The Duggars, Derick & Halloween

[LongDogMom]

Does anyone know if Derick celebrated Halloween growing up? It seems like he has led a more normal sort of life compared to the Duggars, having more of the normal growing up experiences which makes me wonder about how he and Jill will raise their baby.

 

It's normal for people to want to share happy childhood experiences they had with their own kids and if Derick enjoyed trick-or-treating, for instance, I can see him wanting to share that with his child. But I know the Duggars are totally against Halloween and at least according to this article: http://www.celebitchy.com/389095/jim-bo ... ern_music/

 

they believe that "magic and witches are “part of a demonic realm God wants us to stay away from.†No hocus pocus here!" So no Harry Potter either I assume.

 

I just wonder how many of these types of differences might arise when they start raising a child together. Jill has been brought up in such extremely narrow life experiences with so much intolerance and so heavy on the rules, whereas Derick...while he might be very religious, clearly experienced going to a secular university (although he was a member of the Baptist Church group on campus), being Pistol Pete (not something I can see the Duggars allowing any of their kids to do in a zillion years), and I'm sure he has secular friends. He works at Walmart. I just get the feeling that his upbringing was more what we would consider normal. He played sports and was on sports teams and not everything in his life revolved around or had to be immersed in Jesus and the Bible.

 

I wonder if they have a daughter...all the crazy wardrobe stuff, the ridiculous swimsuits and so on. I can't help but wonder how Derick will feel about that when it's HIS little girl being forced into such restrictions, not to mention his Mom...she strikes me as someone who will not be happy to see such rules forced on to her grandchild. It's possible to be very devout in your Faith without being hobbled by all these ridiculous rules. Clearly Derick's Mom trusts her son to be the good person she raised. She doesn't feel she has to keep controlling every aspect of his life as an adult, or enforce stupid rules to ensure he stays Godly.

[acat7]

I would not be suprised if he did not. Not celebrating Halloween is not a Gothard thing. I'm from the South, and had many fundie-lite, mega-church baptists at my school that wore pants, dated, went to college, etc. and none of them celebrated Halloween. Actually, I believe the mega-church hpsted a big "fall festival" that night to deter it.

[HereticHick]

I agree with acat7. Some of my small-town Baptist classmates didn't celebrate Halloween either. Sometimes the churches had fall festivals. Sometimes the kids dresses as Bible characters. But overall, most of the kids in my Appalachian small town did celebrate Halloween.

However, if you look at Derick's Instagram, he posted a throwback photo back in June of him and his late father, posing with a jack-o-lantern. Looks like it was taken in a school classroom.

[jerkit]

Agreed with previous posters. I have a very mainstream SBC family member who does not believe in celebrating Halloween. They have the "trunk or treat" events.

[mastercleaner]

Derick posted on his IG a while back a tbt photo of him and his dad when he was id say 7ish.. and they were posing with a carved halloween pumpkin. So, yes I think that Derick did celebrate halloween.... No idea how that will play over now that hes basically a duggar.

I'm hoping he can show that you can still love god, and still celebrate a fun holiday without it being about hell and damnation!

[PennySycamore]

You all don't know how much a loathe and despise those "trunk or treat" things! Just who do they think they're fooling? My husband was not comfortable with the kids dressing up as anything scary or evil, but at least they didn't have to be Bible characters. One of my daughters dressed up in a cello costume he made once. I do hope that Derick can prevail with Jill about celebrating Halloween. It's my favorite holiday and it's such fun!

[Mama Mia]

Even in my super liberal town you have a fair number of otherwise mainstream people who go to the mega-church harvest festivals - either instead of or, often, in addition to regular Halloween activities. I think they've made them a viable enough alternative - with candy, games, crafts etc.. that you could convince most kids they aren't missing too much. And I imagine in an area where not celebrating Halloween was more common- it would be even easier.

You also have all the parents who fear everything or don't believe in Candy -- so trick or treating isn't as universal as it used to be. Plus parents who fear anything scary. Or worries about masks suffocating kids or the billion other things folks hate on now . And schools don't do as many celebrations and parties and crafts in general -- so I would think not celebrating Halloween might not be as big a cultural deal now as it was even ten years ago.

[RosyDaisy]

Trick-or-treating isn't as popular as it once was. There are now Halloween parties. My church is having one, and the kids get to dress up.

ETA: Our party isn't a trunk or treat. It's just good clean fun for kids. Any costume allowed from the devil to fairy princess.

[Coco]

You all don't know how much a loathe and despise those "trunk or treat" things! Just who do they think they're fooling? My husband was not comfortable with the kids dressing up as anything scary or evil, but at least they didn't have to be Bible characters. One of my daughters dressed up in a cello costume he made once. I do hope that Derick can prevail with Jill about celebrating Halloween. It's my favorite holiday and it's such fun!

me too! (well, after christmas lol) I LOVE making costumes for my kids. The first year, i made my dd cheerio costume using her boppy as a hat pattern (smaller, of course) :D i'm such a dorky mom. Gotta make up for those years of being fundie and spending halloween terrified and praying. :roll: so dumb. lol

but back to trunk or treat, my family goes to a mega church now that they're not fundie, and my youngest sisters were part of a diorama for the community they had last year. Usually they just do the trunk or treat and pony rides, but whoever planned the diorama had haunted house fantasies or something because it was really scary. (no idea why that made it past the board, but whatever) My sisters were supposed to be scary mannequins. And they had a guy in a tree with a power tool iirc. and some other disturbing things. No idea what the point was, except to raise community awareness of the church. I don't think they let little kids go through it (Hope not anyway) :? i don't think a lot of the older people in the church appreciated it much.

[browncoatslytherin]

Agreed with previous posters. I have a very mainstream SBC family member who does not believe in celebrating Halloween. They have the "trunk or treat" events.

the non-denominational and fairly liberal church i went to for a while also did a "trunk or treat" event. halloween wasn't cast as some satanic holiday or in any real negative light like i've seen other churches do, it was seen more as a chance to get together as a christian family and celebrate something, dress up in funny costumes, and eat lots of candy and cookies and other baked goods.

i really missed out on halloween growing up. i only ever participated in trick or treating once, i think, maybe twice, but i'm surprised my parents let me. even after letting me previous years, the next they let the banhammer fall and wouldn't let me, for no other explanation other than "we just don't think it's a good idea." :/

of course, now, halloween means something wholly different and wonderful to me. :) and when i have kids, you bet i'll let them trick or treat! hell, i already see cute kids costumes and mentally file them away as possibilities in the future. i really want my future kids to have a lot of fun growing up and not be as restrained as i was forced to. for a long period of time, even just hearing "witches" would automatically make me think "bad". it's those little conditioning things that has taken me a long time to get over and it makes me to never want to do that kind of thing to my own children.

[browncoatslytherin]

Derick posted on his IG a while back a tbt photo of him and his dad when he was id say 7ish.. and they were posing with a carved halloween pumpkin. So, yes I think that Derick did celebrate halloween.... No idea how that will play over now that hes basically a duggar.

I'm hoping he can show that you can still love god, and still celebrate a fun holiday without it being about hell and damnation!

to be fair, even in the depths of fundy-ism (even while we went to ati conferences and used wisdom booklets) we still carved pumpkins every year. it was seen as just a fun family activity to do. i loved going to burt's pumpkin farm every year and looking over pumpkins and going on the hay rides there.

[Mabel]

to be fair, even in the depths of fundy-ism (even while we went to ati conferences and used wisdom booklets) we still carved pumpkins every year. it was seen as just a fun family activity to do. i loved going to burt's pumpkin farm every year and looking over pumpkins and going on the hay rides there.

Omg I LOVE going to Burts pumpkin patch! I love the fall so much, and it's always a highlight going there with my family. I hope jill and derricks kid gets to experience some kind of Halloween even if it is just a trunk or treat type deal.

[homeschoolmomma1]

Funny,

They just talked about Halloween

http://www.christianpost.com/news/dugga ... lm-127023/

[BrownieMomma]

I would imagine Halloween would be an easy compromise for Derick and Jill. As many have stated, trick or treating is also on the wane in my part of the world, my kids did some (now 16 and 14) but there are plenty of alternate activities and frankly, many porch lights would not be on.

[Toothfairy]

I hate halloween. Never had a costume nor did I ever buy my kids costumes. I did buy a 5lb bag of candy to share and give out

[Toothfairy]

Funny,

They just talked about Halloween

http://www.christianpost.com/news/dugga ... lm-127023/

Can these kids nit have imaginations. Magic is fun

[anti-antichoice]

There was an episode awhile back where they talked about Halloween. Jill and Michelle said that they definitely don't celebrate it, but then a bunch of the howlers raided the cupboards for bags full of candy that was packaged for Halloween. So technically they don't celebrate it but they seem to get in the spirit of it.

[Rescinded and Mended]

Halloween is all but disappearing in my Southern town. In between the fundie-lite neighbors handing out Bible verses to the trick-or-treaters and the trunk-or-treat fall festivals, we see fewer and fewer kids in costume every year.

I feel bad for my husband because he likes to decorate the front door and lawn like a haunted house and play creepy music when he opens the door. He loves to see the looks on the little kids' faces when he opens the door to hand out (big!) bags of candy.

Boy R and M sort of lost interest in trick-or-treating after he had to have chemo on Halloween a couple of years back.

[acat7]

you would think with these griftin' fundies Halloween would be their favorite holiday! You just waltz up with your open bags-- no schtik needed! And, they DO get more with more kids! Perfect :cracking-up: :stir-pot:

[HereticHick]

I think the tradition of trick or treating is fading because the damn helicopter parents of today are so afraid of everything. More and more kids in my very liberal community trick or treat at the local shopping Mall, or go to school, community center or church or synagogue parties.

[Feberin]

I would assume they'll compromise. Perhaps they'll carve pumpkins or find some excuse for their children to dress up but not actually celebrate Halloween. Also I don't see trunk or treat as an alternative just an extra event. A church near me does one and they're pretty liberal I think considering they do gay marriages.

My kids have gone Trick or Treating every year but we have to leave our neighborhood because almost nobody does it in our neighborhood. Luckily where my in-laws live pretty much every house participates.

On the bathing suits I doubt Derrick will have an issue. I'm pretty sure he agrees with Jill on women dressing modestly otherwise that would have been a deal breaker while they were in the discussion phase. I've also seen some surprisingly cute bathing suits for little girls that include a skirt and rash guard top. Lots of people are looking for bathing suits that provide better coverage due to wanting sun protection.

One thing I could see him struggling with is Santa Claus. He might have a lot of fond memories of Christmas morning and visiting Santa and just the whole idea of the jolly old man.

[Cheetah]

I think the tradition of trick or treating is fading because the damn helicopter parents of today are so afraid of everything. More and more kids in my very liberal community trick or treat at the local shopping Mall, or go to school, community center or church or synagogue parties.

I live in a very liberal part of the country and trick-or-treating has changed here, too. The town I used to be in had a city-wide 'safe streets' area.. a neighborhood that was blocked off from traffic for trick-or-treating. The residents there were given (lame) candy to hand out. I never took my kids... we'd just go to the neighbors, and I felt like that was more fun and more in the spirit of traditional Halloween (plus, better candy :-)). We moved a few years ago to the next suburb over. Here there's nothing official, but several neighborhoods put on a really amazing display of Halloween decorations, and everyone heads to one of those. So you have your choice of chaos and crowds... fun but crazy.... or really dead parts of town where only one of every 3 or 4 or 6 homes has their porch light on. We live on a street that's about 4 blocks from one of the really good spots and a lot of people come past our house on the way. We usually get over 100 trick-or-treaters, and I only recognize about 5 of them.

[CorruptionInc.]

Here in Australia, Halloween never used to be a thing. It was always seen as more an "American Celebration".

However in the last 5 - 10 years, it's become big ISH and parties and trick or treating is now quite common. My friends and I have parties, we're nearly 30 - people dress up, we eat, drink and be merry. I don't see how the Duggars think stuff like that means we're all going to hell...

[BrownieMomma]

Here in Australia, Halloween never used to be a thing. It was always seen as more an "American Celebration".

However in the last 5 - 10 years, it's become big ISH and parties and trick or treating is now quite common. My friends and I have parties, we're nearly 30 - people dress up, we eat, drink and be merry. I don't see how the Duggars think stuff like that means we're all going to hell...

Because it's HEDONISM.

Sure wish I could remember who this was but some popular preacher back at the turn of the century who was against using spice in food because it excited the senses. Christians should never have excited senses.

idc. I am not giving up chili power for Jesus.

[Ivycoveredtower]

Because it's HEDONISM.

Sure wish I could remember who this was but some popular preacher back at the turn of the century who was against using spice in food because it excited the senses. Christians should never have excited senses.

idc. I am not giving up chili power for Jesus.

Was it the guy who made the graham Cracker. He was an Evangelic Minister Sylvester Graham who made Graham Crackers to curb sexual urges.