Add to this my love of Santa, I openly admit I love the children's holy spirit of giving called Clause. Not this commercialized version with the newest Xbox tucked under his arm...but the being who loves children despite race, religion or location.
So I am a Santaphile, always have been. I am the acting Santa in my home so I know the job well.
Here we sing non christian carols like rudolph the red nosed reindeer, frosty the snow man, jingle bells... I'll be home for christmas.
Because I simply do not believe jesus ever lived...he's some sort of harry potter for the christians. Give humanity 400 years or so and they will begin digging up all these copies of harry potter in our own ruins and they will immediately assume it's some mystic text which was long ago forgotten.
It's the way of our world.
I make holiday cookies, we open presents...all while Beloved Shivaya watches us from the wall above. Vishnu, Shiva...all on the center table in my meditation room. They will not move aside for the holiday tree.
I won't lie, I wish I could trash the tree...and this whole tradition my family had adopted when my GG Grandmother was forced to convert.
It's hard. But, I think about Santa, and his love of children and it keeps me going.
This year, I would like to go to the Hindu Temple on Xmas eve with all my children. It's my goal. They seem very up to this as they also do not believe in jesus. The holiday is the holiday and "happy holly days" suffices.
I remember as a child the jehova's witnesses would be sent out into the hallway on Halloween and xmas...even valentine's day. It was very sad to me, I was a godless child by then...not christian and did not yet know Beloved Shivaya's name. I would go out into the hallway and sit with them. We would talk about anything but the party going on inside.
Years later, those girls are still my friends...they both left the JW church oddly enough.
Perhaps it started on that long ago hallway, when the children were shown compassion despite their parents choice to outcast them to the hallway. Perhaps it was these moments in the hallway which made them doubt their parents all the more?
This is the main reason I allow my children to be a tree in the holiday pageant, and they have a cupcake and koolaid during the holiday parties. I make vegetarian cranberry noels for those parties. My children will never sit in the hallway.
I have to raise them strong enough to know that the sleepers will try to convince them that they are the crazy ones for worshiping the "Blue guy".
If they are strong...no amount of carols will change the truth which has sprung into bloom within their hearts.
So they smile and accept the token stocking stuffed with crayons and candy from their classmates and it's "Happy Holly Days" for all.
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