American Myths
After reading Leslie's Blog, I have been thinking about the commercialized version of the Resurrection Day we call Easter. The pagan roots, Christian undertones, and American desire to make a buck have all swirled into the "Easter Holiday."
If I have kids one day, I will not lie to them for the sake of American tradition. I will not convince them that the Easter Bunny exists or that Santa is the reason for the Christmas season. I will explain to them the history of St. Nicholas and how his story evolved into a Western tradition, but I will not have them believe that an old, fat man climbs into the house through the chimney and eats our cookies! That's just weird!
Christmas and Easter are not about getting what you want (toys and candy). Yet, this is exactly what we are teaching generation after generation. Even after knowing that Santa and the Easter Bunny aren't real, people still retain the lesson that has been instilled in them from their parents: these holidays are about getting what you want. A friend of mine and his family celebrate their Christmas season a lot differently than the average American household. They keep with the spirit of giving, but instead of buying gifts for each other, they spend the money on buying useful gifts for needy families in their hometown for the honor of the Lord Jesus. It's a great idea.
I am wondering what the general consensus is about this topic. What will you teach your children (or do you currently teach your children) about these Westernized traditions? What are the logistics of it? How will they interact with children at school who have been taught that these things are true?
posted by Nikki Leigh Daniel @ 3/27/2005 04:29:00 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I'm with you. I can't look my kid in the eye one day and say "Hey, you know all that stuff I told you about a guy climbing down the chimney in the middle of the night to bring you presents? That was all a lie. But that thing about that guy dying on the cross for you, that's still true so keep believing that but stop believing the other thing."
With my kids, I've always treated Santa the same as, say, Winnie the Pooh or Jack and the Beanstalk ... a good, fun story, but just a story.
One of my friends was struggling with this issue with her young kids, one of whom was born before she was a believer. During his first couple of years, she was a drinking, smoking, swearing prison guard -- so the problem was even deeper. She's wondering what to do about Halloween, which started out as just the night before All Saints' Day. My folks didn't let us trick-or-treat and they took us out of school for Halloween. It was a great trade-off for us, because we got out of school! I think if you teach kids that their positive experience of a holiday doesn't depend on Santa or the Easter bunny or dressing up for Halloween, they won't feel like they're being left out. My brother and I always felt kind of cool and grown up because we had the "inside scoop" on the holiday stuff.
Nikki, I'm still full from lunch today... how killer was it?
I haven't really thought about it before. By second or third grade, most kids start to figure out that Santa's a trick to get them to behave for a few days right before Christmas. When you run the calculations, it's simply impossible for Santa to stop at every kid's house, even if he skipped the Muslim and Jewish houses ;-) Funny how being among God's people used to keep your firstborn son from being killed by the Angel of Death... now it gets all your kids presents on Christmas morning!
I like the idea of telling the story behind St. Nicholas. It's inspiring that there was a real guy like that who was just like any of us.
A Christ-exalting alternative to Halloween is celebrating Reformation Day!!!
check out my blog: http://leslie.blogs.com
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