What have parents taught children about Christmas?
When I was a child, I used to look forward to Christmass it’s the only time of the year I get a nice present apart from my birthday.
It was a religious occasion; we go to church have a special Christmas lunch. The Christmas carols all about Jesus, God, etc., there was nothing religiously unique for Christmas, it was only church and Christmas Carol.
We used to compare our gifts, who got the best, who got something different, and so on. At my time, there wasn’t much to choose from. Very simple gifts make us happy and sleepless. The excitement goes through the roof.
After having children of my own, I questioned the whole idea of Christmass, church, religious occasion, gifts, extravagant lunch and dinner etc,.
With Christmass manipulated so many times over the years, to coincide with a holiday, and finally to make more profit for cooperates. It now became something commercial rather than religious.
Thinking back to how alcohol was forbidden in Christianity, one wonders, how did alcohol become an important part of what it’s supposed to be a religious festival? Christmas celebration is boring in most countries without that sip of beer, wine, champagne etc,. The price of alcoholic drinks is not cheap and when you buy so many bottles to last the party, the cost adds up.
Families can go without for the rest of the year until Christmas with some throwing themselves under the mercy of debts to make a good Christmass, only to suffer later on to pay back the loan with interests.
I wondered, for how long we will continue to fall for the big cooperates tricks to extort more money from the needy and the vulnerable. When we will wake up and open our eyes to the truth surrounding our very existence to be used by big cooperates for their profit?
We are basically teaching our children how to remain submit to cooperates, how to give them money they worked hard for in exchange for a silly thing that most of the time we don’t need. When we buy gifts for Christmas, are they needed or are they just nice, something nice and different, something expensive most can’t afford, maybe something for Jesus, or are we just sucked in a culture that was built over time to get where it is now?
Are we celebrating Christmass really for the sake of Jesus or are we just simply lost and do not know why or what Christmas even stands for?
If Christmas is really a day for Jesus, then wouldn’t people be doing more righteous deeds, and celebrate with simple things, with the focus on prayers and worship?
People commit all kinds of sins around Christmas, girls get spikes and rape at parties. People get drunk and stab others to death. Fornication, adultery marks the occasion. Children witness their parents drunk and fight, other family members get drunk at parties and hurt each other. All this as we tell the children all about Christmas and Jesus, we tell the bible stories, how Jesus healed the blind and the sick, give to the poor, loving and forgiving.
The gap between the poor and the rich is forever wide, yet we are not doing anything about it. You may ask, what to do? While we can start by telling them the truth, teach them simplicity as a way of life that is more rewarding and more satisfying.
Money is to be spent on what we need, not what we want. Our needs are more important and they are very limited whiles our wants are not important and have no end.
When it comes to religious occasions, we need to know where to drawer the line between the truth, fabrication, and lies. Children become victims of our own hands. As parents, I believe we need to teach children the truth always and protect them from being used and exploit.
what is the point of taking children to school with the hope of a better future for them, when we starting off with material things as a sign of love and richness, that is buried under stress, to get those things so they can feel good about material themselves for a short time, while stress and lack of money is really eating them from inside?
Preparing our children for a better future also includes giving them the knowledge they need to survive, to be protected from the growing slavery machines of big cooperates.
Most of the time, how children turn out has a direct link with the way we parent them.
Copyright: @JoyOfWomanhood 15-12-2021
Sadly, commercialism has overshadowed the true spirit of Christmas. People now think more of the "commercial" version of St. Nicholas rather than the birth of Jesus.