Good question. We never had anything but noticed attendence is much lower. It would be nice to have a fall festival but I wouldn't do it on Halloween night. I think they are a great alternative and we have tracks to give out with candy that take what was meant for evil and turn it around for good.
Reformation Day is that same day (when Martin Luther was brave enough to stand up to the Catholic church) and the beginning of protestants. We thought it would be nice to center a festival around that significant day as opposed to Halloween. But never have. This is not one of our favorite times of the year ;we didn't celebrate Halloween with our kids. The dressing up part is so cute and fun but we know too much about that day. We couldn't celebrate it. I take my kids to many Fall Festivals and a corn maze. For years, our church hosted Judgement House and it's a walk through alternative for touring haunted houses. The tribulation house was very good too!
With having said this, I have realized as a parent that if you have too many "no's" about the holidays - you can seem like a Jehova's Witness or weird. Therefore, I have made all holidays very special and memorable without compromising the reason for the season or taking pretending as far as some. As a SP copastor, we just ask our staff and department heads to focus on Jesus not the other things that Christmas or Easter get focused on. We are the church - they can get fairy tales somewhere else. Hope this helps and sorry I just now saw this. I am sick with the flu and catching up on P/P. Bless you.
My church doesn't do a big blowout Harvest party - simply because that would fall under my domain, and I'm already in the thick of Christmas play rehearsals by that point in the year. My SP and I agreed that since there are so many churches in the area that do special Halloween alternative events, we would just steer our families to one that is already going on.
As for me personally? Halloween has never been about anything other than dressing up and getting loads of free candy!! I grew up in the church, and I grew up (gasp!) trick-or-treating. I was never allowed to dress up as anything remotely occultic (not even Casper the Friendly Ghost, lol!!), and after I hit a few houses in my neighborhood, we headed off to the church party.
I understand why a lot of Christians are apprehensive about even acknowledging Halloween - and I totally respect their opinions on it (as long as they're not stopping by the church party and snagging the free candy for their kids - this actually happened in my church when I was growing up!). It's just one of those areas where I choose to "agree to disagree."
