I loved Halloween as a kid. I still enjoy it now, but in a different way.

Back then it was all about the candy, of course. I had –at least it seemed to me– a huge plastic pumpkin for carrying my loot. It rose to halfway up my thigh when sitting on the ground. Even empty, I struggled hauling it through the neighborhood on Halloween night. I never filled it more than a third of the way. But I had high hopes that One Day I would scour the streets of my town and fill that sucker to the top.

Even that paltry amount of candy could, if I was careful, last until Thanksgiving. Between then and Christmas, I just had to go without.

Most kids are focused on two things, the costume and the candy. But there are lots of kids who really love the spooky aspect, which makes Halloween seem magical and otherworldly. If I'm not mistaken, that was the whole original point of All Hallows Eve.

We liked being scared, and pretending ghosts and witches and all things spooky were real. We never believed they were real. It was just fantasy and fun.

Even back then, however, some people took Halloween far too seriously.

Those people still exist today:

I can sympathize with a scared four year old when it comes to some of the over-the-top Halloween displays.

But my sympathy stops with an adult who can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy. This guy thinks by walking down the street he must face down "literally" the forces of Hell.

Literally.

Cue Inigo Montoya, "I don' think that word means what you think it means."

Perhaps he also thinks the movie Hocus Pocus is a documentary.

I'm certain there are plenty of ways to respond maturely to calm a scared four year old. A trip to the library in search of children's books that show Halloween is nothing to be frightened about comes to mind. Or maybe a short visit with the neighbors to show the girl it's nothing but plastic and rubber. Let her tweak the demon's nose, or unplug the scary sounds. That's a good way to get her to understand it's all make believe.

Or, if you were a overly religious, you could trade one source of fear for another in the child's mind.

Tell her about how Jesus was tortured, bloodied, pierced with a spear, murdered, and how his blood is the antidote to the evil rubber demon down the street.

I guess that's one way to go. No chance of emotional scarring there.

Christians, before you complain about the fictional horrors of Halloween, take a moment to consider the many horror stories you believe actually happened. You know, the ones in the Bible.

• Elisha asks God to make bad things happen to children mocking him, so God sends a bear to kill the children (2Kings 2:23-25)
• God commands Abraham to kill his son, Isaac, but stops him at the last moment (Genesis chapter 2)
• Jonah is swallowed by a whale (The Book of Jonah)
• A man traveling home is surrounded by a crowd of men threatening to rape him, so instead he grabs his concubine and pushes her out into the crowd, with predictable results (Judges 19:22-30)
• God makes a bet with the accuser (or Satan) that Job will stay faithful. Satan does bad things to Job (Job 1:6-12 etc.)
• Pretty much all of the Book of Revelation

That's just a short sampling. In the Bible there are ghosts, zombies, monsters and countless bloody acts often commanded by God.

Horror stories have always been, at their most basic, morality tales. That tradition carries through today, though some may go overboard with it. Halloween is a great time to be scared and thank whatever god you believe in (or none at all) for these scary things that help remind us to be good and make good choices.