A Matter of Many Opinions... What to do about Halloween??

Fall Holiday 2001

Volume 3 Issue 9

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A Matter of Many Opinions... What to do about Halloween??
by Janie Gausmann

“I have done a Hallelujah party at my church for the past 2 years on Halloween night and I am doing it again this year. The way I look at it is I refuse to give up any day of the year to the enemy. It is as much my day as his day. Last year I had a Bible verse theme. II Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and of a sound mind." Throughout the evening we have fun childrens worship music playing and at one of the booths the children learn the bible verse to get their prize. It worked great. About every 30 min. I would stop the music and have 3-5 of the kids come up and quote the verse to everyone. My goal is to make this an outreach to the surrounding community. We are putting the Word of God in their spirits while showing them the love and acceptence of Jesus. This can be one event that can be an incredible outreach and actually defeat Satan's plan to "kill, steal, and destroy". I encourage everyone reading this to not let Satan take any day from you not even a day that he has called his day. "This is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be gald in it." Psalm 118:24. Living in VICTORY
A friend of ChildrensMinistry.net


“As Director of Program Ministries at my church, I am responsible for the "Fall Festival." Personally, I don't like these because it is still a Halloween Festival -- a rose by any other name is still a rose -- and I don't believe this is an observance the church should celebrate. However, I am out voted. We have tried asking parents to dress their children in Biblical costumes or simply to avoid the ghoulish attire, but we get little or no support or cooperation. The children wear what they want and the parents aren't going to fight that battle. I am looking for some fresh ideas to make this a true Fall Festival. I have tried changing the date away from Halloween (like to Nov. 7), nixing the costume idea altogether, and making it more of a community fair; all this to no avail -- they still want it on Halloween!!”


	Here are some ideas for your festival (if you are having one). If you need more ideas, check out the Forums on ChildrensMinistry.net...Have Fun!


	We had a "carnival-style" concessioned festival with games and stations where parents and children could roam and pick their own activities. It lasted for about two hours and we had hayrides and refreshments. The admission was one large bag of wrapped candy per family. They really enjoyed it!

	“We have a Hallelujah Party at our church, as for the costume part We have a Biblical Costume contest for several age groups as well as adults. Our largest prizes are saved for this. Our Comunity has really been behind this idea and donations are good from businesses as well as church members.”

	We did a missions fair this year. In our fellowship hall, we set up five tables and decorated them to look like different countries (England, Mexico, Greece, Italy, and Japan). The adult volunteers dressed the part, too. It was a BIG hit! We had a steady stream of kids and several parents complimented us on a Christian alternative to the traditional fall festival.

	“We are having our fall festival at church before Halloween On the 24th. We are going to do apple dunking, and paint pumkins, and bean bag toss game for little ones, and I have a homemade fishing game we did with the preschoolers for VBS. They loved it! Also I am going to the library to get books on games. We are not wearing costumes and it is not a halloween theme.”

		Click on the links below for more ideas: 100 Ideas for a Fall Family Festival The Game Exchange Danielle’s Place