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

[Anonymous]

Santa is not religious. Why would you deny your child a fun tradition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re atheists. We do tooth fairy, Santa, Easter Bunny and the whole shebang. Why? Because it’s more cultural than religious. And secondly, childhood only comes once. It’s fun and exciting, and this period is fleeting. The kids will grow out of it soon enough and they get to enjoy the holidays with their peers. They also love the magic and fun of Harry Potter, Rick Riordan series, and other fantasy, and they enjoy it.

If you’re not celebrating holidays and events, what are you celebrating? Just birthdays? Life is so short. If you’re not throwing in some festivities along the way you’re basically just twiddling your thumbs until you die. Have fun. Mark the occasions just because.

Sorry but belief in those things is as foolish as belief in any religion. Join us in reality. It’s liberating.

No thanks, I like to smile, have fun, and express joy with my children. Plenty of time as adults for “reality.”

[Anonymous]

My fundamentalist Baptist roommate in college was raised by her pastor father to not celebrate any holidays and she was a very sad (as I’m not happy) person. I am a Christian but boy was he a joyless control freak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Santa is not religious. Why would you deny your child a fun tradition?

Santa is based on saint nicholas. The modern version may be more secular but the history is still there. You do you but don’t expect us to respect your fairytale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re atheists. We do tooth fairy, Santa, Easter Bunny and the whole shebang. Why? Because it’s more cultural than religious. And secondly, childhood only comes once. It’s fun and exciting, and this period is fleeting. The kids will grow out of it soon enough and they get to enjoy the holidays with their peers. They also love the magic and fun of Harry Potter, Rick Riordan series, and other fantasy, and they enjoy it.

If you’re not celebrating holidays and events, what are you celebrating? Just birthdays? Life is so short. If you’re not throwing in some festivities along the way you’re basically just twiddling your thumbs until you die. Have fun. Mark the occasions just because.

Sorry but belief in those things is as foolish as belief in any religion. Join us in reality. It’s liberating.

No thanks, I like to smile, have fun, and express joy with my children. Plenty of time as adults for “reality.”

You can do all those things and live in the actual world, too. It’s just as amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

PP you replied to. I am Asian and European. Not American. They have cards in Japan with little Father Christmases on them. Halloween, originally a celtic new year event, is celebrated all over the world.

You don’t realize that cultures and beliefs are malleable and easily adoptable and that there is no clash of cultures except in the minds of ignorant, fearful people. Living in the West, it’s self-evident that you should teach your kids the underpinnings of their countries’ traditions. It doesn’t need to conflict at all with the rest of the stuff you want them to know. My Russian Godmother gave me books of Russian myths, my mother read West African folktales to me, my Asian relatives brought me to Shinto shrines... the more culturally aware you can makes your kids, the better off they are.

And it starts by not rejecting any one culture.

[Anonymous]

It might be amazing to know but christmas started as a pagan holiday and so did easter. There is nothing religious about santa or the easter bunny (or perhaps you can point me to where in the bible those characters are). We are atheists but celebrate christmas and easter in terms of gifts, a tree, easter baskets, and so forth. I never told my kids santa or the easter bunny was real, but it has nothing to do with religion. I was raised in an extremely religious household and my parents never tried to convince me santa was real

[Anonymous]

We are Hindus and love to celebrate Christmas. For us, in a non-pandemic year, it is a long series of celebrations that start from Navratris, Karva Chauth, Diwali, TG, Christmas, New Years and ends in Valentine Day. Then we begin again with Holi in March.

Then we stuff ourselves to the gills with food and celebrations. We may look nerdy and studious but in reality we are party animal foodies. And no one parties like Santa. Dude hops from one house to another the whole night. And he has an Indian gut! Our kind of guy!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

PP you replied to. I am Asian and European. Not American. They have cards in Japan with little Father Christmases on them. Halloween, originally a celtic new year event, is celebrated all over the world.

You don’t realize that cultures and beliefs are malleable and easily adoptable and that there is no clash of cultures except in the minds of ignorant, fearful people. Living in the West, it’s self-evident that you should teach your kids the underpinnings of their countries’ traditions. It doesn’t need to conflict at all with the rest of the stuff you want them to know. My Russian Godmother gave me books of Russian myths, my mother read West African folktales to me, my Asian relatives brought me to Shinto shrines... the more culturally aware you can makes your kids, the better off they are.

And it starts by not rejecting any one culture.

So what? Myths are still myths in whatever culture. Feel free to live in imaginary-land though. Superstition is for the weak minded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are Hindus and love to celebrate Christmas. For us, in a non-pandemic year, it is a long series of celebrations that start from Navratris, Karva Chauth, Diwali, TG, Christmas, New Years and ends in Valentine Day. Then we begin again with Holi in March.

Then we stuff ourselves to the gills with food and celebrations. We may look nerdy and studious but in reality we are party animal foodies. And no one parties like Santa. Dude hops from one house to another the whole night. And he has an Indian gut! Our kind of guy!!

Party-on! There are many reasons to do so. But why make irrationality (religion) part of it?

[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.

Yes, I like this approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are Hindus and love to celebrate Christmas. For us, in a non-pandemic year, it is a long series of celebrations that start from Navratris, Karva Chauth, Diwali, TG, Christmas, New Years and ends in Valentine Day. Then we begin again with Holi in March.

Then we stuff ourselves to the gills with food and celebrations. We may look nerdy and studious but in reality we are party animal foodies. And no one parties like Santa. Dude hops from one house to another the whole night. And he has an Indian gut! Our kind of guy!!

Party-on! There are many reasons to do so. But why make irrationality (religion) part of it?

Any celebration that celebrates some kind of goodness or joy, and couples it with fun traditions, family/community, good food - be it religious or secular - is worth participating in. There is no downside to celebrating it. Also, it is one way to honor the fact that we live in a diverse country, and have friends who are diverse, and I think that my participation gives me a small understanding of what my Christian friends experience.

Celebrate in a respectful manner and in a secular manner. I am always touched when I am invited to friends with different religious persuasions than me to share in their religious celebration. I don't want to live in a narrow silo.

[Anonymous]

Joyless poster marches on, grits teeth, teaches kids to ruin childhood magic for other children, as well. My sister and her husband are atheists but Christmas is a fun holiday for them, and their child. She was extremely upset a child in his class played Santa spoiler a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Santa is not religious. Why would you deny your child a fun tradition?

Santa is based on saint nicholas. The modern version may be more secular but the history is still there. You do you but don’t expect us to respect your fairytale.

Santa is not just based on St. Nicholas. There are many pagan and Northern European (and Southern) cultural roots too. It is more of an amalgamation of everything plus Nash’s cartoon for Coca-Cola.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are Christian. Just exchange a few small gifts - tree optional, no Santa.

They just told you they are not.