I’m a Christian.

And I celebrate Halloween.

I know there are many of us ‘out there’, but I also know there are several people who sit strongly on both sides of the fence. This is not a debate about who is right and who is wrong. I can easily see both sides. But for those of us who sit in the middle, this is simply a fun post about ‘how’ and ‘why’ we do it, and the benefits and blessings our family has received from our not-so-spooky celebration of Halloween.

Let me start out by saying that I never anticipated that our little family would dress in a theme for Halloween. It wasn’t part of my own family tradition (or my husband’s) so I hadn’t really even given it a thought, until we had two kids. It was at that time that I decided to dress them alike and ‘in fun’ I found a few extra props for us (Andy was literally wearing a kids costume that we had to cut down the back to get it to fit over his chest).

The following year, I let down my buns and used that same wig as part of my Queen costume. I found Adler’s dragon costume at a yard sale for $2 and our crowns were free from Burger King. The goal was simple: enjoy our little family and spend the least amount of money possible.

Realistically, I thought “how long will they let us do this?” but what I found was that my kids really loved it (and my husband was a great sport as well). Every year we discussed our choices as a family and as long as they had a weapon of some sort, they were in!

It was during this time, maybe around 2010 or so, that I really started digging deeper into my faith journey. And while I had a strong conviction about making Christmas more about Jesus and less about Santa, I never felt (and still haven’t) a conviction regarding Halloween. Now, that goes without saying, that we don’t conjure up spirits or dress in bloody costumes, nor have we ever even touched on ‘spooky’. This holiday is not about us “worshiping” anything; it is simply a time to be together and play pretend. Now, on a side note: I am not one to watch horror movies or go to Haunted Houses, but that’s really just about preference, not conviction.

Halloween really got interesting after Abram was born, and honestly, some of my favorite costumes came as a family of five. The year of his birth (2013) we dressed as Native Americans. I really loved those costumes, especially with my little baby papoose, and it felt appropriate since our boy’s school mascot is an Indian. However, I am choosing not to post the picture as I was recently informed (on Insta) that people dressing in Indian/Native American costumes is offensive to the Native American culture. I was honestly naive and unaware, but when you know better, you do better. So even though our intent was not to be cruel, I will respect that opinion.

Every single year, I expect that one of my boys will drop out and no longer want to participate, but they keep saying ‘yes’ and it makes my momma heart joyful. Do I feel like I am cramping their style by dressing as a family and not allowing them to ‘be anything they want?’. Nope. Not at all.

Will I force Halloween, if it becomes not so fun? Nope. Of course not.

Will we continue to do it, if any of us feel like God is asking us to stop? No, we won’t.

Realistically, we have two more years left to dress as a family of five. Once Ashton goes to college, we will be down to four, and who knows what will happen.

But until then, we will keep on keeping on, and enjoying every single moment of dressing up in family costumes and keeping this Halloween tradition.