Last year, everything changed. Maybe it's because Little S was older, maybe it's because she was at a new school, maybe it's because she had a new appreciation for twinkle lights. Whatever the cause, Little S wanted a Christmas tree in the intense way that three-year olds WANT things. She even threw a temper tantrum during school pickup: on the floor, kicking and screaming, sobbing "I want a Christmas tree!"
When she calmed down, I reminded her that our family doesn't celebrate Christmas. Why not, she asked. Why not get her a Christmas tree if she really wants one?, my friends asked. Even my parents said, at least take her to see Santa. We don't celebrate Christmas, I repeated again and again. It made me want to scream.
Then, a friend recommended the book, The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket. The book, in an entertaining almost subversive way, reminds parents and kids that it's OK to not celebrate Christmas, even if it would be a lot easier to do what everyone else is doing.
The latke lives in a town where nearly everyone celebrates Christmas and people give the latke a hard time for not celebrating Christmas. "So you're basically hash browns," the latke is told. "Someone should write a Christmas carol about you," another person says. "Different things can blend together. Let me tell you a funny story about pagan rituals," says someone else.
Lemony Snicket explains the latke's frustration this way, "It is VERY frustrating not to be understood in this world. If you say one thing and keep being told that you mean something else, it can make you want to scream."
I can relate.
1 comment:
Tell S. to talk to our kids. They've somehow adjusted to not celebrating Christmas. In fact, when store clerks wish them a Merry Christmas they dutifully inform them that "we don't celebrate Christmas, Christians celebrate Christmas!" Let that be a lesson to ya for assuming the entire world is what you are.
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