nonreligious moms - how to explain holidays

[boongirl]

How do you explain the religious aspects of the holidays to your children if you are not religious? I mean, we are not religious at all. I never went to church as a child. My dad put science before church. My dh was raised catholic but gave it up in favor of science at age 12. My dh thinks christianity, particularly evangelical christianity, is a death cult and the catholic church is not much better. I believe the baby Jesus story is a great myth and angels are no different to me than storybook characters. But, how do you explain religious beliefs to a 2 year old? She is asking about manger scenes we see around town and angels. Of course, dh's thoughts are too strong for her to understand now. But, how to explain religion to a child in such a way as to be respectful of religions, leave the possibility open that she may believe one day, and yet not sound like it is the truth? (because to us it is not)

Would you just say: some people believe a baby was born on christmas day and that it was a special baby and he became a great leader. Some people believe that there are angels, special beings, who live around us and protect us but we cannot see them.

And, what about the other holidays this time of year?



Kathy

[Black Orchid]

We treat them like "stories". We have a tree, my DD has a little bible that has some sweet, sugar-coated tales in it and she likes the pictures and we'd like to teach her some stories about the Jews, but I am clueless there and am looking for help.

Actually we have begun to approach these holidays (specifically Xmas because we are both from Christian families) as celebrating winter and the birth of the new year by having a bday party for everyone! It makes sense to us right now, as my DD is very young, but as she gets older we will encourage her to explore the deeper meanings of the holidays all year and decide for herself what she believes and doesn't believe.

HTH!

[eilonwy]

:lurk:

[johub]

WE just treat them like stories too.
We also do not emphasize those aspects of Christmas in our house, but we do listen to traditional Christmas music and my kids have seen nativities.
Last year my ds1 was 2 1/2 and he saw a big nativity scene in Costco and he was so excited to see these cool "army men". We even bought him some creche figurines at the dollar store.
In our family my thoughts is that to even go out of my way to explain what "some people believe" etc. just draws extra attention to it.
Of course I will when they really start asking. I will usually add the commonalities in other religions/cultures for a god or king to be born at Midwinter and tell about how Mithras and King Arthur were also both said to be born at midwinter.
Joline

[Shann]

We are Wiccan (witchcraft) and have raised our 2 boys as such. We celebrate kind of an amalgamation of xmas and the pagan Yule celebrations. But we emphasize the whole jesus bunk as just a story/fantasy that some people believe and find necessary. Our boys know jesus is just fiction and so much :blah and aren't impressed by it at all.

[UnschoolnMa]

I am religious (Wicca, Buddhism, teachngs of Jesus), but just put it to the kids like I would many other things. "Christmas is celebrated by many Christians around the world as the birth of Jesus. It's an important celebration for them, but it isn't the only way to celebrate." or something similiar. :)

[mommytolittlelilly]

I've been thinking about this, since L is singing a lot of the traditional Christmas songs along with the secular ones. I know it's going to come up eventually, but we don't have any religious stories, etc. we've been reading, just secular ones. I like the idea of treating it as another story, prefacing it with "some people believe...." I think it's one of the more enjoyable Christian stories I know of (but really I don't know *that* many). If L chooses to "believe" it, I really don't want to actively discourage that, either. My dad was REALLY upset that I was talking about "God" as a child, not so much with me but rather the "instruction" I received at the daycare. He would not have placed me at this particular daycare if the administrators had been upfront about the fact that they were trying to save the "Godless." In the bigger scheme of things, I also think there's some value to having knowlege of these stories, if for no other reason than having some background to draw from for lots of Western literature, art and history.

[*Lisa*]

We just answer questions with: Some people believe (insert relevant story here). Daddy and I think that (insert relevant belief/lack thereof here). We're also clear that she can choose to believe what seems right to her... It seems to be working so far. She knows that Christians are celebrating the birth of Jesus at Christmas. She also knows that although we celebrate Christmas, it's not really Jesus' birth that we're celebrating in our family.

[Throkmorton]

I am lucky that DS hasn't ever really questioned the signifigance of winter celebrations, but I am still subscribing because I am sure I will get more questions eventually.

[kamilla626]

Dd hasn't asked yet, but I plan on telling her that Jesus was a man that lived a long time ago and for some people Christmas is like his birthday party. He was a teacher, and a lot of people think that the things he said and did were so special that they try to "be like him" (Simplistic, I know - but she's only 2).

Mommy and Daddy think that Jesus was a special man, but there have been a lot of other special people that we try to learn from too. There are also a lot of other special things to celebrate at Christmas time, like nature, family, the 1st day of winter, good food, etc.

I don't know... as you can tell, I'm kind of clueless about this too.

[UnschoolnMa]

I don't know... as you can tell, I'm kind of clueless about this too.

Not clueless at all... I think it's a wonderful way to explain it! :thumb