I prefer Halloween. In fact Halloween wins hands down over Christmas, every time.
Why?
Halloween begins with letting the kids pretend, always fun.
But the messages it sends are subtle ones.
Because it celebrates monsters and evil (yes all those Christians that have a problem with Halloween because of that, you are right) it allows children to both acknowledge evil (and it does exist despite a culture that wants to pretend that it doesn’t, see those Christians above) and confront their own fears of evil.
The next layer though is that the monsters they are afraid of aren’t real, they’re pretend. This is an important lesson for beginning to overcome groundless fears.
Beneath that though is a more disturbing lesson, but one that is there. There are monsters. They do exist and they look just like us and they were masks too.
These are all important lessons for children and adults, whether they learn them or not.
Christmas though?
You cannot get away from the lies.
I know one family that tried to get away from the fat bastard in the red suit (and he is a fat bastard) by not mentioning him and not having presents from him for the children.
Know what happened?
The kid’s friends taunted them that they must have been naughty because Santa didn’t come to their house.
People rush off to churches, which are packed with people that don’t normally go there. Do you think that things are going to work out better for you if you show up at Christmas and Easter and go your own way the rest of the year?
People have parties they don’t want and don’t want to go to, and spend money on junk because they feel obligated to give presents.
They string up lights on their houses and put up displays in an attempt to be jolly, but there is a little bit of fear behind those displays. They are modern wind chimes to ward off the evil spirits. There is a reason Christmas comes at the darkest time of the year. It is an attempt to ward off the feelings that God may be more of the wrathful old testament type, than the loving new testament one.
Halloween is the acceptance of human nature.
Christmas is the denial of it.
