Parenting Forum

Himawari · #21 (**permalink**) 15-04-2006, 08:18 PM

Re: Christian holidays . . . to celebrate or not to celebrate and how?

I remember being about six and pretending I still believed in Santa Claus (the Continental European St Nick on 6th December) to please my mother (an avowed all-religion-is-brainwashing type) and older sister (who had prepared a tape of Sally Boyden, Abba etc including message of greeting from Santa in gruff grandfatherly voice and his merry giggly breathless elves).

DS seems to hold contradictory views on the whole Santa thing but I am quite happy for him to believe as long as likes and come to his own conclusions, while at the same time answering his questions honestly and rationally.

jgv · #22 (**permalink**) 16-04-2006, 04:45 PM

Re: Christian holidays . . . to celebrate or not to celebrate and how?

I am theravadan buddhist but was raised Catholic. So at Easter it is our family's Croatian tradition to dye easter eggs and then afterwards we have smashing egg fights! I have always loved this tradition and we continue now with myself and my partner.

This morning my Mum, partner and I dyed the eggs and then smashed them to see who would win!

We still celebrate Easter and Christmas because that has been part of my upbringing as well. As one poster previously said whichever country she was in she would celebrate their traditions too. When I was in Nepal we celebrated Diwali.

I enjoy all of my upbringing so we have a little bit of Croatian Catholicism at Easter, at Christmas I still get a present the night before Xmas when I used to attend midnight mass (which I no longer do) and we celebrate Buddhist festivals for the tradition I believe in now.

I am a firm believer in creating your own stuff and not having to stick to 'rules' as such. It seems others have the same ideals as me and also celebrate different traditions. Those they have been brought up with and those they practice now.

I love being a buddhist but I wouldn't give up the Croatian heritage for anything. It's tradition and that you can't change.

I will post some pics of my beautifully decorated eggs soon!

Nell

jgv · #23 (**permalink**) 16-04-2006, 06:09 PM

Re: Christian holidays . . . to celebrate or not to celebrate and how?

And here is the link to the egg pics!

http://www.pbase.com/bookster/easter_2006

angelfish · #24 (**permalink**) 26-04-2006, 01:48 PM

Re: Christian holidays . . . to celebrate or not to celebrate and how?

I hope this doesn't sound too shallow or hypocritical, but we celebrate everything we can! Why miss Christmas just because you aren't Christian? Although we don't belong to a church, I consider myself a "cultural christian" and like to preserve some of the (non-religious) traditions of the season. We do special food to family recipes, get the children an advent calendar (incidentally, I counted the pictures in last year's one, and there were only a couple that had any religious content), decorate our tree (it's the same age as my eldest child and grows with them) and try to encourage the concept of "giving" by donating to charities and clearing out excess toys etc to put in the vinnie bin. We tend to avoid the commercial hype - the children only get one small present, and we don't do the whole santa thing. I have had a few negative reactions about that, some people think that not telling your kids about santa is child abuse. Christmas carols, well ok they are religious, but I love them anyway. We make our own cards, and we usually put happy new year, or seasons greetings or similar so it is more inclusive than a Christian specific one.
For Easter we do coloured eggs and plant daffodils. We also have hot cross buns and my husband's insistence, although they're so ubiqitous that they hardly count as religious symbolism.
When the children are older we will explain things in more detail, and try to cover all angles. eg "Christmas was a pagan midwinter festival which later came to be associated with the birth of Christ then morphed into a wishywashy secular festival of family togetherness and further deteriorated into a mindless spending spree". OK, so I'll have to work on it a bit!!

Siobhan · #25 (**permalink**) 26-04-2006, 02:35 PM

Re: Christian holidays . . . to celebrate or not to celebrate and how?

Quote:

Originally Posted by angelfish

When the children are older we will explain things in more detail, and try to cover all angles. eg "Christmas was a pagan midwinter festival which later came to be associated with the birth of Christ then morphed into a wishywashy secular festival of family togetherness and further deteriorated into a mindless spending spree". OK, so I'll have to work on it a bit!!

I love it. It's perfect as is.

Kasivennt · #26 (**permalink**) 26-04-2006, 07:47 PM

Re: Christian holidays . . . to celebrate or not to celebrate and how?

We celebrate christmas and easter although I am pagan... I find it is difficult to get myself into the rhythm of celebrating the pagan festivals so would be even more difficult to include those around me iykwim!

Either way I also find that all of mine and dh's families celebrate the christian holidays when there are young children involved i would prefer to keep everyone happy and everything easy and not have to try and explain things to everyone including other peoples children.

Katie