Every year at this time of year I get all in a muddle.
All my classes want to do something Christmassy.
I want to do something Christmassy.
But I don't want to do something fried chicken, strawberry shortcake and presents for the childrenny.
I want to talk about the meaning of Christmas.
But I'm not a Christian. I don't want to (nor could I) preach.
Searching for Christmas materials on line you tend to find two kinds- religious and secular.
Religious has baby Jesus, Bethlehem, angels etc.
Secular has Santa, presents, candy, snowflakes and snowmen.
(I'm from Australia. No snowmen at my Christmas secular or otherwise...)
While I would feel odd teaching a purely religious Christmas when it's not what I observe I also think it's odd to completely take God out of Christmas. One of my students lived in the US for a while. She told me she was instructed to say 'Happy Holidays!' rather than 'Merry Christmas!' That seems really bland to me. And in Japan it's not a holiday anyway. And if you take baby Jesus out of the nativity you are left with a bunch of farm animals. Happy Farm Animal Day! Nope doesn't work for me.
I want a third option. I'm thinking of calling it moral.
My moral Christmas has an emphasis on giving and being grateful, thinking about those who make sacrifices for our happiness and what we can sacrifice (I'm thinking time, energy and money rather than lambs or first born sons) to help others.
In my kids classes we usually decorate cookies. I give each kid two cookies. One for them and one for someone they love. They decorate them both, eat their cookie and we bag up and attach a gift tag to the other cookie. It's important to me that they are not just getting a cookie but giving one as well.
This year in my Christmas Bingo, among the snowflakes and reindeer, I left in 5 religious cards- Bethlehem, Mary and Jesus, Three wise men, a star and an angel. There's no reason why I chose those 5, I printed off a premade Bingo set from the internet. But it gave me an in to talk a little bit about the meaning of Christmas.
And what conversations they have been. Did you know:
The three wise men were the only ones who could see the Emperor's new clothes?
The angel was Jesus' mother?
Bethlehem is in Pakistan. Where America is fighting?
We put the star at the top of the Christmas tree because it has sharp points and would be dangerous lower down?
That would be funny if it was from my kid's classes but no. It's from my senior women.
And I'm glad that by the end of this Christmas we should have a better understanding than that at least.