u s e y o u r h a n d s

I am not a fan of holidays in general and Christmas specifically. Actually, Thanksgiving I like. For the most part. And in the past when I have voiced decided Scrooginess, people have always patted me on the shoulder and said, “Wait until you have children.” But now that I’m about to have children, I’m actually more anti-Christmas than ever.

I know that when our kid is small, if we did have Christmas, I could control how much of the holiday he’s exposed to and shape what he finds meaningful. So maybe I could give him a harvest/moon based Druid holiday experience where we celebrate by talking about garden planning or something. But what about as he gets into school, meets other kids, and maybe watches TV? You can’t avoid the complete oppressiveness of Christmas. Maybe he’ll want a bunch of crap, a tree, carols. It’s tough to explain to a six-year-old about products of value and the virtue of saving — though probably easier to explain why we can’t have a tree (five cats, climbing, mayhem). As much as I don’t want a kid who craves plastic crap, I want even less a child who is a smug weirdo.

I know I need to learn flexibility and patience through this experience of raising a child. But I don’t want to give up the traits I’ve always had: doubt, logic and frugality. Luckily, I have in-laws who aren’t crazy Christmas people and I have a community of friends who are pretty understanding.