Halloween - The Cross Blog

It’s that time of year again. Let’s talk about Halloween.

“UK Spending on Halloween 2025 likely to be £779 million”

I was astonished to read that when the accounts are done, spending in the UK on Halloween this year is likely to be in the region of £779 million. That’s quite a lot of money. I found some other stats which suggested that we could build two small hospitals for that. So, great! There’s one more reason for us Christians to grumble, mostly quietly in the background, about Halloween.

Personally, I’m not grumbling. And I don’t think you should either.

At a level, I can understand why some Christians become hugely exercised about the ‘darkness’ of Halloween. I mean I don’t think for one moment that encouraging small children to think about the ‘spooky’ is particularly helpful. But it seems to me that many Christian opponents of Halloween in the UK struggle to explain exactly what the problem is.

I’m sometimes told that Halloween is a time when people look for, are open to, and dabble with the things of evil. If that’s true, it’s probably not a great thing. But is that really what’s going on when people fill their supermarket with inedible pumpkins and tacky skeleton costumes? Are my neighbour’s really dabbling in evil when they hold a fancy dress party?

“The only really bad thing about Halloween in the UK is the wicked waste of money!”

Personally, I’m not so sure. For me, the only really bad thing about the way we do Halloween in the UK is the wicked waste of money.

A recent YouGov poll suggests that only 28% of Brits take any real interest in Halloween. So maybe we should all take a breath and think about what’s really going on here.

Halloween is the one time of the year when people, young and old, are encouraged to think about death (spooky skeletons), the after life (freaky ghosts), and the supernatural (things that go bump in the dark).

“for Christian people, one of the worst things about Halloween in the UK might be the missed opportunity”

Setting aside the spooky skeletons, freaky ghosts and things that go bump in the dark, there is surely an opportunity for Christian’s here. Personal mortality, the after-life, the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit – these things are at the heart of what we want to be talking about. Could it be that for Christian people, one of the worst things about Halloween in the UK might be the missed opportunity to quietly and confidently get involved in conversations about our faith.

The YouGov data, suggests that up to 72% of Brits have little active interest in Halloween anyway. If that’s true, maybe it really is time to take yet another deep breath and focus on looking for the opportunities to talk about life and death, and the light of Christ, which dispels darkness. Halloween, it seems to me, is a time to get ready to pick up on conversations wherever we can to talk about the transformational love of Jesus.

Jesus said that he is the light of the world (John 8:12). He calls you to reflect that light to others (Matthew 5:14). Don’t let’s dwell on the darkness. Let’s get out there and talk about the light.

“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5

Be encouraged. Happy Halloween.

Richard Jackson, West Sussex: LifePictureUK

Alternative views..

Crossblog post: Halloween / Samhain (Published 2024)

Christianity Today article ‘Should Christian’s Celebrate Halloween’ (Published October 2025)

Facebook of evangelist J John. Check out his Halloween post on 28th October 2025.

31st October 2024: Horsham

It’s that time of year again. Many of my Christian friends are grumbling. It’s Halloween.

There are probably one or two reasons for Christian’s to be uncomfortable about the way people celebrate Halloween – although many of my Christian friends struggle to articulate them. They make vague references to evil. Spiritual darkness. Meddling in the dark arts. I’m sure that there is a grain of truth here, but when we look at ‘mainstream’ Halloween practices in the UK, are things really that bad?

I have a ‘pagan’ friend (that’s how he identifies) who loves Halloween, although he prefers to call it Samhain (pronounced Sow-in as he reminds me). He loves to accuse the Church of hijacking this ancient Celtic festival. For him, Halloween encourages a step back to our roots. It connects us to something which was celebrated in antiquity. It reminds him of the ‘old ways’ before Christian’s came along and imposed change on everyone and everything!

Again, there’s probably a grain of truth there somewhere. Be in no doubt, there is evidence to suggest that Samhain was a thing and was practised in many forms across Britain long before Christianity was introduced here. The Catholic festival of ‘All Hallows Day’ or ‘Allhallowtide’ from which the word ‘Halloween’ is derived, seems to have appeared on the scene in 7th Century Rome, and was celebrated on 13th May. It seems that in the 8th Century it was extended across the Catholic world (which would have included Britain) and the date was moved to 1st November. I’ve heard several theories, but perhaps not surprisingly, the reason for this change is uncertain and lost in antiquity. However, it clearly did bring Allhallowtide into a space which had, for generations, been filled by the festival of Samhain. I haven’t actually seen any reliable evidence to suggest that the purpose of the change was to disrupt Samhain, but I have no doubt that it was used with enthusiasm across the country for exactly that!

I’m far from convinced that modern Halloween is, for most people, a return to ancient tradition. Pumpkins and trick or treat (as practised today) are recent innovations which owe more to American commercialism and the film industry than anything else. It seems to me that modern interpretations of Samhain culture and practices, on the other hand, owe more to nineteenth century romanticism and fantasy than they do to reliable historical sources.

So, let’s just take a breath. Small children in fancy dress. Decorated homes. Spooky fancy dress parties. Small children ‘trick or treating’. Gnarled and warty squashes or carved pumpkins on doorsteps and windowsills. Ok, I abhor the use of single use plastics and the wasteful cultivation of millions of pumpkins to be casually discarded in a world where people are starving, but the pumpkin face in my coffee did make me smile (thank you #CostaHorsham), and none of these things seem to me to be inherently evil.

I’m not speaking up for Halloween, it seems to me that it is part of our culture and I wonder why we don’t embrace it more readily. This is, after all, the world into which we, as Christians, believe we have been called.

Halloween. Samhain. These festivals point towards the stuff of life. Life. Death. Mortality. The supernatural. These things are part of life. People have questions about them. Surely this is fertile ground for the evangelical. Rather than looking as if we just want to stop people having a bit of fun, perhaps we should be looking for ways to help people to engage with these issues. We have a perspective to share, and we struggle to find the opportunity to share it. Maybe we should be a bit more grateful for a season which just might be the conversation starter we’ve been waiting for.

Just a thought.