{"id":34579,"date":"2024-10-25T14:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/have-happy-halloweenthanksgivingchristmaspalooza\/"},"modified":"2024-10-25T14:40:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:40:00","slug":"have-happy-halloweenthanksgivingchristmaspalooza","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/have-happy-halloweenthanksgivingchristmaspalooza\/","title":{"rendered":"Have a Happy HalloweenthanksgivingChristmaspalooza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We used to have a short Halloween season, a nice slow-paced Thanksgiving, and then around mid-November we&#39;d see Christmas stuff out for sale. Well, now these three events are getting mashed together in what one author calls a &quot;HalloweenthanksgivingChristmaspalooza.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Ellyn von Huben notes, &quot;I&#39;ve noticed that so much of society&#39;s sense of holiday celebrations has been condensed that it is hard to even see what holiday we are headed toward.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Possible Preaching Angle:<\/h2>\n\n<p><em>This story (and her wonderful new word to describe this season) provides a great way to help your congregation slow down, take a deep breath, and focus on Christ and the true meaning of Advent, which Von Huben defines at &quot;The time in which we prepare our hearts for the celebration of Our Lord made flesh to dwell among us.&quot;<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3387,3533,3600,3681,3682,3726,3997,4153,4218,4435,4523,4662,4696,4894,4969,5147,5177,5302],"tax_ctp_topics":[396],"class_list":["post-34579","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-advent","tax_ctp_tags-business","tax_ctp_tags-christmas","tax_ctp_tags-consumer-mentality","tax_ctp_tags-consumerism","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-focus","tax_ctp_tags-holidays","tax_ctp_tags-immanuel","tax_ctp_tags-materialism","tax_ctp_tags-nativity","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-preparation","tax_ctp_tags-seasons","tax_ctp_tags-shopping","tax_ctp_tags-thanksgiving-day","tax_ctp_tags-tradition","tax_ctp_tags-worldliness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Have a Happy HalloweenthanksgivingChristmaspalooza - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/have-happy-halloweenthanksgivingchristmaspalooza\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Have a Happy HalloweenthanksgivingChristmaspalooza - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We used to have a short Halloween season, a nice slow-paced Thanksgiving, and then around mid-November we&#039;d see Christmas stuff out for sale. 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