The National Retail Federation says that almost 60 percent of American consumers will observe Halloween this year. That means a sizeable chunk of the population will skip the trick-or-treating, haunted houses, and ghoulish garb that have become so central to Oct. 31.
Just because they're boycotting the traditional means of celebration doesn't mean they aren't having a good time, though.
Amber Singleton of Little Rock celebrated Halloween as child. But when she and her husband, Ken, started their own family, the couple decided to change the way they observe the holiday.
Martin Luther, the 16th century German monk who denounced many practices in the Catholic Church, posted his "95 Theses" on the door of Wittenberg Castle on Oct. 31, 1517. And since then, Protestants have celebrated Oct. 31 as the beginning of the Reformation. Singleton said that her church celebrates Reformation Day with a festival. "There's candy for the kids and a neat history emphasis," Singleton said.
And depending on what day of the week Oct. 31 falls on, Singleton said they might do another activity they wouldn't normally do as a family.
"One year we went and played Gator golf, and one year we went and got pizza and played games with some other families," Singleton said.
She added that participating in their church's event, as well as doing a family activity, actually allows their children to have twice as much fun as they would during a traditional Halloween night.
Paul Kroger, a pastor in Little Rock, said that his family used to retire to a back room on Halloween night just to escape trick-or-treaters. But at the urging of his older children, he and his wife re-evaluated their approach to the holiday.
"Over the years, we just turned the lights out outside," Kroger said. "We'd watch a show together, play board games, have snacks. But as the kids grew older, I continued to kind of be pulled because they wanted to do something more that was in line with [what] many of their friends would do."
Like the Singletons, they started attending harvest festivals put on by local churches, where Kroger said the emphasis was on "celebrating God's goodness for bringing in the harvest."
Eventually, the Krogers started doing something they hadn't done before: Turning their lights back on and passing out candy - as well as gospel tracts - to the trick-or-treaters who came to their door.
Paul Kroger Jr., 22, the oldest of the Kroger's eight children, said he remembers when his parents told him that they were going to be integrating this new practice into their Halloween night tradition.
"Part of that was really just an attempt to engage the people around us and not seclude ourselves," Paul Kroger Jr. said.
For Kroger, giving out candy and participating in Halloween in a simple and unique way allowed him to "give a message of hope" to his community. Now, Kroger - as well as his children still living at home - shoot hoops in the driveway, give high-fives to passing trick-or-treaters and hand out candy, the gospel message, and information on a basketball league that Kroger has been heading up for nine years.
"My perspective as a pastor is that we've got literally hundreds of kids coming to my door. I'd like to steer them in a direction that fits my value system," Kroger said. "It's a really fun way to give a message of hope on what otherwise would be either a time when evil is exalted or there's just a dark aura about the day."
Even though he doesn't live at home anymore, Paul Kroger Jr., who attends the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, said that he and his siblings' original motives for changing the Kroger family's Halloween traditions have transformed into something more substantial over the years.
"We wanted to get candy, but we wanted to be able to engage with our friends, not feel like we were shut off [in] a bunker one night a year expecting the bombs to fall," Paul Kroger Jr. said.
He continues: "My real thoughts about the holiday [are] that Halloween is what you make it. It's just another one of those holidays where if you educate your children and engage people around you, it's just another opportunity to share Christ with the world around me."