War on Christmas my Gigantic Round Ass.
In my home, Santa is an idea. Not a person. Specifically, not a person.
We've never taken the kids to sit on Santa's lap, or had anyone pretend to be Santa, or written letters to Santa.
Not only that, but we celebrate a lot of Winter holidays. We celebrate [secular] Chanukkah, we celebrate Solstice, we celebrate New Years, and we celebrate [secular] Christmas. When I say, "Winter holidays," I'm not being politically correct. I just don't want to type all that out. For real.
Christmas is mostly my husband's holiday. I gave up Christmas for Solstice and Chanukkah years ago and felt lighter and happier for the deal. We celebrate Christmas as a family because we have a blended family with room for lots of traditions. I don't really expect people to know all that, though. I generally just wave over the Merry Christmas or Happy Chanukkah or Blessed Yule or Happy New Year that I pass by. This is especially easy now that I am not in retail and consistently in a position of being force-fed Christmas for three months every year.
With me accepting Christmas back into my arms, we had to figure out what place Santa played. My brother is firmly atheist, but does do Santa. My sister is... confusing, and has a few holidays. Honestly, I haven't asked her her position on Santa because she doesn't have kids. We all grew up with Santa, and it was both weird and cool. I didn't have much of a "dog" in the race, other than that the mythology behind the archetype of Santa is one that I have always found loving and kind. Nevertheless, I remember fairly well my brother and sister both deciding to torture me as a child by telling me Santa was dead*. My husband doesn't really like the precedent of telling our children something that we know to not be true.
So, we agreed to honor the idea of the archetype of Santa, but not to actually promote a belief in a physical Santa. Which means we don't have to stand in lines to get our kids' pictures taken with Santa. Which means they don't have to go through sitting in the lap of a stranger who acts more familiar than they actually are. Which honestly makes a great deal of children uncomfortable and would make my own children downright terrified. Win-win, eh?
Anyway - all of this is lead up to the damnable Rick Perry ad and the so-called "War On Christmas." For those who haven't seen the thing, here it is.
For those who can't You Tube, here's what it is - an ad by Rick Perry (who is currently Governor of Texas, and who is making an attempt to run for President of the US) that has him saying,
"I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.
As President, I'll end Obama's war on religion. And I'll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage.
Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again.
I'm Rick Perry and I approve this message."
So, to give you an anecdote as to how seriously untrue this is, let me tell you this story:
On Tuesday I pick Philip up from his public school. The teacher tells me he had a hard time that day, and that he really didn't want to sit with Santa and that the picture will be funny. I sorta just am "uh, okay..." about this, and wonder if I somehow got the date wrong on one of the two holiday celebrations that were put on the calender by the teacher. So when we get home, I check the calender that she sent, and sure enough, it has no such thing in it. There is note of a holiday party that parents are supposed to be at on the 13th, and a Polar Express "wear your pajamas to school day on the 14th. Not to mention that then the following two weeks are had off for the holiday celebration (now you may say that it's a generic holiday celebration, but the holiest holidays of the year for Jews usually happens late Summer/early Fall, Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, and those aren't given off at all, nor are any of the thousand and one other religious holidays, whereas both Christmas and Easter have Public School holidays).
So, tell me again. Tell me, how precisely are children not allowed to "openly celebrate Christmas" in schools?
I don't really think I would have outlawed Santa from Philip, just to be clear. I probably would have told them that if he didn't want to sit on Santa's lap that they shouldn't push it. I do kind of have strong feelings about my kids being forced to physically interact with people they don't need to. Santa is not a need. Doctor is a need. Still, whatever. I get that is our cultural norm. There's an awful lot of stuff within our cultural norm that I'm not down with, really.
Just, like, hearing Rick Perry say that freaking bald faced lie in the exact same week that my kid had a Christmas thing forced on him, was kind of bullshit.
The end.
*There is something of the cruel Smart-ass/know-it-all tradition in my family. Que surprise, no?
We've never taken the kids to sit on Santa's lap, or had anyone pretend to be Santa, or written letters to Santa.
Not only that, but we celebrate a lot of Winter holidays. We celebrate [secular] Chanukkah, we celebrate Solstice, we celebrate New Years, and we celebrate [secular] Christmas. When I say, "Winter holidays," I'm not being politically correct. I just don't want to type all that out. For real.
Christmas is mostly my husband's holiday. I gave up Christmas for Solstice and Chanukkah years ago and felt lighter and happier for the deal. We celebrate Christmas as a family because we have a blended family with room for lots of traditions. I don't really expect people to know all that, though. I generally just wave over the Merry Christmas or Happy Chanukkah or Blessed Yule or Happy New Year that I pass by. This is especially easy now that I am not in retail and consistently in a position of being force-fed Christmas for three months every year.
With me accepting Christmas back into my arms, we had to figure out what place Santa played. My brother is firmly atheist, but does do Santa. My sister is... confusing, and has a few holidays. Honestly, I haven't asked her her position on Santa because she doesn't have kids. We all grew up with Santa, and it was both weird and cool. I didn't have much of a "dog" in the race, other than that the mythology behind the archetype of Santa is one that I have always found loving and kind. Nevertheless, I remember fairly well my brother and sister both deciding to torture me as a child by telling me Santa was dead*. My husband doesn't really like the precedent of telling our children something that we know to not be true.
So, we agreed to honor the idea of the archetype of Santa, but not to actually promote a belief in a physical Santa. Which means we don't have to stand in lines to get our kids' pictures taken with Santa. Which means they don't have to go through sitting in the lap of a stranger who acts more familiar than they actually are. Which honestly makes a great deal of children uncomfortable and would make my own children downright terrified. Win-win, eh?
Anyway - all of this is lead up to the damnable Rick Perry ad and the so-called "War On Christmas." For those who haven't seen the thing, here it is.
Click to viewFor those who can't You Tube, here's what it is - an ad by Rick Perry (who is currently Governor of Texas, and who is making an attempt to run for President of the US) that has him saying,
"I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.
As President, I'll end Obama's war on religion. And I'll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage.
Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again.
I'm Rick Perry and I approve this message."
So, to give you an anecdote as to how seriously untrue this is, let me tell you this story:
On Tuesday I pick Philip up from his public school. The teacher tells me he had a hard time that day, and that he really didn't want to sit with Santa and that the picture will be funny. I sorta just am "uh, okay..." about this, and wonder if I somehow got the date wrong on one of the two holiday celebrations that were put on the calender by the teacher. So when we get home, I check the calender that she sent, and sure enough, it has no such thing in it. There is note of a holiday party that parents are supposed to be at on the 13th, and a Polar Express "wear your pajamas to school day on the 14th. Not to mention that then the following two weeks are had off for the holiday celebration (now you may say that it's a generic holiday celebration, but the holiest holidays of the year for Jews usually happens late Summer/early Fall, Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, and those aren't given off at all, nor are any of the thousand and one other religious holidays, whereas both Christmas and Easter have Public School holidays).
So, tell me again. Tell me, how precisely are children not allowed to "openly celebrate Christmas" in schools?
I don't really think I would have outlawed Santa from Philip, just to be clear. I probably would have told them that if he didn't want to sit on Santa's lap that they shouldn't push it. I do kind of have strong feelings about my kids being forced to physically interact with people they don't need to. Santa is not a need. Doctor is a need. Still, whatever. I get that is our cultural norm. There's an awful lot of stuff within our cultural norm that I'm not down with, really.
Just, like, hearing Rick Perry say that freaking bald faced lie in the exact same week that my kid had a Christmas thing forced on him, was kind of bullshit.
The end.
*There is something of the cruel Smart-ass/know-it-all tradition in my family. Que surprise, no?