Halloween. Love it or hate it, we can’t escape it.

How will you talk to your kids about Halloween this year? Regardless of how you celebrate or choose to not celebrate Halloween, your kids will be exposed to the themes of Halloween every time you go to the store to grab a gallon of milk.

For a Christian parent, however, this isn’t something to be scared of or avoid. Halloween can actually gives us some excellent opportunities to speak with our children about spiritual truths.

Here are three Halloween conversations that you can have this year that will actually point your kids towards the Gospel.

3 Halloween Conversations to Point Kids Toward the Gospel

1. Trick or Treating: Finding Our Satisfaction in the Lord

Questions: What are people hoping to get when they go trick or treating? How long do these candies and treats bring people happiness?

Let’s Talk About It: As humans, we often spend our whole lives “trick or treating.” No, I don’t mean that we literally get dressed up in a costume and go knocking on people’s doors for our whole lives. But, we are always hoping to get something bigger and better that will make us happy.

The happy feelings that we get from these things never lasts, though. Once the happiness is gone, we have to search for something even bigger and better that we think will bring us even MORE happiness. Just like the “trick or treaters”, we think that if we knock on enough doors and get enough “goodies”, we will someday find lasting happiness.

The Bible tells us that nothing in this world will ever bring lasting happiness. Only God can do that.

Bible verses: Psalm 107:8-9

More Discussion: Have you ever thought that if you could get or do something, you would be really happy… only to have that thing disappoint you? Why do you think that thing could not bring you lasting happiness? How is God different from the things of this world?

2. Putting on a Costume: Are You Hiding from God?

Questions: Why do people dress up in costumes on Halloween? What are they trying to change?

Let’s Talk About It: It is fun to dress up in costumes and pretend that we are somebody or something else for a short time. There is nothing wrong with playing dress up or pretending.

But too often we live our whole lives with a “spiritual” mask on. We put on a “mask” by trying to trick people and God into thinking that we are something that we are not. We try to hide or change who we truly are deep down inside.  We can spend our whole lives hiding behind “spiritual” costumes.

We don’t want people or God to know all of our thoughts and actions because we know that our hearts are evil. We are ashamed of who we truly are.

So, we try to hide our sins. We tell lies. We blame the bad things that we do on other people instead of admitting that we are wrong. We might even hide behind a smiling face and good actions while our hearts are full of anger, rebellion, and hate.

But, we can never hide our sins from God. We will only find peace when we stop pretending to be somebody that we are not. We will only find forgiveness and joy when we come to God, take off our masks, and confess our sins to Him.

Bible verses: Psalm 69:5; Psalm 51:1-4

More Discussion: Why do you think that people try to hide their sins? Have you ever tried to hide a sin? How did you feel while you were living this lie? If you confessed your sin, did you find forgiveness and peace?

3. Skeletons, Ghosts, and Graves: Jesus Has Conquered Death

Questions: Halloween is a holiday that celebrates death. We can see that in all of the “death” decorations that people put up for Halloween – skeletons, ghosts, and graves. Why do you think that people celebrate death at Halloween? What is death?

Let’s Talk About It: One of the terrible things about death is that it separates us. When someone we love dies, we miss that person. We can no longer be near to them, see them smile, hear their voice, or feel their hug. Death causes separation.

When God created man and woman, you and me, He gave us a forever-living soul. He made us to spend this forever life in a good, loving, joyful relationship with Him, our Heavenly Father. But, we are sinners, and our sin causes spiritual death. Just as physical death (when our bodies die) causes separation and loss of a relationship with other people, so spiritual death causes separation between us and God.

Because of our sins, we are born dead to God. But God, in His great love and mercy, did not make this the end of the story. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life in our place. Then, Jesus died in our place. He took the punishment for our sins, so that we could be spiritually alive and have a relationship with God.

After Jesus died, He was buried. But, on the third day, He rose again from the dead.

Jesus broke the power of death. We do not have to be afraid of death if we have put our trust in Jesus as our Savior and if we have repented of our sins before God.

When we become children of God, our souls are made alive to God. He hears our prayers and we can have a relationship with Him. Our bodies will still die, but our souls will never be separated from God. We do not have to be afraid of the second death, or eternal separation from God. Instead, we can look forward to living with Him forever in a wonderful home called heaven.

Bible verses: John 3:16; John 11:25-26

More Discussion: Do you fear death? Why or why not? Do you have a personal relationship with God? Do you talk to Him in prayer and enjoy hearing Him speak to you from the words of the Bible? Or, are you still “dead” to God – unable to hear His words or talk to Him?

A Sweet Opportunity: Seeing the Gospel in Halloween

Are you looking for more ideas on how to speak to your kids this Halloween season? Check out the Bible study – A Sweet Opportunity: Seeing the Gospel in Halloween.

This beautiful interactive Bible study will cover the topics above in more depth as well as three more topics: Darkness, Fear, and Evil  (plus additional pages for older kids to explore these themes more deeply). Learn More here.