Christmas and Easter. While these holidays celebrate key events in Christianity, they have become about so much more than their "true meaning."
We all know that in Christianity, Christmas is an observation of the birth of Christ. That Good Friday honors the great sacrifice He made on the cross. That Easter celebrates His resurrection.
We also know that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are more readily recognized as symbols of the two main holidays than a cross or manger. This to me is very unfortunate.
I grew up in a household that celebrated both aspects of the day, although admittedly I find most of my memories being focused on the latter rather than the former. I would prefer for my children to have more of a focus on the Biblical stories of the day than the toys and gifts and plastic eggs, but I also remember quite fondly the family traditions that we practiced growing up. I don't want to remove the joy of the holiday traditions from our lives, but I fear that the more important elements of the day will become buried in all the trappings of the consumer aspect.
Last year Moose did not receive an Easter basket. This year he did. Hubby was not crazy about the idea, but I explained to him that the basket was from us, not the Easter bunny. After that his opinion was pretty neutral. I think he felt more like shrugging his shoulders than anything else.
So I guess the main point here is how to strike a balance between all the traditions that come along with these holidays without confusing children or having the whole point of the holidays lost on them. Do your children recieve Easter baskets? Do they come from a mythical bunny or from you? Does Santa visit your home on the 24th of December? How do you make sure that your children are absorbing and understanding the true meaning of the days instead of just peeking around the corner to see what gifts and candies they received? Or do you simply remove the extraneous bits of consumerism from your traditions?
How do you, as a Christian parent, strike a balance in your home, specifically on these holidays?
8 Lovin's:
When I was a kid (and same with G.I. Joe) our parents were deeply involved with instilling in us our Christian values. We were ALWAYS reminded of what the focus of those holidays was: Christ. To that end...we grew up and made our decisions to accept Christ and live for Him. He's our foundation for every day life, not just a holiday. It annoys me a little (but then I have to remember I don't need to focus on others in this way) when Christians just live it on holidays. EVERYDAY is a day to celebrate the death that brought us life.
That being said..."Santa" also visited us as kids and visits Lucy.
I think its all about balance. Parents control the balance. We personally don't see anything wrong with enjoying family traditions on the holidays because we know we do our part to instill the meaning behind the holiday for Lucy. We have some fun and watch Lucy's eyes light up with wonder, but we also read the Christmas story or her Easter Bible to her.
Thanks for your input!
Every day should be a celebration of Jesus, I agree. I am asking specifically about the balance between the holiday tradition and the faith-based meaning behind the day. I felt that striking a balance in daily life was too broad a topic to tackle all at once, and it felt appropriate following Easter Sunday. Such a broad post encompassing the balance of worldly life and faith could go on and on for days and in innumerable directions!
well i am not a christian but my parents did not do santa or the easter bunny but we did get baskets and presents.
easter was originally a pagan holiday, that's why the easter bunny is there, as a symbol of fertility and new life. you could just tell your children that the easter bunny represents new life but he's not a real being. and that eggs and chicks and baskets also represent new life. for pagans, that "new life" means the coming of spring. for christians, that "new life" is jesus' resurrection.
for christmas my parents just gave us gifts from them and we gave presents to each other. there was no need for santa at all. however they did have an old german tradition where the "christ kind" (christ child) came from door to door and left oranges and peppermint sticks in our shoes. so if your kids like leaving out cookies and milk maybe you could leave them out for jesus to celebrate his birthday, not santa.
I grew up with both. This year JDaniel is two. My mom gave him his basket. He knows Easter things come from his Grandmere.
We have a 6 year old and an 8 month old. We do things the way my parents did. We have Santa & the Easter bunny...but we go to church & we make sure Chan knows the real idea behind both Christmas and Easter. Our pastor does a "childrens message" during the sermon where all kids come up front and he gives that days sermon in a kid version so they understand it easily. Chan might not understand all of it yet, but he knows that these holidays have a lot to do with Christ and the reason for the gifts is to celebrate & honor what He did for us. I'm not saying trying to act like we're the best Christians & sometimes we get caught up in the gift giving, but we make sure to tell Chan (& will with Charli) why he's getting the gifts he's getting.
Ian received a basket from my mother, I am not sure if we will even do presents on Easter, more then likely not. Christmas this year he received gifts but I don't think we will do Santa.
My husband and I were just talking about this the other night as well. I grew up a Christian and then when my parents split up I started to rebel and forgot about the meaning of Christianity; I felt like I lost it all. I recently started to become a Christian again and want my children to understand the meaning behind Easter and Christmas by talking with them as a family about these important days and why we celebrate them. We also still plan to have the easter bunny and santa clause (just for the fun of it) but will always keep the true meaning behing these holidays by family discussions and still attending church on these days.
We have opted not to do either... No bunny, no Santa. On Easter, we dont give chocolate bunnies or do eggs or anything. I worry that will become the focus, and honestly, they get candy and gifts all year long, so why does it have to be on this day?
As far as Christmas, that's a harder one. My mom refuses to do any gifts on Christmas, and has since we were about 6 I think. But I like giving gifts on Christmas. We try to drive home what Christmas is really about, and give gifts to each other to remember that Christ was a gift to us. Hard to remind a kid that gifts is not the MOST important thing at Christmas, but hopefully they'll learn more as they grow and we continue to remind them.
Tough...
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