrate a harvest festival to give thanks to God for the bounty of the earth. I have fond childhood memories of our small church being decorated with hay bales, sheaths of wheat and all sorts of produce while we sang hymns and enjoyed a lovely dinner cooked by all the ladies afterwards. Unfortunately I don’t think it happens much anymore but for me that is the sort of thing I much prefer to do.
Oh my, I love the “Good Witch” series! Last season, I was able to catch up by watching all of the movies and the whole first season. I think that it will be back in February, and I am so excited! I am also an absolute softy for all of the Hallmark Christmas to Valentine’s Day shows…I catch them all after the hubby goes to bed! LOL! Have a great week!
[…] I’ve shared a bit on my thoughts about this holiday with you guys the last two TGI Saturdays- #40 and #41. Truth be told, I’ve had Halloween on my thoughts for the last three months, since we […]