Holidays? How do you celebrate/teach?

[Valerie]

I just wanted to start this topic off in our new forum, so we can all gather and easily read the responses left by one another.

We've been discussing the Halloween holiday and how, as Christian parents and teachers, we handle it with our children. Some of us celebrate it, some of us ignore it.....some of us pass out scriptures to the trick-or-treators. How do you deal with the the holiday season?

[Judy]

After all the discussion in the Christianpreschoolprintables group I can't believe there are no responses here. My feelings about Halloween are very different today than they were when I was raising my children (now 38 , 36, 34, 30 and 22). Halloween was a big deal for us then. We spent weeks making costumes and decorating the house. I think our youngest was 14 when we finally recognized the error of our ways. At that point we began attending and working at the annual "Fall Festival", a family night of games for the kids, a talent show and spaghetti dinner. Our current church doesn't sponsor any activities for October 31 so we spend the evening at home. We do give out candy in wrappers printed with "Nothing is sweeter than Jesus". I wanted to do the memory cards this year but can't afford it, so I'll stick with the wrappers until next year.

[Mommy of 3]

Our children dress up as characters - not super heros or TV characters. Things like firemen, etc. We use the time to visit neighbors, especially older couples. It truly is a highlight for those elderly people. Our church also has a Fall Festival that we attend. We also carve a pumpkin and use the time to talk about shapes. Plus carving a pumpkin is perfect for fine motor skills (cleaning the pumpkin out, separating the seeds, etc.)