No, Really! It's Not All About the Candy...

Trick or Treat? I mentioned in my last post that Halloween has grown significantly in popularity as a holiday. As this article states, many adults in America celebrate Halloween (almost 66 percent), and Americans spend nearly $7 billion—$2 billion of that on candy alone—for this one night of Trick or Treating. So what's the draw? Surely it's not just to blow a hundred or have your kids stock up on candy for the next year and a half.

So here are some other benefits of going Trick or Treating, besides the obvious, sugar overdose.

• It's fun! Outside of Hollywood, when else can you dress up like someone or something totally different from your norm? You get to knock on random people's doors and are given free candy for it! Halloween is a great excuse to be just a little bit crazy and have some good clean fun.

• It's a perfect time for bonding with family and friends. First you and your kids can work on costumes together. Creating a homemade costume gives your children a greater appreciation for the costumes they are wearing. It also teaches your children how to work together, save money, become more creative and imaginative (like this dad). I asked several of my friends, who went Trick or Treating when they were younger, what their favorite was about it, and the most common answer surprised me. Candy wasn't actually the main draw, but instead, having fun with their siblings, parents, and friends! (I plan to give some of their individual responses in my next post.)

This idea has to be one of my favorites!

• It can be a great witnessing opportunity. Think about it. When else do hundreds of people flock to your doors instead of you having to go to theirs? As a Christian, I found this blog post thought provoking as well. What testimony do Christians have when they shut off the lights and "bar the doors" so to speak. Halloween can be a great opportunity to share the gospel. In fact, many churches have tracts specifically for Trick or Treat-ers. Just hand them out with the candy. It's that simple.

So those are some benefits, but parents also typically have some concerns about Halloween, though I'm not going to try to address them in detail. The links in the next paragraph discuss them if you care to read about that because as evidenced by newspaper headlines of daily crime and tragedy, we live in a fallen, sinful world. 

Naturally, parents will tend to worry or at least be cautious of the potential dangers of letting their kids go door-to-door at random strangers' houses. This Smithsonian article, written by a lawyer and father, may help to alleviate some of the justified concerns of parents. Apparently, a sociologist from University of Delaware researched for nearly 30 years and never found an example of a child's candy being poisoned on Halloween by a stranger. The only incident of a child dying from poisoned Halloween candy happened back in 1974 when the child's own father poisoned him. Disturbing and sad, but true. Also, this blog post debunks some common Halloween myths and gives a few more benefits of Trick or Treating as well.

On a more upbeat note, Halloween 2013 is less than a week away. So get those costumes ready and stock up on candy, cause the kids are coming!