Day 25 ~ Tales from the Darkside: Christian School Halloween

Hey Everyone! Can you believe it's Thursday already? This week has just flown by for us here at Samhain's Sirens. We are having such a great time sharing with you and love that you are having fun reading our posts and entering the giveaways. Today we have an adventure in Halloween at a Christian school from our lovely Siren Sam Curtin over at Bones, Buried Treasures and Beliefs.

Tales from the Dark Side: Christian School Halloween

By: Sam Curtin

As many of you know and have read in previous blog posts, I spent most of my childhood in Christian school. Every year around this time the question came up: Should Christians celebrate Halloween? It happened every year and every year people had to voice their opinions. There were the people that said that is was devil worship and refused to let their children participate. In turn they would scold anyone who did participate claiming that they were the devil’s spawn if they did. There were the people that participated but you had to dress up as something “biblical related” as to “throw off the devil.” There were then the people, like my mom, who could care less and looked at is a holiday to dress up as something spooky, make fun crafts and eat tons of candy.

What came out of all of this was basically two holidays for me. There was the dressing up as something like a witch or a zombie or a superhero for trick or treating and for my family’s Halloween Party and then there was the dressing up as something “nice” for school. Basically what it came down to was year after year, recycling an angel costume that my mom had made for me.

The activities we had during Halloween at school always were called “Harvest Celebrations” and they stressed that the more important day came later on November 2nd in the form of Resurrection Day (which to this day I still don’t think they understand what that day really is). We drew on pumpkins nice pictures of Angels and other “happy Christian things,” ate candy corn and recited bible verses.

Then I went home and the real holiday started. I donned my costume of choice for that year (usually something with blood involved) and my Dad would take me and my brother around the neighborhood of our townhouse community to get as much candy as we possibly could. We would then come home and my brother and I would spread our candy all across the floor. I would trade my Reece’s for his Twizzlers and our Dad would come and sneak candy. It was as much a family holiday as Christmas and Thanksgiving was.

(Photo: My costume of a horror movie victim my junior year of college.)

Thursday's Giveaway! 

Today's giveaway comes from Loren of Saga's Cottage.

This is a print of original art Samhain, The Thinning Veil, painted by me. You will get an 8x10 matte print . It will have no border and will fit in 8x10 frames.

To enter this drawing:

Your first entry is to follow us here. (Make sure you comment and tell us that you're following!)

Bonus entries:

Go to Saga's Cottage etsy shop. Come back and tell us what you liked.

Like Samhain's Sirens on Facebook- come back and tell us (separate entry)

Follow Samhain's Sirens on Twitter (come and tell us!- separate entry)

Blog about this giveaway (comment separately and send us a link to your blog post)

Tweet about this giveaway (comment separately and send us a link to your blog post).

Treats on a Thursday!

Cinnamon Roll Halloween Cats

Pillsbury - Let the Making Begin

Ingredients

1 can (17.5 oz ) Pillsbury® Grands!® cinnamon rolls with icing

Black gel food color

10 green candy-coated chocolate candies

5 mini brown candy-coated chocolate candies

Yellow licorice

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Separate dough into 5 rolls. Using scissors, cut a small slit in one edge of dough on each. Place on cookie sheet.

2. Bake 24 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet; cool 10 minutes.

3. In small bowl, mix icing and food color for black icing. Spread icing over tops of rolls. Using candies and licorice, make eyes, nose and whiskers of cat.

Creativity on Thursday!

Spooky Ghost Necklace

Crafts for All Seasons

This spooky ghost necklace is very fun and easy to make. It is easy enough for children to do and they will love to wear these necklaces to school on Halloween. Or, several can be made and they can be made into a small mobile. I even saw someone make these into cute dangling earrings once!

Things Needed:

Hair pin or paperclip

Black thread

White glue

Construction paper to make eyes and mouth, or seed beads, or googly eyes

A piece of wax paper

Paper plate

Scissors

1. Open up each hairpin slightly to make it the size of the ghost you want. Or, straighten out a paper clip and bend into a V shape. Tie the black thread on the top of each hairpin, long enough to make a necklace.

2. Cut a small of wax paper and rest it in a paper plate. Make sure the entire surface is flat, so the glue will not run.

3. Cut out some small eyes and a mouth from the black construction paper, or use googly eyes or seed beads.

4. Add the white glue inside the hairpin to form the ghost’s body. Fill in any gaps so the glue completely touches the hairpin all around.

5. Place the eyes and mouth in the glue to make a face.

6. Allow to dry overnight.

7. When completely dry, slowly peel up the ghost from the wax paper. Use the scissors to trim off any of the excess glue that might have crept around the edges. Very carefully peel away the paperclip or the hairpin, and slide it off through the thread knot. Your thread will still be attached since the glue dried on it where it was tied. Your ghost is now ready for wearing.

And the Winner Is!

The winner of the October 23rd Witch Hat giveaway from Shadow Witch is: rcponders

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Please make sure to email  us your shipping information and we'll get your prize out to you within 5 business days.

 *Note: All winners are selected through random number generation. Be sure you enter each time separately so you can make the most of it.

 Also, don't forget that each entry qualifies you for our Grand Prize Giveaway at the end of the celebration!

Thursday's Music Choice!

Brought to you by our own DJ Siren Kestril Trueseeker...

The second song from the Halloween Hootenanny CD is this goofy surf music inspired The Creature Stole My Surfboard by Dead Elvi.

We'll be back tomorrow! See you then!!