You couldn’t have asked for better weather for a horror movie marathon than what we had Friday night.

It was cold, rainy and dead black outside. So with the intent of renting some old favorites and finding a few new ones, I ventured out to Blockbuster Video. When I returned home, I turned out the lights, grabbed a tall glass of milk and a piece of cherry pie and settled in for hours of “Friday the 13th” sequels, “Joyride” and a newer suspense flick, “Hard Candy”.

I am now officially in the Halloween spirit.

But coming down from my horror-film high on Saturday, I realized that I’ve seen nothing on TV about Halloween: No Halloween-themed shows; no horror flicks on Saturday and Sunday afternoon networks; and no mention of ghost stories or series specials.

I can’t help but feel this is the result of larger cultural issues.

I feel fortunate to have been raised in a Halloween family. My family went all out on Halloween. My parents helped organize our school’s carnivals and both dressed up every year (one of my favorite memories is of seeing my dad go to work dressed in a suit and tie with a gorilla mask, hands and feet). My dad would rent horror movies for my brother and I on the weekends, and we would all huddle together on the couch to watch them while laughed at the cheesy special effects and bad acting. My mother put lots of time into helping my brother and I get our costumes ready, picking out pumpkins, decorating the house and baking treats. And to this day, I swear I’ve never seen anyone carve a scarier jackolantern than my father’s.

The joy of Halloween is that it inspires us to be breathlessly creative and imaginitive.

I understand that some Christian denominations take issue with Halloween because they believe it celebrates the devil and evil. I will never convince anyone who believes this to feel differently, but I can promise you that - being raised in a Christian home - when I dressed up like a vampire or Freddy Kreuger on Halloween, it wasn’t because I wanted to worship Satan. It was all done for love of fun.

Our lack of Halloween celebrations also speaks to the general touchy-feely-ness of society. Last year, my home church had a “Trunk or Treat” - in which kids go from car to car in the church parking lot to get candy - and it banned “scary costumes” for fear of frightening children.

I’m not going to say I wasn’t ever scared by local haunted houses, scary movies or ghoulish costumes, but I learned very quickly that these things were harmless. These times of playful fright helped me learn the difference between real life and make-believe as a child, and learn to let loose and see the fun in pretending to be something you’re not.

By taking away Halloween, we rob children of this lesson. We teach them to be fearful, overly reverential and fascinated of the monstrous and gory. By treating these costumes as something to be feared, we over-sensitize children. Halloween is a time for parents to take an active role with their children, teaching them to have fun and lessons between reality and make-believe.

The world isn’t getting any less scary. We might all be better served if we - and our children - cut loose and had a little fun every once in awhile.