Halloween brings candy, costumes, and spooky decorations, but not everyone enjoys the fright-filled festivities.
Colin Stroud, an Ohio father of two, made that abundantly clear in a lengthy LinkedIn post published on October 16, sharing his grievances about his neighbor’s seasonal display.
Yet amid his complaints, he pointed to an unexpected “bright side,” claiming the ordeal brought his children closer to God.
Highlights
- A Christian dad took to LinkedIn to slam his neighbor’s 14-foot Halloween “demonic” display.
- He claimed the decorations had strengthened his children’s faith in God, sparking online ridicule.
- Several parents defended the dad, sympathizing with his daughter’s experience.
His unusual reasoning quickly drew sarcastic reactions on social media, with one user remarking, “I eye-rolled so hard I caught a glimpse of my own spine.”
A Christian dad’s furious rant about neighbor’s decoration took a bizarre religious turn
Stroud opened his LinkedIn post with a blunt declaration: “I hate Halloween.”
He then explained that he was struggling to tell his “2 sensitive girls” why a nearby house had “a 14 ft tall demon with a bloody axe” in its front yard.
The display, he claimed, had turned their neighborhood walks into encounters with “literally the forces of hell.”
Stroud recalled that Halloween decorations had not been this frightening when he was a child, between 2005 and 2012.
“I cannot comprehend why anyone puts this garbage outside their house,” he went on to fume, adding, “if this is you please know there is a little 4 year old girl in your neighborhood who cannot sleep because of what she saw in your yard.”
Then came the unexpected positive he took away from the experience.
“On the bright side, it’s been a great faith activation for the kids,” he said.
“My four year old is walking up to skeletons screaming, ‘I am a daughter of god & princess of heaven! Darkness cannot touch me! I am covered by the Blood of Jesus.’”
Netizens, however, were not convinced by Stroud’s account.
“His addendum of his daughter running up and screaming at skeletons there seems fake as hell,” one person commented.
“His kids sound made up,” another added.
Those who believed him, meanwhile, questioned whether his own parenting had contributed to his daughter’s reaction.
People accused Stroud of imposing extreme religious beliefs on his children
“This is the bright side?!?” a perplexed X user asked while sharing a screenshot of Stroud’s account of his daughter screaming at a Halloween decoration.
The girl’s reaction was soon labeled “religious psychosis,” with some commenters suggesting that her father was responsible for her distress.
“Christians hate Halloween because they think it is the devil’s holiday. This is what he must be teaching his kids,” one user speculated.
“Christian conservatives, we gotta get one thing clear. You can do what you want but you gotta stop demanding everyone else to change,” a second argued.
A third commenter suggested that Stroud’s four-year-old shouting biblical declarations at a plastic skeleton reflected an imagination being “possessed.”
Another urged Stroud and like-minded parents to “stop indoctrinating children into religion” if they did not want them to “have nightmares over decorations.”
Stroud, however, also received support from some social media users.
Several parents related to Stroud’s situation, sharing their own experiences with their kids
In a follow-up to his original LinkedIn post, Stroud claimed he had lost “a lot” of followers after sharing his story. He added that the backlash had led him to conclude there were “more people” than he had expected with “14ft tall things in their yard.”
Andie Schneider, who works in relationship development, responded by writing, “take it as a compliment.”
Another supporter shared that her toddler was also frightened by Halloween decorations.
“I think normalizing and celebrating stuff like this is very dangerous,” she said, adding, “my son is only 2 but I can see the look in his eyes that he doesn’t like it and isn’t sure why.”
She explained that she used these moments to remind him that “he is God’s brave boy.”
A third commenter, meanwhile, said that despite disliking homeowners’ associations, this was the one situation in which they believed such organizations should exist.
“Rule 1: no demons, 20 ft tall skeletons, etc. Rule 2: no inflatables ever.”
Stroud’s post about giant, scary Halloween decorations came just days after a woman was caught stealing similar installations
The community of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, witnessed a bizarre caper on Wednesday, October 14, when a woman allegedly attempted to steal $600 worth of Halloween decorations from Home Depot.
The haul reportedly included two 12-foot skeletons packed in oversized cardboard boxes, which she allegedly dumped in nearby bushes, possibly intending to retrieve them later.
Fortunately for the retail giant, a local police drone captured the incident in real time and alerted officers, who made an on-the-spot arrest.
The footage quickly went viral, with netizens turning the unusual incident into a target of mockery.
“She’ll now get a free prisoner’s costume,” one person joked.
"He's unable to explain to his four-year-old daughter that a Halloween decoration is not real," a netizen said about Stroud
