There will still be molar-decaying treats and the chance to parade in costumes. Even some music performances that would be fitting nightmare soundtracks.

But blood, gore and things that go excessively bump in the night will be kept on the down-low.

The time has come again for trick-or-treating, and with it, the increasingly popular alternative fall festivals.

Several churches across the county are going all out to provide evenings of games, prizes and performances this weekend and Monday to keep kids off dark streets, and away from the more lugubrious Halloween themes that don't really fly with holy institutions.

"We just feel we're trying to take the emphasis off the dark side of Halloween," said Eric Wilder, a member of the support staff at Heart of the City Church.

The church's Fall Family Fun Fest this Sunday evening at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds will be benign on the scary meter, he assured.

The event, scheduled for 5-8 p.m. in the biggest fairgrounds building, will have enough activities for folks to burn off their sugar highs, including games, a chili cook-off, a pie-eating contest and mechanical bull rides. And yeah, there will be a bouncy castle and mini horses.

The idea is to focus more on celebrating the harvest like Halloween was originally intended, Wilder said, with a little praise sent northward for the bounty.

"Like Thanksgiving," Wilder said. "We're not doing any kind of heavy evangelism. It's more just loving on people."

Attendance has escalated every year at the Trunk or Treat party put on by the Dalton Gardens Church of Christ, said Senior Minister Michael Lewis.

"We're expecting several hundred children," he said.

There's always demand from parents uneasy about their kids ringing doorbells at strangers' homes, Lewis said, or folks resistant to the general occultism of the holiday.

So the church party, scheduled from 5-7 p.m. at the church at 6439 Fourth St., is free of witches and the undead, and aims at wholesome experiences like indoor games and free family portraits.

Much of the congregation pitches in to circle up their cars and offer goodies from the open trunks, Lewis said. Others help serve up free hot dogs and popcorn, and assist in a bike giveaway.

"We believe in doing things like this as a community service," Lewis said.

Church of the Nazarene will again be setting up a maze, carnival games and a cake walk at its Harvest Carnival on Monday night.

The theme this year is "fear not," said Barbara Kingen, children's pastor.

So no dark decorations. Just a warm, inviting party.

"Halloween is so much about being afraid. I have a little grandson who wouldn't come out of his room because his mom hung up all this stuff," Kingen observed. "So ours isn't about fear. It's about getting together, having fun, and celebrating the harvest."

The festival is scheduled from 6-8 p.m. at the church at 4000 N. Fourth St.

Community United Methodist Church has scheduled its holiday event for tonight, said Pastor Heather Seman, so it can precede harvest parties and trick-or-treating.

"This is an addition to," Seman said. "It really is just a hello to our community."

As in previous years, the church will hold a Monster Concert, with costumed performer Mark Haberman at the helm of the church's century old pipe organ.

Haberman will pound out pieces like the theme from "Phantom of the Opera," the "Monster Mash," and Johann Sebastian Bach's "Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor." Unfortunately this newspaper can't hum the first few bars, but the toccata has a famously sinister melody.

"All of those reek of Halloween," Seman said.

The free concert will start at 7 p.m. at the church at 1740 Hanley Ave. Folks are welcome to wear costumes.

"It's free, it's safe, and it's not scary," Seman said. "It's celebrating all that can be good about Halloween."