This time of year is when many of us start getting excited about the coming holidays. To cue us of it’s coming, the leaves on trees turning to brilliant yellows and reds and purples -- enough colors to challenge even the best computer colors.

Mild days give way to crisp leaves that chill until well past sunrise.

Suddenly, cakes, bread, coffees, creams, candies, cheese and crackers, andfudges filling every taste of “pumpkin” craving imaginable ushers us in All Hallow’s Eve festivities.

Halloween. The holiday that comes once a year, and you either love it, hate it, or fall somewhere in between. My family doesn’t celebrate Halloween. We figure that the devil gets enough attention. It’s all we can do to keep him at bay on a daily basis, without giving him an entire day to run havoc, no thanks! Now, this is not to say we don’t ever have fun during Halloween.

Every year, my church, among many others, hold a celebration we usually call Harvest Fest. When we were younger, we dressed up as whatever we wanted (as long as it was “God-friendly,” no demons, etc.). There were carnival-type games, and we'd get tons of candy. It was a lot of fun. We held it in the gym, which was huge! We would travel to the gym going back and forth through the games until our bags overflowed with goodies, and we were experts with darts, beanbags, hoops and bouncy balls.

Now, as we have grown older and moved churches, we have become the “fun candy" candy givers for the Harvest Fest. Our current church family runs it a bit differently. Every year we have a particular theme. This year it is “Candy Land”, last year was “Our God is Greater”. We still get to dress up, and as workers, we try our best to match the theme. So, you see, as adults we still get to dress up and eat candy. Adults can’t always say that while “trick or treating”, now can they?

The neighborhood kids get to experience the good of Halloween while avoiding the harmful things that some might add.

This is not to challenge a wide variety of beliefs or judge any ones ideas of Halloween.

Many non-Christians believe Christians are too strict or uptight to have fun on this particular night. Unfortunately, some Christians have earned that reputation, but not all. We believe that every day belongs to God, so we celebrate that any day of the year.

Anyways, my family’s Halloween traditions don’t end there. We moved our Harvest Fest to a day other than Halloween, So on Halloween night, we bunker down in our living room, with some nice hot chocolate, some deliciously buttered popcorn, and watch movies. Most of the time we try to watch comedies, or movies we haven’t seen in awhile. It’s just a chance for us to hang out and spend quality time with each other.

So what kind of Halloween traditions do you have?