Hmm...Thoughts on Christmas

After our experience with Santa this year, it got me thinking...what is so bad about wishing people "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas". Both greetings are warm and wish us all well. Is it because some persons are angry at those that don't celebrate Christmas? Is it that some don't understand why there are people that don't celebrate Christmas? or maybe, is it because some people have a difficult time embracing diversity?

Although I am currently not teaching, I recall in the eight years I did teach, our student population had evolved. More and more of my students were not celebrating Christmas because they or their family, immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico, South Africa, India, and else where. Instead of focusing on our American traditions, I adopted Holiday's Around the World and taught it as a unit in my classroom. I felt it important not to place particular emphasis on one holiday because I was afraid of offending a student, actually, more so their family ;0) I didn't want to get the dreaded phone call from an upset parent asking me why we are celebrating Christmas in our classroom and then persisting on telling me it's not appropriate to celebrate Christmas in our classroom because their family celebrates Kwanzaa, or they are Jehovah Witness (for example). A couple of times in years past, I had received a letter from a student's parents informing me that their child wasn't able to participate in our holiday festivities. Mind you, the festivities we were celebrating in our class were multi-cultural based and were used as a learning opportunity for the students to better understand various occasions celebrated around the traditional American Christmas holiday. Despite all the "politically correct" holiday greetings, I wish you all a "Merry Christmas" and a "Blessed New Year"!!!