TV--that wasn't a dumb question. I do decorate although this year it's more for the harvest part. But I love the witch/goblin/ghost spooky Halloween stuff too. Also, I tend to be decorated all year round here--all kinds of witchy things and our family sort of has a twinkly light monopoly going here. One of my music students calls our place the Christmas house because we have so many twinkly lights. They look great in a log house...
And I don't find the spooky stuff disrespectful at all--it's part of the fun of Halloween shared by all kinds of people. The Mexican Day of the Dead is a great balance I think of the funny/spooky combined with the respect and reverence of ancestors. Like Pattyann said, there are always some pagans without a sense of humor (like any group) but the majority of us aren't that way.
Pattyann--that chant was lovely. I haven't heard it before--did you write it?
Danita--I read it with interest when you first told me that you'd had a hard time being afraid of the influence of people with different beliefs on your kids. I think a lot of people share that fear. One of the unschooler parties my kids had once had kids whose religious backgrounds included: Christian, orthodox Jewish, Muslim, agnosticism, atheism and, of course, pagan/wiccan. The discussions we got to listen in on were very interesting. Our holiday meals usually include my sister and her husband who is a shaman for his S'Kallam tribe here in the Pacific Northwest, our Catholic friends, some Jewish friends and we wiccans. The blessings and food choices alone get to be quite an interesting combination at those.
Thanks Meredith & Chick for your well wishes.

Dream of the Circle of Women
by Dahti Blanchard
published May 2004 by Spilled Candy Books
visit: www.dahtiblanchard.com