Parents upset after CT schools cancel Halloween

[formergothardite]

Oh WORD. If my kids get one more invite to a "Trunk or Treat" sponsored by XYZ Church of the Holy Winds of God's Arse, I'll scream.

One church is doing Trunk or Treat and then are showing Fireproof. I have not seen the movie but isn't it about a guy whose marriage is failing because of his porn addiction? Not exactly something I would show my children, even if I was a Christian. But on the other hand anything Kirk Cameron touches sends chills up my spine.

The Christmas/Winter crafts and celebrations are usually reserved for the last days before the winter break when nothing is getting done anyway.

[jerkit]

It's not like they actually cancelled Halloween including trick or treating. They changed out costumes and a jacks olantern for leaves and a gourd.

[jerkit]

One church is doing Trunk or Treat and then are showing Fireproof. I have not seen the movie but isn't it about a guy whose marriage is failing because of his porn addiction? Not exactly something I would show my children, even if I was a Christian. But on the other hand anything Kirk Cameron touches sends chills up my spine.

The Christmas/Winter crafts and celebrations are usually reserved for the last days before the winter break when nothing is getting done anyway.

Oh god that movie is SO inappropriate for children.

[ILoveJellybeans]

One church is doing Trunk or Treat and then are showing Fireproof. I have not seen the movie but isn't it about a guy whose marriage is failing because of his porn addiction? Not exactly something I would show my children, even if I was a Christian. But on the other hand anything Kirk Cameron touches sends chills up my spine.

The Christmas/Winter crafts and celebrations are usually reserved for the last days before the winter break when nothing is getting done anyway.

That is not a child appropriate movie! Just because it is Christian, doesn't mean that it is child friendly! Fundies talk about protecting their kids innocence, but then expose them to sexual messages from every direction! Sex, sex, marriage is about sex, sex, porn, sex is evil so don't do it, daddy owns your virginity, sex, mommy and daddy like to hump on golf courses, watch us! You cant have sex yet, but we can. Sex, more sex, if you see a knee you will become a rapist, sex, don't wear that skirt or you will make boys lust after you, sex, heres some gory dead fetus pictures just to make you even more traumatized, sex, sluts, sex....

Although then again, they read their kids the Bible, which has more sex and violence than any movie on our TV screens.

[crawfishgirl]

My youngest daughter's elementary school hasn't allowed costumes in the past, but due to a new principal, this year they are allowing costumes if the character is from a book. The kids have to bring the book, or make a poster about the character. My dd is dressing up like a Greek goddess, so I'm going to let her take a mythology book to school. (She was telling her friends that she was going to be a goddess, and one of them asked her if she actually believed in it. The friend comes from a hardcore baptist family - the mother has talked about demon possession in the past - not her own, fortunately... I was surprised that she would get a question like that. My daughter responded that no, she didn't - she just enjoys mythology. It's a shame when even ancient mythology is considered suspect by some people.)

My 12yo daughter is dressing up like a vampire. Her school doesn't have costume parades. I doubt that the schools want vampires, but since she is reading the Twilight series at the moment, that would have been a valid book for her to prove her character ;)

[BrownieMomma]

My youngest daughter's elementary school hasn't allowed costumes in the past, but due to a new principal, this year they are allowing costumes if the character is from a book. The kids have to bring the book, or make a poster about the character. My dd is dressing up like a Greek goddess, so I'm going to let her take a mythology book to school. (She was telling her friends that she was going to be a goddess, and one of them asked her if she actually believed in it. The friend comes from a hardcore baptist family - the mother has talked about demon possession in the past - not her own, fortunately... I was surprised that she would get a question like that. My daughter responded that no, she didn't - she just enjoys mythology. It's a shame when even ancient mythology is considered suspect by some people.)

My 12yo daughter is dressing up like a vampire. Her school doesn't have costume parades. I doubt that the schools want vampires, but since she is reading the Twilight series at the moment, that would have been a valid book for her to prove her character ;)

If she is dressing like a Twilight vampire, then she is just dressing like a high school student. Just sparkly.

[keen23]

If she is dressing like a Twilight vampire, then she is just dressing like a high school student. Just sparkly.

My oldest is being Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson books. Except my husband told her that he wouldn't buy her a Yankee's hat to finish her costume (he's a die hard Red Sox fan). They compromised on a Cubs hat.

[snuggles911]

Our elementary school is the only one in our county that does not have a Halloween parade. It also doesn't let kids dress up for the holiday.

It's been this way for about 20 years, ever since some Jehovah Witness parents complained b/c their kids weren't allowed to celebrate.

I don't think my kids feel too left out of the festivities as I take them trick-or-treating and our church has a large community outreach Trunk or Treat event. But, it sucks that a few religious individuals can prevent EVERY kids from enjoying the simple, largely secularized celebrations that have been going on for generations.

My office is across the street from an elementary school in a neighboring town. The parade goes by us and we look forward to it every year and stand out in the parking lot with candy for the kids as do other local business owners.

The kids at this particular school also have a huge pumpkin carving contest. In mid October they carry their pumpkins to the town hall steps where they remain on display through Halloween. It inspires a lot of creativity. This year they created everything from kid-eating pumpkins to pumpkin totem poles.

Other schools have "holiday" concerts with traditional songs about snowmen and Santa, but ours waits until January to have a "Winter Concert." Other than an occasional nod to the Winter Solstice, none of the songs recognize any of the holidays.

This is again in deference to the Jehovah Witness crowd as pretty much all of the non-Christian families have Christmas trees and exchange gifts.

[Snarkle]

Our entire school district decided to use Halloween as a fundraising opportunity district-wide which benefits the school fund that gives grant money to teachers for enrichment items (equipment, field trips, guest speakers, etc.). Students raise funds with pledge sheets for a walk where they can wear costumes - every school participates, from K-12 - and half of the money raised stays at the particular school for grants for that school, and half goes to the general fund for grants district-wide. Schools compete to see which can raise the most funds, but students are NOT required to wear a costume OR raise money. Now I live in an overwhelmingly Catholic community where if you complain about Christmas people get nasty, but this way of handling Halloween lets kids who want to dress up at school (I don't think they get a party, too) can, and those who don't, don't have to. It also gives the schools a reason to relax on a holiday where the kids would otherwise be restless and since it's benefiting the schools and therefore the kids, no one objects. Where I'm from in the Midwest we always had trick-or-treating the Sunday afternoon closest to Halloween (or some communities did Saturday, because Jesus) in broad daylight and Halloween evening is reserved for parties, but where I live now in the Northeast trick or treating is on Halloween itself, in the dark just before daylight savings time switches, so it makes sense for the teachers to give up on trying to accomplish anything on Halloween and just do a walk.

[manda b]

We hold our Trunk or Treat the Wendsday before Halloween. When my daughter went to school (she's nine) they had "fall celebration".

[PennySycamore]

:lol: yes. Have you seen the meme on facebook - the Elsa drinking game?

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My dd wants to be Elsa (almost 5) and i was going to make my ds Olaf (almost 2), had elaborate plans that dental problems and major toothache shot down. So it's going to be half-ass day. lol

A blue dress, a white long sleeve tee and a wig thing out of a sheet, and the rest of the sheet for Olaf tied on with yarn and drawn with some sharpie, the noseless variety of Olaf too probably or who knows maybe a real effing carrot. This winter i'll finish the complicated ones for them, maybe. :D

I went downtown on Saturday morning for the final farmer's market of the year. The stands all had Trick-or-Treat candy for the kids and many of them were wearing costumes. We saw a boy in a Batman costume with his toddler sister dressed as the Riddler. (She was adorable!) and a toddler girl dressed as a Cabbage Patch Kid, complete with her stroller decorated like the box. We also saw a little girl astronaut with her brother dressed like a rocket ship and one baby in arms with a hot dog costume like my dachshund has. Cute costumes every one. What we did NOT see is one single Elsa! We'll probably see plenty of Elsas on Halloween, including my granddaughter, but not last Saturday.

[Boogalou]

Yeah, I just feel they keep taking away a lot of the fun for kids anymore. And I believe they stopped them here too, the parties, but not certain on that. There is some talk about Halloween in general phasing out. As in, the holiday itself, not just school parties. There is always some excuse to move the day of trick-or-treat. Only allowed three days a week, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays now, but even Thursdays are iffy because of football and Mondays also have football, so they are iffy too. No excuses for not trick-or-treating on Tuesdays...yet. Can't do it Wednesdays or Sundays cause church and Friday nights are high school football and Saturdays may have drunk people and school dances. Because there are lots of drunk people out between 6-8pm, which are the designated trick-or-treat hours here. All the scares of poisoned and razors/needles in candy are also to blame.

This is really weird to me that towns "schedule" Halloween. Everywhere I hear about in Ontario just lets Halloween happen organically on the actual date of Halloween. There are no official hours or anything people just use their common sense and trick or treating probably peaks around 6-8 but there are definitely people out an hour or so on either side. Maybe because football and evening church services are just not common here.

However there do exist actual winter songs which sing only about the weather. It's cold, let's snuggle up. It's cold, let's go on a date.

Certainly they have been pretty firmly co-opted as "Xmas songs" for a while, which annoys me. If it's a snowy day in January, I want to hear the snow songs without people thinking "what, it's too late for Xmas music."

100% agreed about all the Santa songs and whatnot, though. If you don't do Xmas, those songs are pointless.

I agree. Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells are two secular winter songs traditionally associated with Christmas.

[Rebelwife]

I agree. The only real rule around here, and it's unwritten, is that if your porch light is on you are open for trick or treaters and if it's off you're not.

[RachelB]

My youngest daughter's elementary school hasn't allowed costumes in the past, but due to a new principal, this year they are allowing costumes if the character is from a book. The kids have to bring the book, or make a poster about the character. My dd is dressing up like a Greek goddess, so I'm going to let her take a mythology book to school. (She was telling her friends that she was going to be a goddess, and one of them asked her if she actually believed in it. The friend comes from a hardcore baptist family - the mother has talked about demon possession in the past - not her own, fortunately... I was surprised that she would get a question like that. My daughter responded that no, she didn't - she just enjoys mythology. It's a shame when even ancient mythology is considered suspect by some people.)

My 12yo daughter is dressing up like a vampire. Her school doesn't have costume parades. I doubt that the schools want vampires, but since she is reading the Twilight series at the moment, that would have been a valid book for her to prove her character ;)

I very much like that approach.

When I'm teaching, and class coincides with Halloween, I try to dress up as a character from (or writer of) a text that we're reading during the semester. I'd be over the moon if a student were to show up a costume inspired by the books they most enjoy, because I *love* it when people get invested in what they're reading.

[shedemei]

This is really weird to me that towns "schedule" Halloween. Everywhere I hear about in Ontario just lets Halloween happen organically on the actual date of Halloween. There are no official hours or anything people just use their common sense and trick or treating probably peaks around 6-8 but there are definitely people out an hour or so on either side. Maybe because football and evening church services are just not common here.

I agree. Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells are two secular winter songs traditionally associated with Christmas.

Yes. But let's not pretend that schools don't try to pass off religious songs as "secular." I grew up in an area with a huge Jewish population with at least half the students in public schools being Jewish. It really gave me a perspective on this.

[dairyfreelife]

I agree. The only real rule around here, and it's unwritten, is that if your porch light is on you are open for trick or treaters and if it's off you're not.

I think it is a bit odd as well, but it's always been that way here. At least was when I was a child. I think football is a dumb excuse and so is church. You have church in the mornings and for crying out loud, you can can schedule a day off from church and work the sports schedule around the holiday. It's the same damn day each year, so it's not as if they don't have a friggin' clue about when the holiday is. :roll: Some people want it gone. Spoil sports. :disgust:

[Katie_Bug]

Yes. But let's not pretend that schools don't try to pass off religious songs as "secular." I grew up in an area with a huge Jewish population with at least half the students in public schools being Jewish. It really gave me a perspective on this.

What songs do they try to pass off as secular? There are imo 3 types of christmas songs: religious ones that mention Jesus, God etc (away in the manger, silent night…); secular ones that mention Santa or decorating or even shopping etc (deck the halls, must be santa, grandma got run over…); and winter songs that have been grouped into Christmas songs (jngle bells, let it snow, sleigh ride)

If they were really trying to pass off religious songs like away in the manger, silent night, little drummer boy etc, that’s wrong. But I don’t see the problem with songs like Jingle Bells, Rudolph, or Must be Santa.

[shedemei]

The secular songs you mention. They're still religious. They're about a Christian religious holiday, and taking out god and Jesus doesn't change that.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

The secular songs you mention. They're still religious. They're about a Christian religious holiday, and taking out god and Jesus doesn't change that.

Rudolph, sure.

But "Let it Snow" has nothing at all to do with Xmas. It's a song about snow and snuggling up inside because it's cold, and it's perfectly suitable for January.

[shedemei]

Rudolph, sure.

But "Let it Snow" has nothing at all to do with Xmas. It's a song about snow and snuggling up inside because it's cold, and it's perfectly suitable for January.

This I agree with. I was specifically referring to the second set of songs.

I like winter songs. I wish I knew more obscure ones that aren't totally overplayed. I get sick of them real fast.

Out of curiosity, are there similar summer songs for cultures south of the equator?

[Coco]

This I agree with. I was specifically referring to the second set of songs.

I like winter songs. I wish I knew more obscure ones that aren't totally overplayed. I get sick of them real fast.

Out of curiosity, are there similar summer songs for cultures south of the equator?

feliz navidad!! :lol: (not secular and not summer of course but anyone in the south is going to hear that one a million times). Fiesta, fiesta! It's a thing in my family to call each other every time one of us hears it playing.

[Coco]

I went downtown on Saturday morning for the final farmer's market of the year. The stands all had Trick-or-Treat candy for the kids and many of them were wearing costumes. We saw a boy in a Batman costume with his toddler sister dressed as the Riddler. (She was adorable!) and a toddler girl dressed as a Cabbage Patch Kid, complete with her stroller decorated like the box. We also saw a little girl astronaut with her brother dressed like a rocket ship and one baby in arms with a hot dog costume like my dachshund has. Cute costumes every one. What we did NOT see is one single Elsa! We'll probably see plenty of Elsas on Halloween, including my granddaughter, but not last Saturday.

So no drinking game? :D

Sibling or friend costumes are so fun. That's one reason why what my dd wanted was such a bummer. i wanted to do Curious George and a Banana.

[lilah]

My school doesn't do Halloween (lots of Muslim students) but we do have a 'dress up like a fictional character" on Halloween so you can still wear a costume to school if you want.

[Jana814]

My school doesn't do Halloween (lots of Muslim students) but we do have a 'dress up like a fictional character" on Halloween so you can still wear a costume to school if you want.

That's a great alturnitive!

[Jana814]

My mother is a pre-school teacher at our temple. That kids r not allowed to come to school in their customs. Their has never been an issue even w/ some of the kids who have older siblings (who get to wear their customs to school).