If you are a non religious household, how do you handle religious holidays or Santa, etc?

[Anonymous]

I don't see Santa as religious at all, and in fact have several Christian friends who did not do presents or Santa at Christmas because it detracts from what Christianity is all about. Akin to false idols and all that.

I did Santa, and described him as symbolic of the spirit of giving.

[Anonymous]

I’m Jewish, DH is is Christian and neither of us are religious. We enjoy the celebratory aspects and rituals of the holidays and we did do (low-key) Santa, decorations, etc. It’s not religious but the traditions are fun.

[Anonymous]

While I'm a Christian and did do Santa with my kids, Santa isn't Christian. Saint Nicholas may have Christian roots, but I place Santa Clause in the same category as the Tooth Fairy and leprechauns. Also similar:. Chuck E. Cheese, Ronald McDonald, Woodsy the Owl, McGruff, and Disney characters

While I do use the Christmas holiday to remember the biblical Nativity story, that is entirely different from secular celebrations. Most of our "Christmas" traditions are co-opted Pagan traditions celebrating the solstice (cultures around the world have marked that time, but even if you believe the biblical account was almost certainly not when Christ would have been born), with the other customs being pretty much things people have come up with using the holiday as a convenient excuse. Rudolph's story was a marketing gimmick for Montgomery Ward's.

https://www.newsweek.com/origins-christmas-1270858

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer

It may be of interest that the Puritans banned Christmas and even when it was allowed back, it was considered disreputable for some time.

Seems to me, that everybody celebrates differently. Some may wear matching pajamas, or goofy sweaters. With my kids we always did the stockings as soon as they woke up and had a pre-breakfast of Christmas candy. Growing up, one set of my grandparents did the same thing most of the day that they did any time company came over for any reason, played dominoes. While as a Christian, the religious parts are most meaningful to me, I think you can celebrate a Christmas/Solstice/American Commercialism/Festivus/Just Because holiday any way you want. While it may seem heretical to many Americans, because I have absolutely no interest in sports, I skip the Superbowl game, but may look for the best commercials the next day. Similarly, I don't want to sit through the Oscars, but I may watch the red carpet or look up notable dresses the next day. I may not be celebrating these events as somebody else intended, but I enjoy the parts I want and skip the rest.

[Anonymous]

We never outright lie to our daughter. We talk about Santa in evolving and age appropriate ways and my dad likes to track Santa’s sleigh on the norad website with her. We talk more about the idea of a spirit or generosity especially at Christmas time. I would describe us as more Muppet Christmas Carol, less church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Santa isn’t religious.

Santa is based on Saint Nicholas so therefor we consider it religious and don’t do it. It’s just contributing to the ridiculous of it all.

It is also based on Norway’s nisse and Sweden’s tomte. So not solely Christian.

Regardless we deal in reality in our house. I’m sure nisse and tomte and whatever are fairytales too.

[Anonymous]

What is wrong with a little fantasy in the life of a young child?

[Anonymous]

We are very atheist... but my 3 year old’s friends all talk about Santa and she was very happy when he brought her presents. We will continue having Santa come because it’s fun and she likes it. Same with the Easter bunny

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is wrong with a little fantasy in the life of a young child?

Because it’s a ridiculous superstition. I told my child it’s a lie when she asked about it and to not be afraid to tell others the same. The same as she knows spongebob is not real. There’s wonderful things in the real world too.

[Anonymous]

We celebrated the secular aspects- Santa, the Easter Bunny etc.

DH and I were both raised Christian (his family is quite religious, mine isn’t very). The kids are exposed to the religious aspects when we celebrate with extended family. As they got older, we explained more etc.

Mine are 10 and 12 are not confused- never have been.

This approach seems very common enough among their peers/community etc so has never seemed strange. If we lived in a heavily religious area, would probably be different.

[Anonymous]

Santa is a symbol that people who celebrate Christmas believe in. He's not real. We don't tell them that because they're funny about it and get angry if people say that. So - to us, it's all Christmas crap. Christmas is a holiday where they celebrate a dead Jewish guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is wrong with a little fantasy in the life of a young child?

Because it’s a ridiculous superstition. I told my child it’s a lie when she asked about it and to not be afraid to tell others the same. The same as she knows spongebob is not real. There’s wonderful things in the real world too.

Don't forget to tell her that millions of people disagree with you.

[Anonymous]

You need to broaden your mind and understand the end goal, OP.

Judeo-Christianism is what the Western world was founded on. From a purely cultural point of view, it is important to understand its main ideas, tenets, most notable texts, and citations thereof, as references to it will pop up everywhere, from the great classics to the most absurd pop memes to dinner conversations with people you may wish to impress. It's hard to fully appreciate the heart-wrenching ending of Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities, if you don't know the corresponding Bible quotations.

Your children need to know their cultural background. Period. It's like selling them on Shakespearean insults to make them read some Shakespeare, or telling them what Archimedes said in the bath to make the math more palatable. All this is CULTURALLY IMPORTANT. And then you can springboard to all other major religions they need to know about for their own professional and personal benefit. Children learn best when they hear stories, so I suggest you start their religious education with the stories from the Bible. Similarly, you can tell them about Darwin's crippling anxiety and how it affected his work, or how Edison was a lying grifter no one liked. Facts are made more palatable with human interest!

I've always insisted to my kids that Father Christmas comes to give presents, but with that special tone of voice I reserve for Transparent Mommy Whoppers, of which I have many, so my kids always had great fun pointing out all the ways he could never get around the world in time, and were never upset that they had initially believed me. But then I read them the Chronicles of Narnia when they were little, and various other stories like it - they've always understood that you can hope something is real on some level, all the while knowing that here in the real world, we have some unfortunate space-time limitations. In literature, it's called suspension of disbelief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You need to broaden your mind and understand the end goal, OP.

Judeo-Christianism is what the Western world was founded on. From a purely cultural point of view, it is important to understand its main ideas, tenets, most notable texts, and citations thereof, as references to it will pop up everywhere, from the great classics to the most absurd pop memes to dinner conversations with people you may wish to impress. It's hard to fully appreciate the heart-wrenching ending of Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities, if you don't know the corresponding Bible quotations.

Your children need to know their cultural background. Period. It's like selling them on Shakespearean insults to make them read some Shakespeare, or telling them what Archimedes said in the bath to make the math more palatable. All this is CULTURALLY IMPORTANT. And then you can springboard to all other major religions they need to know about for their own professional and personal benefit. Children learn best when they hear stories, so I suggest you start their religious education with the stories from the Bible. Similarly, you can tell them about Darwin's crippling anxiety and how it affected his work, or how Edison was a lying grifter no one liked. Facts are made more palatable with human interest!

I've always insisted to my kids that Father Christmas comes to give presents, but with that special tone of voice I reserve for Transparent Mommy Whoppers, of which I have many, so my kids always had great fun pointing out all the ways he could never get around the world in time, and were never upset that they had initially believed me. But then I read them the Chronicles of Narnia when they were little, and various other stories like it - they've always understood that you can hope something is real on some level, all the while knowing that here in the real world, we have some unfortunate space-time limitations. In literature, it's called suspension of disbelief.

So now Santa is part of some magnificent Eurocentric corpus? I think the less we focus on the west and Europe the better.

[Anonymous]

My husband is nominally Catholic and I am an atheist. His family is practicing Catholic and mine had no religion (my grandparents occasionally went to Episcopalian or Presbyterian church, but mostly as a social gathering). We celebrated Christmas and Easter when I was a child and I do the same, because it's fun for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband is nominally Catholic and I am an atheist. His family is practicing Catholic and mine had no religion (my grandparents occasionally went to Episcopalian or Presbyterian church, but mostly as a social gathering). We celebrated Christmas and Easter when I was a child and I do the same, because it's fun for kids.

^ I should say we celebrate the non-religious aspects of the holidays - Santa and the Easter bunny and presents and egg hunts.