Disclaimers: An important fact about this story is that I was a very shy kid, so I never really asked my parents or my teachers about Christmas. Also, my parents never celebrated Christmas in their life, and where they are from there is no such thing as Christmas so it wasn’t something done intentionally. Growing up in a Non-Catholic or Christian family meant no Santa Claus. Truth is, I didn’t know Christmas had anything to do with religion until I was 10 years old!
I was first exposed to the idea of Christmas through television, and I didn’t think much of it, because a lot of weird, unreal things happen on TV. I still didn’t think much of it when teachers in school would read books about Christmas, and do different events and projects like having us make stockings for “Santa” to put presents in. Maybe it’s just another made-up character like Cupid on Valentine’s Day! But then classmates would talk about what they asked Santa for Christmas, or what the presents they received were. That’s when I realized this was a real holiday, and everything said on television and at school was true.
Well… why didn’t Santa come to my house? My brother and I never got any presents. I remember until the age of 9 I would check the fireplace every morning on Christmas Day to see if perhaps Santa had come to our house. I eventually gave up and accepted Santa just didn’t come to our house, and that he wasn’t real and maybe my classmates were just lying (or maybe just a little crazy).
Because of all this hype for Christmas and this falsehood of traditions that were presented to me as a young child, I really didn’t like Christmas. I only liked how Christmas meant winter break. I would always get annoyed by how classmates and friends would get so excited for this holiday that I didn’t celebrate.
I eventually dropped this “I-hate-everything” phase in high school, where I learned to like Christmas. Christmas had turned into a holiday to share with friends and family — we would get together to eat good food, take holiday pictures, and just have a good time.
I don’t know how the school system is now explaining holidays like Christmas to young children, but I do hope they are being more inclusive and do not set up false hope for other children like they did for me. It is important to take into consideration other holidays celebrated around the world and explain the context behind them. Happy Holidays from my squad to you.
“Happy holidays from the Buddhist, Catholic, Muslim, Kanye-ist, and Atheist Jew.”
Only the last image belongs to the author, all other images and gifs do not. Thumbnail courtesy of Pexels.