How Christian families can navigate Halloween
29-10-2025
Christian Life
Elina Placentino
A man walks past a grave with Halloween decorations at a cemetery in Pamplona, Spain. Photo EPA, Inake Porto
Christian Life
For many, October is the month of scariness, ghosts and darkness. Halloween is presented as a festivity, but for Christian parents, it is a challenge they have to navigate their children through. This is how.
It was around Halloween, and we had (unwisely) decided to take our girls to a local Belgian zoo with their grandparents. I suppose it was no surprise that we found Halloween decorations around us, but still, they created a disagreeable atmosphere.
In fact, I felt uneasy throughout the whole visit. The reason was not the little boy with a horrendous mask that kept appearing and disappearing in the crowd. It was the little girl whose hand I was holding.
Nightmare
Our daughter happened to be a very sensitive child. And based on what I had already experienced in her five years, I knew the impact such a sight could have on her. It would have been like seeing a nightmare come true. But what could I do? The situation was awkward, to say the least.
Fast forward several years, and our children were attending a state school in a Finnish village. Although the school had excellent qualities in many ways, it gradually began to welcome more and more pagan activities. One way that paganism reared its ugly head was the “terror corridor” that was created around Halloween. This passage was set up by older school children, with the permission of school staff. Although some might protest that paintings of ghosts are harmless fun, our children no longer felt safe at school.
We decided to use our freedom of conscience to protect our children, and so we informed the school principal that our girls would not be attending school until this period was over. Were we being over-protective? Or simply letting our light shine?
Sanity
I suppose how we deal with Halloween depends on the individual. Some children are ready to face certain situations, whereas others are not. One size does not fit all! Nonetheless, below are some ideas of how Christian families can navigate this season in a sane way.
First of all, we can pray for our children. They need God’s protection when the darkness increases around them. Jesus modelled this when He prayed: “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15).
Secondly, we would do well to remind our children of who God is. He is life! Jesus defeated death. We don’t need to have any fear of the dark, of death or ghosts, because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).
Children can know that they are safe in God and that “no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
Thirdly, we should remind our children of who they are in God. Children can know that they are safe in God and that “no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:29). They are God’s beloved children, they are royalty, they are more than overcomers in every situation!
Celebration
A fourth step to take is to protect them from unnecessary distress, such as Halloween sleepovers, scary films, Halloween events at school, etc.
And lastly, we can create another celebration for little ones, such as a light party, where we focus on how light overcomes darkness and life overcomes death. Alternatively, we can focus our children’s attention on another celebration, such as Reformation Day.
The 31st of October is actually an ideal moment to look back at how Christian heroes brought about change in the church — and consequently in the whole world! A podcast we often return to in our family is “Luther: In Real Time” from Ligonier Ministries.
However we navigate this season, let’s bear in mind that in the season of Halloween, we have the perfect opportunity to lift Jesus up as the Light of the world! As Paul points out: “What do right and wrong have in common? Can light and darkness be friends?” (2 Cor. 6:14)
We know they cannot.
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