Religious Education Update: December 3
So, what do you really want for Christmas?
Making sense of the holidays is a challenge for many of us. The statistics are illuminating:
· The average American receives 17 catalogs.
· We tend to eat and drink more, with an average weight gain of a pound.
· We spend more during the season- a quarter of our annual personal spending.
· We produce 25 % more trash than at other times of the year.
· We get in more alcohol related automobile accidents.
· We spend more time indoors, so illness is more prevalent.
In the book, Unplug the Christmas Machine, the authors relate many stories of people who feel the social pressure to produce a perfect Christmas for their families and friends. Americans get up before dawn on Black Friday to find just the right, discounted gift. We cook high calorie meals and high fat desserts. We eat and drink too much. Moms especially feel an obligation to have a clean, beautifully decorated house, with perpetually happy children.
One bit of good news for the season is that we have a choice. We may face the slight risk of being labeled a “Scrooge”, but we can choose to downsize certain expectations, while spending more time doing what we love. Your child may enjoy baking cookies with you, or singing carols around the piano, or just looking at the beautifully decorated houses in the early evening, rather than receiving yet another toy. We can consider how to produce less trash by using the comic pages from the newspaper to wrap presents or by recycling wrapping paper for next year. We can donate canned food or toys to the needy.
For many of us the underlying value of the season is in expressing love and affection to those who are dear to us. We want the recipients of our gifts to feel joy and to receive what they most wanted. The challenge for many of us is to keep expectations reasonable. A mom reports in Unplug the Christmas Machine that her child’s gift list had 60 items! While I wouldn’t advocate giving children very little, as they live in a culture where social pressures are pervasive, but sixty presents would be way over the top.
One choice is to balance the receiving aspect with the concept of doing service. The children could be asked to help cook a meal, to assist a neighbor or family member with a needed task, or to give to the less fortunate. They could have a holiday experience, such as going to the Nutcracker or chopping down a Christmas tree at a local lot. They could be asked to reflect on the true meaning of the season. They could helped to understand, that we do have choices in spending the holidays in ways that are meaningful, loving and joyful.
My warm wishes for love, light and joy to the children, families, members and friends of UUP!
Marlene Abel
Director of Religious Education
Making sense of the holidays is a challenge for many of us. The statistics are illuminating:
· The average American receives 17 catalogs.
· We tend to eat and drink more, with an average weight gain of a pound.
· We spend more during the season- a quarter of our annual personal spending.
· We produce 25 % more trash than at other times of the year.
· We get in more alcohol related automobile accidents.
· We spend more time indoors, so illness is more prevalent.
In the book, Unplug the Christmas Machine, the authors relate many stories of people who feel the social pressure to produce a perfect Christmas for their families and friends. Americans get up before dawn on Black Friday to find just the right, discounted gift. We cook high calorie meals and high fat desserts. We eat and drink too much. Moms especially feel an obligation to have a clean, beautifully decorated house, with perpetually happy children.
One bit of good news for the season is that we have a choice. We may face the slight risk of being labeled a “Scrooge”, but we can choose to downsize certain expectations, while spending more time doing what we love. Your child may enjoy baking cookies with you, or singing carols around the piano, or just looking at the beautifully decorated houses in the early evening, rather than receiving yet another toy. We can consider how to produce less trash by using the comic pages from the newspaper to wrap presents or by recycling wrapping paper for next year. We can donate canned food or toys to the needy.
For many of us the underlying value of the season is in expressing love and affection to those who are dear to us. We want the recipients of our gifts to feel joy and to receive what they most wanted. The challenge for many of us is to keep expectations reasonable. A mom reports in Unplug the Christmas Machine that her child’s gift list had 60 items! While I wouldn’t advocate giving children very little, as they live in a culture where social pressures are pervasive, but sixty presents would be way over the top.
One choice is to balance the receiving aspect with the concept of doing service. The children could be asked to help cook a meal, to assist a neighbor or family member with a needed task, or to give to the less fortunate. They could have a holiday experience, such as going to the Nutcracker or chopping down a Christmas tree at a local lot. They could be asked to reflect on the true meaning of the season. They could helped to understand, that we do have choices in spending the holidays in ways that are meaningful, loving and joyful.
My warm wishes for love, light and joy to the children, families, members and friends of UUP!
Marlene Abel
Director of Religious Education
posted by Unitarian Universalists of Petaluma @ 4:45 PM
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