Halloween & Fall Open Thread!

Halloween is coming! What are your plans? Do you have a costume, or kids to take trick-or-treating, or a party to go to? Or perhaps you’re sitting this one out? What about fall in general? Do you celebrate the harvest, or carve pumpkins? Are you annoyed by how the various fall and winter Holidays are all sliding together these days, or do you find that only contributes to a festive atmosphere? Do you like scary Holidays, or prefer to avoid them? Share and discuss!

If you’re interested in reading some of my own thoughts on the holiday, let me offer you some of my past posts! I grew up in an evangelical home where we didn’t celebrate Halloween. Indeed, Halloween night itself was often presented as frightening and demonic. Taking my kids trick-or-treating each year has been an interesting contrast to how I was raised and what I was taught about the holiday. Here are some of my past posts about experiencing Halloween as an evangelical child:

Witches, Demons, Halloween, and Fear, Oct. 30, 2011

Fear and the Fundamentalist Child, Oct. 31, 2012

Why I Never Went Trick-Or-Treating as a Child, Oct. 29, 2014

And here are some of my more general posts about Halloween:

Let’s Talk about Halloween Candy

Yes I Take My Poor Kids Trick-Or-Treating in Your Rich Neighborhood

The Problem with Gendering Kids’ Halloween Costumes Is Othering, Not Sexualizing