Why Christmas isn’t for kids
LA TimesChristmas in the United States is a holiday chiefly for children. God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas day to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray. All that is true, but “mild he lays his glory by,/ born that man no more may die.” My favorite carol is “ O Holy Night,” an old French hymn that’s notoriously difficult to sing. But let me point to one more carol, this one written by no less than Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: I heard the bells on Christmas day Their old familiar carols play, And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace of earth, good will to men. The bells come back, “more loud and deep” : “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men.” I can’t prove that claim any more than Longfellow could, writing soon after his wife died in a fire and his son was severely injured in the still raging Civil War.
History of this topic
Op-Ed: As a nonbeliever, I tried to teach my kids the real meaning of Christmas
LA Times
Christmas is apparently all about children – I disagree
The IndependentThe sceptic’s guide to Christmas
ABC
What do kids really think about Santa?
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