Anyway. So I've been talking about it, here and there, with the idea of getting him excited about it but not SO excited that he asks every second minute when Christmas (and his presents) is coming. So far he's grasped the idea that Christmas is coming. I think he might actually realize we're going to the grandparents, but I don't know for sure. He's kind of grasped the idea that there will be presents, kind of, but not so much so that he's asking for them -- thankfully.
One thing I haven't at all introduced is the concept of Santa Claus. Why, I'm not sure. I guess for one thing I'm not entirely sure that he's grasped the concept of Christmas itself, and introducing something new seems just a poor idea. For another I have to be honest in that I'm not entirely comfortable with lying to my child about this. Oh, at some point I'm sure we'll have a discussion about it, but right now I'm just not sure about how to approach it so I am taking the easy way out and avoiding it.
However.
I arrived at daycare today to see that holiday decorating was already well in hand. There are swathes of glittery fabric around posts, garlands on the walls, snowflakes (I think) and a large amount of Hanukkah-themed items, such as cut-out menorahs and glittery dreidels hanging from the ceiling.
(I have to pause here and wonder ... since I don't remember from last year ... do they take down the Hanukkah things post-Hanukkah, and leave up the rest of the decorations for Christmas? It would seem weird to decorate and then remove half the stuff, but then oddly inappropriate to leave things up, I suppose.)
Anyway. The point being only that The Boy is gaining holiday knowledge from someone other than me. I'm not at all worried about him confusing Hanukkah and Christmas; he'll figure that out soon enough, seeing what we do at home. What I do worry about is the following exchange:
Me: So Christmas is coming soon!
N: Yeah! And Santa Claus will come!
Me: (Not remembering that I ever connected those two events) Uh ... yeah, he will!
N: And he'll come with his balloons!
Me: ???!
N: And then he'll bop us on the head!
Me: [speechless]
No. Not worried at all about confusing traditions from two major faiths.
TOTALLY worried about the nightmares he'll have about Santa Claus coming here to hit him. And somewhat concerned about what. The. Hell. they are saying at that daycare.
1 comment:
Is it bad that I am totally laughing about the balloons? ;^)
The thing about Stuff Kids Learn At Daycare is that a lot of it doesn't come from the program, the teachers, etc., it comes from the other kids. And kids, as you know, are capable of both wild and wonderful flights of imagination and also astonishingly bizarre feats of misinterpretation. Who knows where the balloons might have come from?
I'm not entirely comfortable with the whole Santa Claus thing, either. It feels like lying to me. But when DH and I discussed it, several years ago now, he ended up winning the round. So, yeah, Santa comes to our house, despite my discomfort with the idea.
(BTW, this year Christmas and Chanukah coincide: the latter begins the night of 21 December. But this is not always the case, and yeah, leaving the decorations up all month is weird. Though perhaps not quite so weird as the magnification of this minor holiday into a Very!Big!Deal by its calendrical proximity to Christmas.)
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