We didn't bother really until we had the kids. Then we embraced it a bit more. So, yes, we celebrate. We don't discuss any of the origins or beliefs just yet, but it will come eventually.
In the past when i lived near my maternal grandmother i'd go to church with her. She's lovely and she enjoyed it so much. She came to christianity late in life herself.
Non Christian spiritual with pagan leanings here (if that even makes sense, I suppose noob pagan).
For me these days Christmas is just a nice time of year for family and friends to get together. We do the whole tree, presents and meal thing. It is exciting for the kids and that makes it exciting for us. It is also a cultural thing for me, I grew up with it (mum was a lapsed Catholic) and loved it as a child. Hated Christmas for quite a few years, not much fun when the only family around have the most boring Christmases ever.
The girls as they get older will learn about all the different parts of Christmas, the Christian side, the non Christian etc As I learn more about my spirituality I can see how I celebrate this time of year evolving.
absolutely! we love the whole santa thing, and the food and the presents and the tree. i agree with PP that it is a great time to appreciate and catch up with family.
Christmas has always been family time for us. When we were kids we did presents & tree etc. then just family time with lots of food. now we're back to tree etc & presents for the kids. No Santa here because we are obviously total killjoys and want our kids to grow up like justin beiber.
it's not like it's a traditional christian holiday anyway, you know.... they just adopted it.
I've been thinking about this quite a bit recently, with Christmas coming up and everything. I have to say I am a bit confused as to what Christmas will be like in my house. It's just my son and I, and I'm not particularly fussed about it. I am not Christian, but my family did the Santa tradition growing up.. presents, lots of food and big get-togethers etc. But now I'm living in a small town, my only relative here is my mum. (the rest of my family are all interstate). I've been trying to think of ways to make Christmas day a bit different to normal, but that's where I get stuck! I am really struggling to find any meaning in it at all for me as a non-believer. To give gifts for no reason seems a bit extravagant when I am not celebrating anything. Don't get me wrong, I love to be generous but to do it just to follow the crowd makes me feel a bit weird. That said though I do have some gifts to give my son, but they are small and mainly hand made by me. I have sent charity gifts to the rest of my family (goats, chickens etc) as I just can't justify buying 'stuff' that people don't need. Mum is coming around for lunch, but apart from that, I don't know how the day will be any different from any other days.
As for the Santa thing, I won't be doing that with DS. I won't lie to him, I plan on telling him that Santa is a character. I know that will be difficult with all the outside influences (even a lady at the shops told him Santa is coming!), but he will know the gifts come from me. As he will be spending a fair bit of time in Africa growing up I don't want him to question why Santa only comes to the white kids when he sees the African kids miss out. Also, I don't want him to be ridiculed when we are there for believing in a red suited man who comes down chimneys!
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