The next few days, depending on the community in which we find the vast majority of students in this country will begin one of the most anticipated periods of the year, the Christmas holidays, but for a few days a large part of the world has been submerged or rather absorbed by Christmas, as well as a general term. Advance purchases, gift lists, extra hiring, block of free days and millions of lights and trees that leave, one more year of the storage rooms to start one of the most celebrated traditions of the Catholic world.
It is right there, in his religious character, the one that is increasingly buried among millions of purchases, gift catalogs and thousands of minutes of television ads for Perfect Christmas, where we wonder if Christmas makes sense if you don't believe in God, are we in danger of turning them into mere consumerism?
I am one of the many millions of people who do not believe in God and who each year wants December to arrive and especially the second fortnight, one more of those who take out a tree and ride their own private nativity scene, which he enjoys seeing the city full of lights (despite the usual exaggerated tacky). I am one of those who does not believe in gods but in man and at times at the table with his family or with his friends, or both.
The Spirit of Christmas and the Christmas Grinch
We will not deny at this point that the celebration of Christmas is one of the most important in the Catholic calendar, where God's arrival in this world is celebrated. For the believers these festivities are not just gifts, lights, dinners and Christmas carols that there is a much deeper spirit at the base of everything, but it is that for nonbelievers too.
Yes there are a feeling that gains a special strength these days is love, in their different types of expression, family reunions, songs, special actions, etc. And in my opinion, love does not need beliefs in one god or another, but in our ability to empathize with the other, to be social beings.
It is true that there are many other things behind and that are not so nice, that there will be those who feel obliged by this tide of good rolling and a large part of posturing, in which many times, we spend to appear before others what we would need the rest of the year, there was never a more propitious time for the phrase "A day is a day".
No, it is not the Magi or Santa Claus who are watching us, it is our children who observe
I do not know how many times they told me when I was little, "Be good that the Kings are watching you", how many letters I started with "This year I have been a very good child", looking everywhere when writing about "good" and what is true is that really those who are watching us, who will see how we behave with others, with them, what we do on these dates are neither more nor less than Our own children!
Love does not need beliefs in one god or another, but in our ability to empathize with the other, to be social beings.
It is they who in the future will do, with their own contributions, what they saw us do. Whether or not our children believe in Christmas over whether or not we believe in God will depend on how we teach them to live these dates. If we base Christmas on eating and gifting, that will be what they have left, that Christmas is the period to spend half the day at home eating and the other from store to store.
Tell them or not the truth. The great crossroads!
What if I tell him? What if we spoil his illusion for Christmas? Wouldn't it be worse if he finds out about others? What if he thinks we've been lying to him, cheating? What if he doesn't trust us again?At what age is it the best to tell? Surely most of us have ever asked ourselves the same questions and that is a great dilemma. You know that you live in a society in which the vast majority celebrate Christmas, that most of the classmates of your children's school will believe in the Kings and Santa Claus and we know that it is difficult to explain to a child why he does not and the others do , that the simplest thing is to get carried away by the current and wait for him to be mature enough to tell him the truth, but then what and how we tell it.
Any decision we make in this area is perfectly respectable, especially because here comes the convictions and spirituality of each and how our children are. If you think the time has come to tell the truth to your children and you need to know some other option than "Yes honey, Santa Claus is me" Here you have two very nice ways to do it: the order of the Magi Y how to become santa claus. Personally I prefer the second one since the first one, in my case, would be to continue with the lie, but as I said, each one chooses the path that he considers most correct according to his beliefs.
But maybe, Before explaining the truth to our children, we should teach them what Christmas is about and enjoy it above Papás Noeles y Reyes. My best Christmas memories were not so much the gifts, but also, everything that I did with my family and that we didn't usually do the rest of the year, like going to see giant, living, modern, classic nativity scenes, singing Christmas carols or any other group song, walk with my father, go to my grandmother's house to see how I prepared Christmas dinner, the nerves of arriving at the end of the trip or to see who arrived every time the house bell rang and yes, go through the Toy stores until you leave a corner without seeing.
Another of the things that you can also do is to establish your own traditions, why not? Someone was the first to put candles on the trees to decorate Christmas, so it would not be bad if your family had their own, for example make some special Christmas cookies, take a photo somewhere special, visit someone , etc.
It depends on us how Christmas will be for our children and not only for them, but also for us because it will be the memories that will remain above the gifts, the lights and the meals. And not only with great actions or You can live a Christmas without having faith in God and if in humanity and its great acts without forgetting that they are always there, watching what we do even in the little moments or the worst.
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