I always disconnect the doorbell, blackout the front of the house, hang a cross on the front door, and retreat to the back of the house and do activities with the family.
If you love your father with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul, then I doubt you would find it fun to dress up like his enemies and celebrate with them.
Where are the "disputers of the world"?
Major nitpick: there was never any Celtic death god by the name of "Samhain," "Samhuin," or whatever you want to call it. Samhain is Gaelic for "end of summer," no matter how many fundamentalist-derived tracts proclaim otherwise.
See http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_sa.htm for more information. Note that I am not endorsing celebrating Halloween, just that I am tired of seeing this particular bit of misinformation.
I did when I was much younger get to go trick-or-treating, my fav costume was that of a hobo. We went with other neighborhood kids, and got lot's & lot's of candy. Good memories. However, once each of my siblings & I reached 5th grade, my parents would take us to vigil for St. John instead.
Anyway, speaking of pagan traditions carried over to Christian times... The whole Russian tradition of eating pancakes the week before Great Lent. I don't know much about it, but I do know that it comes from the ancient Russians worshiping the sun-god, and the spring solstice. Does anyone else have any info on that?
Ania
If you think about it, Halloween is very silly. I could never understand the big deal about it. We have pumpkins on our front porch, but I think they're more a symbol of fall than anything. I don't carve them - they last much longer if you just leave them alone as pretty orange vegetables (are pumpkins vegetables anyway???) The ones that are carved into jack o lanters rot very quickly -- symbolic of the "evil" aspect of this day. 
As a kid, I never got into trick or treating. Plus, obesity of the youth is such a huge problem, why encourage them to engorge themselves with more candy? So they'll get diabetes before they're 18?
Why is it that I can't find St John Kronstadt on Oct 31 on any of my calendars?
