We don't celebrate in Halloween- we feel it conflicts with our religious views. But we have a 'light festival' or a 'Harvest festival' on the evening of Halloween- we live out on farmland, so that tends to involve a big gathering with lots of fresh food, cakewalks, candied apples, sweets. The kids can dress up in what we find to be appropriate costumes, and while there is no trick-or-treating or celebration of creepy, dark things, I feel they actually get more out of it than most kids. There are games for the kids, competitions, costumes, candy, a huge potluck-styled feast, face-painting, hot apple cider, movies, pumpkin-carving (which is then used to make pumpkin pie, muffins, etc). There is almost always either a bouncy house set up, or at the very minimum, an obstacle course.
While we don't agree with what we feel Halloween glorifies, we are also aware of the excitement it can bring for kids, and the fact that kids may grow up feeling that they missed out on something if they have to sit and look out the window at all of the other children having fun. So we try to keep it fun, and put a positive spin on it in a way that they can really enjoy, while not crossing over into something that we feel clashes with our religious and moral views. We try to take the positive aspects- enjoying food, fun, and the company of family and friends- while removing the parts that we do not agree with. That way they do not grow up feeling spiteful of their family or religion, or feeling that it robbed them of some monumental childhood rite of passage.
