The holiday season
There are parts of the holiday season that are intrinsically linked not with the generic "holiday" term that encompasses all winter celebrations, but with Christmas, that one which holds so much spiritual baggage for some. Unfortunately, I'm one who greatly enjoys all those festive aspects of the holiday, but I become painfully uncomfortable when someone assumes I'm celebrating the birth of a savior I don't believe in.
I'm a pantheist, and so several years ago my husband (a very obliging atheist who gamely tolerates my spiritual leanings) and I started celebrating the Winter Solstice instead of Christmas. It's a holiday that actually has spiritual meaning for me, and still means cookies and presents to him, so we were content. There's the added bonus, of course, that the whole tree concept is inherently Pagan and thus I got to carry it along with me. The whole situation seemed to satisfy our needs, though explaining this to people was complicated. We never even bothered with my Catholic in-laws--they're the sort who bake a cake on Christmas and join hands to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Some cans of worms just aren't worth opening.
Yet, lots of things can change when you have a child. And the more I started looking at the holiday season through my daughter's eyes, the more I started to wonder if I was making her miss out on certain aspects of the holiday season simply because of an implied relationship to Jesus.
The original Miracle on 34th Street was one of my favorite movies, and I practically wore out my videotape of A Walt Disney Christmas. Admitedly, I've never been a fan of most Christmas music, but I've always passionately loved
I'm a pantheist, and so several years ago my husband (a very obliging atheist who gamely tolerates my spiritual leanings) and I started celebrating the Winter Solstice instead of Christmas. It's a holiday that actually has spiritual meaning for me, and still means cookies and presents to him, so we were content. There's the added bonus, of course, that the whole tree concept is inherently Pagan and thus I got to carry it along with me. The whole situation seemed to satisfy our needs, though explaining this to people was complicated. We never even bothered with my Catholic in-laws--they're the sort who bake a cake on Christmas and join hands to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Some cans of worms just aren't worth opening.
Yet, lots of things can change when you have a child. And the more I started looking at the holiday season through my daughter's eyes, the more I started to wonder if I was making her miss out on certain aspects of the holiday season simply because of an implied relationship to Jesus.
The original Miracle on 34th Street was one of my favorite movies, and I practically wore out my videotape of A Walt Disney Christmas. Admitedly, I've never been a fan of most Christmas music, but I've always passionately loved