Vulcan Santa says the needs of the good children outweighs the needs…of the…few…
The best thing about this kerfuffle is the teaching moments for these kids at home.
For Talia’s daughter, it’ll probably include explanations for why she is being ostracized at school because Mommie took a stand for inclusion.
Mommie should consider pulling her daughter out of that school and enrolling her elsewhere. Kids that age can be quite cruel, even if their parents aren’t egging them on.
That’s a known urban legend, yes, but Snopes considers it unlikely to be true.
I propose not having kids in school participate in Christmas-only themed activities. If you want to have an activity that includes lots of cultural activities, where kids talk about/demonstrate what their family does, fine. But there’s no reason for kids in public school to be writing letters to or visiting Santa.
“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus - the way that Mary goes on about that kid, you’d think he was God Almighty…”
Indeed. I grew up Muslim. We didn’t celebrate Christmas. We didn’t sit on Santa’s lap or do anything like that (I remember my brother got in some trouble for telling the rest of his kindergarten class that Santa didn’t exist - the other kids told him that the reason he didn’t get presents was probably because he was naughty). I think events like this one would have exacerbated the ‘otherness’.
I can’t believe no one has even mentioned the really important part of Christmas:
[INDENT][INDENT]
COOKIES[/INDENT][/INDENT]
Cookies are good regardless of which if any religion you belong to.
I think the mother was a little over reactive, though I can understand her underlying feelings. And I have never before heard anyone claim Christmas is secular. Commercial as hell to the point of being pretty much devoid of any meaning, yes, but saying a holiday so named because it commemorates the birth of Christ is not Christian is ridiculous. Too bad the original holiday was even hijacked by the church in the first place. Then we really could have an all inclusive winter celebration(and of course those who really do want to honor Christ could always still do so). By the way I am a non-practicing Jew who as an adult has no problem with Christmas or people celebrating it. Hell, I trim a pretty nice tree and used to sing in my company’s Christmas choir. I never once felt like *I *was *celebrating *Christmas though; more as if I was “along for the ride” for lack of a better phrase. That’s fine when you’re an adult but I can remember feeling . . . odd when the whole Santa thing came up when I was a kid. No one gave me a hard time because though they knew I was Jewish I went along and didn’t make a fuss, but it was uncomfortable in a way (mostly because I was embarrassed to “write a letter” to a make believe character. Forget about sitting on some strange man lap. I didn’t start enjoying that until later).
So, I don’t think there shouldn’t be Christmas decorations and such in schools, but I do think we could do without the whole Santa thing.
Especially when Santa will not be visiting their home.
Imagine explaining to a 5 year old after they’ve written a letter and got to visit Santa, that it’s for other kids. It was hard enough with only the usual stuff that completely immersed my kids in Christmas (holiday specials, decorations, songs) etc. I was happy to tell them that we can enjoy seeing and being invited into other people’s traditions. But if they were asked to write letters and sit on Santa’s lab with no hope of them getting anything for Christmas? That’s just mean and takes exclusion to the nth degree.
There have been multiple people advocating for forcing a child to write letters to Santa and aving a field trip to visit Santa. How is that not forcing a child to celebrate Christmas? I think that the mother’s compromise is perfectly reasonable. Let everybody teach the others about their own traditions and let everybody have a holiday to celebrate rather than forcing the holiday of the majority on everybody. You can’t equate this to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a holiday of Americans which is legitimately celebrated in schools as a part of teaching American history. If you are a foreigner visiting America, then you can teach your child that this is an American tradition just as you would explain Bastille day to an American child who was living in France. If you do not consider yourself American or part of American culture than you can explain that as a foreigner we respect the host country’s traditions. However, if you require a celebration of Christmas in American schools than you are teaching children who do not celebrate the holiday that they do not belong and are not a part of American culture. I believe it’s somewhere in a document called the Constitution that we do not establish a state religion and that there is not a religious requirement for being American.
My kid was forced to play with a dreidel when he was younger… he is scarred to this day.
The central message of the holiday is family food and presents, the only way you can make it religious is by showing up at church, in which case you can make every holiday a religious holiday by doing just that.
Sorry, we just will have to disagree on this one. From someone who was raised Jewish it really can’t be made secular.
Really? You see that as the same thing?
It’s amazing how confident the majority is in letting those of us in the minority know how wrong we are.
Many of my Jewish friends have a sense of humor. Did I somehow claim that I was Christian?
Apparently though I touched a nerve and for that I am sorry.
Without religion - specifically, without Christianity - the holiday would not exist. The holiday is built around the birth of the central figure of one particular religion. You don’t have to “make it religious” when it’s religious at its core.
Utter nonsense.
You’re saying Christmas would exist without Christ? Utter nonsense indeed.
The whore story seems to indicate that St. Nicholas admired the young women’s devotion and felt the need to give each of them a tip. In a purse, which is vernacular for …
I guess we’re f’ed on New Year’s eve too, because that requires us recognizing a date based on a Christian event. Maybe we could adopt the Jewish tradition that the world was created on a Saturday night, October 6, 3761 BCE. (why wasn’t that January 1st?)