REFLECTIONS

Long before the arrival of the BurkeanSon I wondered how to manage the great holiday gift-fest that strikes American children every December.  I watched, often with horror, as sweet little cherubs turned into greedy, present obsessed monsters every December 25.   Even the children who were polite and grateful in the face of the present overload were completely unimpressed by any religious meaning of the day.   The parents that were the most religiously devout often had the most crazed and ungrateful little greedheads. 

When the BurkeanSon was 2 his grandmother gave him 8 presents to try this open a present every day trick.  This trick doesn’t work.  Prayers, candles and the story of the Maccabees were all forgotten because of those gaily wrapped packages that promised to fulfill two year old’s fondest dreams.  So we just seperated presents from meaning and divided the holidays into two.  On Chanukhah we pray and read the story of the Macabees.  We thank God for our religious freedom and pray for those denied it.   We make charitable donations to Toys for Tots and Operation Gratitude.   Then on December 25 the Burkeanson, gratefully and politely, tears into the packages collecting under the Christmas tree.  Which in our house is a holiday for giving and getting presents.

Now if you are offended that we have turned what is to you a religious holiday into a day just for presents all I can say is you started it.  Christmas was a mass present orgy long before I was every born let alone my son.  Watching my Christian friends’ children tearing into presents with no thought of Jesus, you can’t blame me if I have just followed your example. 

So I modestly propose to my Christian readers to follow my example.   Leave Christmas for church and Bible stories and working in a Salvation Army soup kitchen.  Then on Chanukah I give you permission to give your kids all those presents they have been eagerly awaiting.   After all if not for Macabees, Mary and Joseph couldn’t have been living as Jews in Judea and your holiday couldn’t have happened in the first place.   So celebrate both, give your kids the best of both worlds.