Thinking about the December holidays again as I read other posts, I remembered something from when my daughter was growing up.

My whole life, Christmas revolved around church, the Christmas plays, the singing in a huge group for Handel's Messiah, playing my flute for the local tree lighting ceremony & many different churches that wanted flute at that time of year, but mostly going to church & celebrating the non commercial side of Christmas.

I never was told the "Santa is real" story, only that there was a real man who long ago was known for giving children toys. The christian meaning of Christmas was the only celebration that we had. We gave presants & it was always the giving that I enjoyed the most. I remember as a child, the neighborhood kids were discussing Santa & the Easter Bunny, most of us knew the stories, & knew that they really didn't exist.....one Mother got so mad at us for saying anything around her child....that we took away her childhood fun & threw away what she was believing as a child. I couldn't understand that because I knew that I enjoyed Christmas just as much without believing in Santa.

When I had my daughter, I taught her what Christmas was all about & that the commercialism wasn't the true meaning of Christmas. Giving presants was good.....a way to thank people for all they had done for you during the year, & that Santa had been a good man long ago that had a love for children & wanted to give them gifts. My Mother in law always wanted to take my daughter to see Santa & have her picture taken with him. My daughter actually didn't like doing that, but Grandma wanted the pictures. My mother in law celebrated the commercial side of Christmas & that was pretty much all it was to their family. My husband went along with my having our daughter know the christian meaning of Christmas & didn't mind much that our celebration was based on the Church celebrations. We did go to a Christmas eve party my Mother in law threw. They had arranged to have a Santa come to the door & bring some presants. There was a knock at the door, my daughter (about 3 years old) went to open the door. She looked out, then slammed the door shut, saying: "It's Santa??????". It wasn't until then that my Mother in law realized that our daughter didn't believe in Santa. They did go & open the door to let him in & everyone enjoyed having him there......but my Mother in law was rather pissed at me for "not allowing my daughter to believe in Santa".

I still feel that what ever my belief is, then that is the holiday I celebrate. I can not celebrate the commercial side of Christmas anymore than I can celebrate Hannukha or Quansa. My celebrations are based on my beliefs. I celebrate Easter, & Passover since Passover is the basis for the Easter I celebrate also. It is kind of difficult to explain my thinking because is seems to be different than even most of those whose religious beliefs are similar to mine. I have always had different thinking that wasn't understood even as a child.

Debbie