Reply to Interfaith families raising Jewish kids -- talk to me about the December dilemma

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[quote=Anonymous]I asked this once too, and get a lot of tips to just embrace santa and trees etc because they're not religious symbols. That doesn't work for me; no one can convince me otherwise.

I'm Jewish. DH is Jewish. But he has a lot of non-Jews in his family, so we get involved in some complications.

DS is now 4, and just started noticing Santa etc last year, and this year is very clear about "those are Christmas lights and we don't celebrate Christmas."

Like anything you're teaching your kid, there's a lot of repetition and explanation. "We aren't Christian" "We don't celebrate it" "We like to look at other peoples lights and trees" The decorations at the mall are fun' "Aunt Susie celebrates it by going to church and decorating her house" "Is Santa real? Um what do you think? Yeah probably not, but Christina thinks he is, so you shouldn't tell her what you think"

He thinks Christmas looks like fun. We agree and tell him it is, and we can go to family's house and say Merry Christmas and give them presents, but it's still not our holiday. We don't over compensate with Chanukkah - though 8 nights of presents and jelly donuts is pretty fun too.

Our goal is to not make it a dilemma. We answer questions truthfully. We don't over compensate. Just take the questions or concerns as they come, but don't drive yourself crazy. Think of it like anything you teach them - how many times have you told them it's polite to say please, or if you jump on the bed you can get hurt? Just stay the course and eventually they get it. Don't confuse them by agreeing to trees or lights - if you are consistent they will understand.[/quote]

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