****ing the Fun Out of Christmas!!! What to Do

[youretooloud]

just curious, what is the reasoning for the mom not wanting to do christmas.

I think they just have chosen not to do Santa. But, hopefully the parents realize that Santa is everywhere during Christmas. So, while she doesn't have to say "Yes, Santa is real", the child will still need to be exposed to it during the Holidays. It's just a character.

*SPOILER ALERT!!*

↓↓↓↓↓↓

Mickey Mouse isn't real either. So, if they go to Disney World and they take pictures with Mickey, are they going to make sure he knows it's not Mickey..because Mickey isn't real? Maybe they will say "It's just costumes" but, they certainly don't expect the characters to clear out of the park because their family knows the truth. The characters are just part of the atmosphere. Just like Santa is part of the Christmas season.

I'm willing to bet the MOm knows this, and is fine with it, but just wants to give the provider a heads up, that they aren't doing the whole Santa thing with their own kids.

[sharlan]

I think they just have chosen not to do Santa. But, hopefully the parents realize that Santa is everywhere during Christmas. So, while she doesn't have to say "Yes, Santa is real", the child will still need to be exposed to it during the Holidays. It's just a character.

*SPOILER ALERT!!*



Mickey Mouse isn't real either. So, if they go to Disney World and they take pictures with Mickey, are they going to make sure he knows it's not Mickey..because Mickey isn't real? Maybe they will say "It's just costumes" but, they certainly don't expect the characters to clear out of the park because their family knows the truth. The characters are just part of the atmosphere. Just like Santa is part of the Christmas season.

I'm willing to bet the MOm knows this, and is fine with it, but just wants to give the provider a heads up, that they aren't doing the whole Santa thing with their own kids.

NOOOOOOOOOO! Please don't tell me that Mickey's not real. We see him all the time at DL, he has to be real.

[youretooloud]

NOOOOOOOOOO! Please don't tell me that Mickey's not real. We see him all the time at DL, he has to be real.

I once chased Winnie the Pooh down the road to get a picture with him. "POOH!!! POOOOOOOOOHHHH!"

[countrymom]

so mom is having issues with santa or the whole christmas thing. I don't understand. Is she still giving gifts and singing songs and decorating and not including santa, it just sounds like they don't want to do santa because they don't want to buy presents from santa.

[SilverSabre25]

so mom is having issues with santa or the whole christmas thing. I don't understand. Is she still giving gifts and singing songs and decorating and not including santa, it just sounds like they don't want to do santa because they don't want to buy presents from santa.

Most likely, they either don't "do Santa" because they don't want to "lie" to their kids, or because they are very religious and so do not believe in Santa from a religious standpoint.

[daycare]

so mom is having issues with santa or the whole christmas thing. I don't understand. Is she still giving gifts and singing songs and decorating and not including santa, it just sounds like they don't want to do santa because they don't want to buy presents from santa.

so the reason why they are not doing santa this year as opposed to in the past, is because the child is now 3.5 and is very smart. He has been asking questions about Santa to both mom and dad. The parents said that they don't want to condone lying and therefore have decided not to lie to their child about there "Being a Santa clause" or not.

They said that they don't want to encourage any part of lying. ???????????/

[SilverSabre25]

so the reason why they are not doing santa this year as opposed to in the past, is because the child is now 3.5 and is very smart. He has been asking questions about Santa to both mom and dad. The parents said that they don't want to condone lying and therefore have decided not to lie to their child about there "Being a Santa clause" or not.

They said that they don't want to encourage any part of lying. ???????????/

The answer that many parents give in that instance is "What do you think?" It allows for the child to make up his own ideas about Santa and how the things work.

BUT--I can see some fanatical parents not "getting" it.

[daycare]

The answer that many parents give in that instance is "What do you think?" It allows for the child to make up his own ideas about Santa and how the things work.

BUT--I can see some fanatical parents not "getting" it.

honestly, i could not care less if they choose to do Santa or not, thats up to them...Just don't tell me that I can't.

You would think that with him being so young, they would say something like that, but they didint

[caring4kidsinSD]

[QUOTE=daycare;172063]LMAO................I live in the land of the fruits and NUTs......CALIFORNIA!!!

QUOTE]


I agree :: One year when I was teaching 1st grade in California, we didn't do an "easter bunny" craft like the other 1st grade classrooms did(It was my first or second year teaching). To me Easter is about SO MUCH MORE than easter bunnies and wasn't going to do anything big since it was a public school - other than a spring celebration with cookies and a movie of some kind. But apparently to one of the girls in my room Bunnies was a big deal. , she likes bunnies and told her mom she was upset that we didn't make the bunny craft so the mom went to the principal(Not me) to complain and I got called into the office and wrote up - REALLY OVER A STUPID CRAFT PROJECT!!!

[daycare]

[QUOTE=caring4kidsinSD;172429]

LMAO................I live in the land of the fruits and NUTs......CALIFORNIA!!!

QUOTE]


I agree :: One year when I was teaching 1st grade in California, we didn't do an "easter bunny" craft like the other 1st grade classrooms did(It was my first or second year teaching). To me Easter is about SO MUCH MORE than easter bunnies and wasn't going to do anything big since it was a public school - other than a spring celebration with cookies and a movie of some kind. But apparently to one of the girls in my room Bunnies was a big deal. , she likes bunnies and told her mom she was upset that we didn't make the bunny craft so the mom went to the principal(Not me) to complain and I got called into the office and wrote up - REALLY OVER A STUPID CRAFT PROJECT!!!

OMG are you kidding me.....wow that principal gave that parent way way way too much power. Now that's NUTS

As I can see you are no longer being refereed to as a nut or a fruit anymore... South Dakota...Freezing cold yet?/

[wdmmom]

We don't do Santa Claus per se. We celebrate Christmas with decorating, making fun wintery/Christmas type crafts, we have a Christmas Dinner and each of the children get a gift from me.

[AmyLeigh]

LMAO................I live in the land of the fruits and NUTs......CALIFORNIA!!!

I thought I was the only one who said that!!! ::::::

[daycare]

We don't do Santa Claus per se. We celebrate Christmas with decorating, making fun wintery/Christmas type crafts, we have a Christmas Dinner and each of the children get a gift from me.

Update....

I talked to the mom this morning about it and she said that she realizes that we will still have santa activities, and she does not care what I say to him. She said that she and her husband WONT be the ones promoting it.

I told her yesterday in a joking manor (but serious) Why WHY WHY **** the life out of Christmas at such a young age. AND I don't mean him, I mean you... DOn't you still want that magical moment when he wakes up xmas morning and see the look on his face for all that santa did??

She laughed and said she would talk to me in the morning.

I'm happy that she is not expecting me to change my ways.....Cuz as much as I love this family, I wouldn't....

[Unregistered]

Update....



I told her yesterday in a joking manor (but serious) Why WHY WHY **** the life out of Christmas at such a young age. AND I don't mean him, I mean you... DOn't you still want that magical moment when he wakes up xmas morning and see the look on his face for all that santa did??

....just curious, why do you think that NOT promoting Santa is "****ing the life out of Christmas'?

Christmas can be magical and joyous with or without Santa.

I get that the parents don't want to promote lying to their child and by doing that, they are somewhat taking from their child a fun and magical time in a child's life, but in another way, there are all kinds of ways to celebrate christmas that don't include Santa himself.

What I am taking from this issue that mom is having is that they (the parents) don't want to lie to their child but don't mind that you talk about and include Santa in your daycare celebrations.

The problem I would have is that if that is what they choose for their child....then they have a responsibility to make sure the child understands that he may not ruin the magical idea of Santa for the other kids he comes into contact with.

I would be respectful of the fact that they don't want to lie to their child but parents need to understand that when they choose to take certain parenting paths, they also have to do the work that comes along with it.

[MarinaVanessa]

I guess for me it's VERY important to teach about diversity and tolerance and that starts when children are very young. My parent's and I grew up Catholic however now I consider myself Christan. Even though my parents were hard-core Catholics they encouraged me to learn about other cultures and religions. They spoke to friends and neighbors of different religions and had me visit with them on their days of worship and go with them to services. I learned a lot about other people. I continued to do this as I got older and in high school I even studied with Christians, Jehovahs witnesses and Jewish people. It really opened my eyes to how similar our religions really were and I learned the reasons for their beliefs.

This I think made it easier for me to be more tolerant and open to respecting other people's beliefs. I run my daycare based on this idea also. As soon as potential clients walk in the door I let them know that we learn about and celebrate ALL types of holidays and celebrations. I guess it depends on the families that I have enrolled and what their customs are. I enjoy hearing about their cultures and customs and then finding a fun way to incorporate that into daycare. Somtimes we make food, check what horoscope sign we are, play a game they teach me, sing songs, make a craft about our animal sign (chinese). None of the families that sign up have ever had a problem with it maybe because when we do a project like this we don't go deep into religion or label.

For example I had a little girl and they were Jewish so I would say something like "Suzie's mommy shared some fun facts with me. Suzie's family believes that a long time ago there were people that wouldn't let families like Suzie's believe in what they wanted so those people tried very hard to get their temple back. When they finally did they wanted to celebrate by lighting a flame with oil that would last forever but they only had enough oil to keep the flame burning for one day. But do you know what happened? The oil kept the flame burning for 8 whole days until they could get more oil! Isn't that amazing? Suzie's family now lights a menorah with 8 candles on it. They light one candle each day to represent all of the days that the flame stayed lit with that little bit of oil." We do the same for Santa, Jesus, the Easter bunny etc. As odd as it seems even my Jehovah's witness family was fine with us having a Christmas tree, however I respected their request to not give their children Christmas gifts and gave the rest of the DC kids their gifts after this family went home for the day.

Of course I consider myself very lucky to be able to do this and because it's so easy and fluid when we do. Like I said however, my familes know ahead of time that it's important for me to do this and to be able to have all of the children celebrate their beliefs, customs and cultures here in small ways.