Halloween Candy | Imamother

lubcoralsprings

Tue, Sep 26 2006, 10:49 am

I live in Florida, in an area where I have both Jewish and non-Jewish neighbors. I know that I will get trick or treaters this year and since I am friendly with my non-Jewish neighbors I don't want to close the door on their children. I am thinking that I will give out halloween candy. Is there any kind of problem with that? I was wondering what others do.

JMto2

Tue, Sep 26 2006, 10:54 am

My parents used to live in a really non jewish neighborhood and we always had candy to give to the kids when they came. I think it is proper to give them especially if you do not give them candy it would be a chilul hashem.

timeout

Tue, Sep 26 2006, 10:58 am

Where I lived in philly we were the only Jewish people on the block and my parents always gave out candy but wouldn't let us eat any or receive any.

As we got older my parents learned if you don't have your light on they will not ring the bell and my mother would give the parents earlier in the day when we were in school. Either way it didn't bother me.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Sep 26 2006, 11:06 am

I grew up in an area where there were equal jews and non jews. at one point my mother just got annoyed and stoped opening the door. and I was soooo happy that she did that.
its not our "holiday", so why do we have to open the door? no non jews give us mishloach manot on purim..........
(this is one of the things that I LOVE about living in Israel)

supermom

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 11:47 am

Why would your non jewish friends tell their kids to go to you if they know that you are jewish? And if they don't tell them why don't they tell them, that the fact that you are Jewish you don't celebrate.

ChavieK

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 11:58 am

We don't have the non-jewish kids come. But we did have a nonjewish neighbor who would go out of his way to buy kosher candy to give the kids if halloween came out on the weekend.

lubcoralsprings

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 11:58 am

I don't think most non-jews realize we don't celebrate halloween. They don't view it as religous rather seeing it as more of a festive holiday like Thanksgiving.

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 11:59 am

supermom wrote:

because it is not always JUST neighbors. kids come from far and wide and I do not think that ppl all realize that it is a not jewish thing.

red sea

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 12:05 pm

JMto2 wrote:

same here

shanie5

Thu, Sep 28 2006, 2:10 pm

I always keep candy on hand but the porch light off. we dont usually get anyone, and my kids get the candy as school snack later.

amother

Fri, Sep 29 2006, 11:40 am

I know a rebetzin who on halloween always tell the kids

who come to her door -that she does not celebrate this holiday '

and does not give out candy !

I feel she should just give the kids some candy .

JRKmommy

Fri, Sep 29 2006, 4:26 pm

We keep the house totally dark in front, and don't answer the door. That way, it just looks like we're not home.

I don't see the point of answering the door just to give kids a lecture.

yoyosma

Fri, Sep 29 2006, 4:42 pm

In some neighborhoods, if you dont give candy, you run the risk of getting your house toilet papered or egged.
We never had candy. Once we gave some bewildered children a box of Cocoa Puffs because we had nothing sweet in the house!

leomom

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 1:49 am

We live in a very Jewish neighborhood but there are still a fair number of trick-or-treaters. We don't give out candy; we leave the outside lights off and also put a sign on the door saying something like "Baby sleeping; please do not disturb" - etc.

I know some people who buy candy and just put a big bowl of it on their front steps.

But personally, I don't think we as Jews have any obligation to mark the day at all, even to be polite (as long as we are not rude to people who celebrate it). It's not our holiday. And yes, most non-Jews don't realize that (and unfortunately many Jews do celebrate it), but that doesn't really change anything. Chinuch-wise, I just can't see telling my kids, "Oh yeah, we have to pick up some Halloween candy for tonight!"

miriam

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 2:37 am

Just leave the light off. If you can, stay away from the door and keep the lights off so it looks like you're not home.

shabbatiscoming

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 8:37 am

amother wrote:

I agree with this. it is not our holiday, so why should we have to give candy?

we would not go to a non jew on Purim and give them mishloach manot!!!

brooklyn

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 10:03 am

What is the big deal about spending three dollars for a big bag of candy to give out to your neighbors. Maybe they will think more highly of the jews that they give out candy even though it is not their holiday and therefore you will make a kiddush hashem.

batya_d

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 10:08 am

amother wrote:

Totally, what a chillul Hashem for all our neighbors. Twisted Evil

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Oct 02 2006, 6:54 pm

brooklyn wrote:

and I feel that these little kids that come to eac door have no idea who is jewish and who is not.

I grew up in a place where there were a LOT of Jews and a LOt of non jews.

we celebrate our chagim and they celebrate theirs. whats so wrong with that?

what we usually did was cose the lights to the front of the house and just be upstairs or the back part of the house and that was that.

shalhevet

Mon, Oct 02 2006, 8:17 pm

brooklyn wrote:

It's interesting how some posters are giving a psak what is a kiddush/chilul Hashem. Please go and look up what the halachic (as opposed to the popularistic) definition of Kiddush Hashem is. Kiddush Hashem is not doing what the non-Jew down the street thinks is a nice way to behave.

Why is it a kiddush Hashem to celebrate a pagan holiday?
A kiddush Hashem is to do a mitzva.