Every culture and every family that celebrates Christmas has its own particular traditions. In starting our own family by getting married, and especially now that we're raising a kid together, Tim and I have thought and talked quite a bit about the differences in the way each of our families celebrate Christmas, and the things that we might want to do in a new way.
But those differences sort of pale in comparison to the differences between U.S. and Nicaraguan Christmas traditions. We learned from a friend while on our most recent trip that as a kid, he always thought that the Baby Jesus brought the Christmas presents that his parents hid under his bed. Christmas trees are not that common here (okay, well, there certainly aren't a lot of pine trees), and, it being so hot, there aren't fireplaces, or chimneys, or stockings hung on said fireplace (much less a fat man magically squeezing down said chimney).
All this to get to my main point, which is that I'm pretty enamored of the synthesis that we heard from the back seat today. Quinn said "I'm going to sing a song." And then proceeded to sing something along the lines of "The stars gave presents to Santa Claus, so he could give them to the kids. And then the baby came, and the angels came to see the baby."
5 comments:
I'm a big fan of Quinn's version of a Christmas carol...much more satisfying than the vast majority that don't really tip their hat to Jesus. :) (If she can work in a part about ancient pagan solstice rituals in verse 2, that would be AWESOME.)
Thanks, Sandhya. Now maybe I will forgive you for accusing her of espousing a violent atonement theology ;) (she just loved the Nativity bears but did not know her own strength -- or their fragility). And I am sure Amy will educate her on the solstice connection in short order.
Her version works for me. Thank you, Quinn.
I love her carol. I just love the image of stars giving presents. Of course, I am often accused of anthropomorphizing stars, so I am a little partial to others who do the same. :)
Love it!
Love the way that different cultures celebrate. Wish I had put more effort into doing different traditions, but this year was just not gonna happen for us! We do have a non-traditional, um, "tree" to change things up! :o)
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