Faith, Family and Halloween: Finding a Thoughtful Path Forward

On a fish and chip shop on Mutley Plain is a large seasonal painting of a character called Pinhead. Pinhead is the main villain from an 18 rated, 1980s horror film, called Hellraiser, a dark and cautionary story, where in a nutshell - a man opens a mysterious puzzle box and unwittingly unleashes the Hellraiser realm, drawing his family into a terrifying struggle involving resurrection, obsession and supernatural horror. It isn’t a cheery little tale to warm your hearts at an increasingly dark time of year and I’m struggling to connect the suffering and torture of humans with me getting fish and chips for my family.  

Pinhead serves as a priest-like figure from a hellish dimension, guiding and enforcing the punishment of those who open the mysterious puzzle box. He is portrayed as frightening, cold and indifferent to human suffering.

As I picked up a chippy tea for my family I thought to myself how have we come to this place where we are celebrating a character that has been created to celebrate human suffering. It doesn’t feel spiritual, it doesn’t feel cautionary, it feels commercial, consuming and uncomfortable.  

Dilemma

Every year, Halloween presents many Christian parents like us with a dilemma. We want to help our children follow Jesus and understand the difference between light and darkness. At the same time, we don't want them to feel unnecessarily excluded from their friends, neighbours and communities.

For some families, Halloween is a straightforward evening of dressing up, collecting sweets and enjoying time together. For others, the themes of fear, death, horror and the supernatural raise questions about whether Christians should participate at all. Between those positions lies a more complicated reality that many families are trying to navigate.

Tension Many Christian Parents Feel?

Young children rarely see Halloween through the lens of spiritual symbolism. Our children see it as fun and sweets, maybe the odd witch outfit. They see costumes, treats, friends, excitement and games.

As parents, however, we often notice the wider narrative. What started as an evening of dressing up can increasingly feel dominated by themes of zombies, demons, witchcraft, violence and horror. Walk through most supermarkets in October and you could be forgiven for thinking Halloween's central message is that evil is entertaining. We were recently asked by a staff member in a shop, whether we “we’re ready for Halloween”. Who knows what ‘being ready’ looks like, but we didn’t feel like we were close and felt rather ominous for what is coming that we needed to be prepared for.

This time of year can leave Christian parents feeling caught in two directions. We don't want to celebrate what opposes God's goodness, but neither do we want our children to feel like outsiders every time culture heads in a direction we find uncomfortable.

Has Halloween Become a Celebration of Evil?

Many would argue that Halloween has shifted significantly from its historical roots.

It feels now that for a growing number of people in our society, Halloween is simply another secular festival. The vast majority of participants are not engaging in occult practices or consciously celebrating evil. They are buying costumes, decorating homes and sharing treats with neighbours. It is a supermarket season, where we measure the times of the year by what we are being told to buy in the aisles.

However, it is also true that many of the dominant images associated with Halloween draw heavily on darkness, fear, death, monsters and supernatural powers. What was once largely mischief and fancy dress has, in many places, become increasingly influenced by horror culture.

Have we normalised evil?

In another family shop in Plymouth, a demonic-looking pumpkin bearing the slogan "’Tis the season to be evil" sits alongside Santa climbing out of a chimney. It feels like a curious seasonal mash-up of competing messages: darkness and goodwill, Halloween and Christmas, rebellion and generosity. Yet beneath the apparent contradictions, they seem united by a common message: it's time to buy stuff. We live in confusing times as adults; who knows what it must feel like through the eyes of a child?

It feels that the issue for Christians is not usually the existence of pumpkins or sweets. It is the normalisation and commercialisation of things that Scripture consistently treats seriously. The Bible presents evil as something real, destructive and ultimately defeated through Christ. Should it be something to fear obsessively? Nor does it feel like it is something to celebrate?

Avoiding Two Extremes

The challenge is to avoid two unhelpful extremes. The first is embracing everything without reflection. Every culture carries values, messages and assumptions. As Christians I believe we are called to think carefully about what we participate in rather than simply following the crowd.

The second is withdrawing entirely from society whenever something becomes complicated. Jesus consistently engaged with people rather than retreating from them. Christians are called to be present in their communities, building relationships and demonstrating God's love.

Children often pick up more from our posture than our decisions. If we approach Halloween with fear, anxiety or judgement, they are likely to absorb that. If we approach it thoughtfully, prayerfully and graciously, they learn that following Jesus involves wisdom rather than rules alone.

Helping Children Understand

Rather than simply saying "yes" or "no" to Halloween, there may be value in having age-appropriate conversations.

We can explain that Christians believe God is good, that Jesus is stronger than evil and that darkness never has the final word.

We can help children recognise that some costumes and themes are harmless fun, while others may not reflect the values we want to encourage.

Most importantly, we can reassure them that being a Christian does not mean missing out on joy, creativity, celebration or friendship.

Finding a Faithful Way Forward

Different Christian families will make different decisions.

Some will happily go trick-or-treating while avoiding darker themes. Some will host light parties, community events or harvest celebrations. Some will choose not to participate at all.

I believe that the goal is not uniformity but intentionality.

Instead of asking, "What do Christians do at Halloween?", perhaps the better question is, "How can our family follow Jesus in this moment?"

For many parents, that means finding a way to engage with neighbours, include their children and remain true to their convictions. It means teaching children that Christians are not called to run from culture, nor to accept everything uncritically, but to live as people of light wherever God has placed them.

Choosing Light in a Season of Darkness

As for Pinhead on the chip shop wall, perhaps he unintentionally captures the dilemma many Christian parents feel at Halloween. Here is a character created to embody suffering, fear and darkness, now welcoming people ordering cod and chips on a Tuesday evening. That strange image says something about the confusion of our cultural moment. We take powerful ideas, strip them of their meaning, package them as seasonal entertainment and sell them alongside supper.

Yet perhaps the answer is not outrage or withdrawal, but discernment. Christians need not panic every time culture becomes confused, nor blindly embrace every trend that comes along. We can ask questions, think deeply and help our children do the same.

So as I walked away from the chip shop carrying dinner for my family, I found myself less concerned with Pinhead himself than with the world that put him there. Halloween may continue to present Christian families with difficult questions, but our calling remains the same. In a culture that often blurs the difference between darkness and light, our task is not simply to avoid the darkness, but to point to something better. And perhaps that is a far more compelling story.