Christmas is, hypothetically, supposed to celebrate the birth of Christ. It's a time to imagine your god in infant form, unable to ask anything of you, and only there to give you warm feelings - warm feelings which you MUST feel! It's the season! He doesn't judge. He doesn't speak. He's the easiest Christ for all the Christians in the world to get behind. But you know what? That's not all bad. I actually am okay celebrating Christ's birthday. That's okay. He was born in April, though, but why not take the Winter Solstice and make that commemorate the birth of Christ...
With Christmas trees. Because Christ, born in Bethlehem, would have loved himself a nicely decorated tinsel pine tree with holly berries. Mmmm... And gingerbread. Because that was his favorite food, definitely, when he was an infant. The holy family all gathered round that manger like that. With hot chocolate. And cider.
And candy canes. Because he was the good shepherd, and candy canes are shaped like a shepherd's staff, right? Thank goodness we can make some kind of a religious tie there, without resorting to paganism... Every time I see those candy canes, I think about the red and white stripes which symbolize all kinds of stuff about Jesus. Candy canes. Jesus. Thinking about Him every time.
SANTA. Oh my goodness. Can I tell you how much I just love everything Santa? Sticking his jolly fat face in the middle of everything. Seriously. He brings gifts, like the three wise men, who, actually, weren't even there for a couple of years, and....
Just stop. Stop. Everything. Stop it.
I had to give my husband a disclaimer before I married him, that I was not going to be the woman who celebrated Christmas. I wasn't going to lie to my children, to sell them into the materialism of it all. The only trouble, though, is knowing HOW to celebrate. Because, unfortunately, such a huge deal is made about Christmas, that you can't NOT celebrate it.
How depressed would my children be if they went to school and had to listen to their friends talk about all the STUFF they got for Christmas, if they didn't get anything? How would they feel? As a child, I would feel ridiculously jealous, because STUFF. Stuff is golden. And that's what Christmas ultimately turns into, for kids. Because they're kids. Kids love Jesus, but unless Jesus is bringing them that push-bike, he's going to come in second. You can't blame their testimonies. Santa is huge and loud, and Christ doesn't intrude. He's an infant, for heavens sake.
I don't want to confuse my children. But to an extent, no matter what I do, they will be confused. If I played along, they would be confused about Santa vs Jesus - a matter I'm not willing to negotiate on. (Thou shalt have no other gods before me.) If I don't play along, which I am choosing, I have to explain to my children why all their friends and cousins are believing in this red fat man who sneaks into their house in the middle of the night with flying reindeer. I have to explain it to them, and somehow convince them not to ruin it for everyone else.
Bless my heart! What to do? This has been a source of confusion and angst for me for years. (I wrote an essay on it, my first year of college!) I want my children to be happy, but I also want them to know what's what, and what's really important. What matters!
And I think I've come to an answer.
We're Jewish. Not SUPER technically, but enough, that we can make this work. My great (great?) grandparents, on my mother's mother's side were married in a British Israelite wedding. It's the mother's side that counts, which makes me Jewish, as well as my children. (My daughters' children can claim the same privilege, but not my sons' children.) (They are also uncircumcised, and we're eating pork for Thanksgiving from now on, so obviously we're not very good at this.) BUT! Hanukkah doesn't play Santa. Hanukkah is religious. For real. I admire them deeply, and hope my desire to join them isn't an offense. Because they don't cloud their holiday over with secular garbage, and religion is all I want out of my religious holidays.
Hanukkah is a celebration otherwise known as the Feast of Dedication. It celebrates the Jewish re-dedication of the temple, after reclaiming it from the Greeks, who had desecrated it with unholy sacrifices, etc. There's a whole bunch of additional story about the Jews relighting the menorah in the temple, but only having enough oil for one day - though the menorah miraculously burned for 8 days. There is no scriptural evidence of this event, in the Maccabees, however, and it may very well have been made up - as it also changes the shape and form of the original menorah to incorporate 8 days, which, to me, is questionable, as it is for several Jewish sects, who don't agree with the story as well. Yup. But that bit's not important for me.
But the Feast of Dedication. We know Christ celebrated it. It is full of delicious symbolism. Plus, nothing wrong with celebrating reclaiming your temple and re-dedicating it to God. And I realized, that's very much how I feel about Christmas. Just substitute "Santa" with "Greek" and you might see what I see. So I will choose to dedicate my home, once again, to Christ, for Christmas. We'll do gifts. Perhaps we'll do one gift a night for 8 nights, by candlelight. It'll be calm. No wrapping paper flying. Not 8 big gifts, because that's not the point.
We're still working through the details - mostly just how to get everybody on board with ALLOWING us to celebrate Christmas in the way that we feel is most appropriate. It's eclectic. It's a work in progress. But there you have it! Be warned!
