How can I teach my daughters the true meaning of Christmas?

This year i was not able to buy my daughters(4%26amp;7) christmas presents. A church donated to us and they each have 5 gifts to open. Every Christmas they have had before however, I was financially able to go all out and my kids got a bunch of crap that they really didnt need,or deserve. I want to teach them what Christmas is really all about this year.Now that we really have nothing, I see how silly it is, the way Christmas has gone commercial and people make such a big deal out of gifts. I want to make them understand that we dont have alot, but we need to be thankful that we have what we do have cause right now there are many people with a lot less. My girls are pretty stubborn, and they both have pretty bad attitudes. I took my four year old to donate her old clothes today, and i think she liked doing it, but my 7 year old is going to freak on christmas with only 5 gifts. I want them to know that its not important. Any ideas on how to show my children the true meaning of Christmas? And also this Santa Claus thing....i feel so ashamed for lying to my children.....now all of that ';be good cause Santa is watching'; crap is irrelevent...it really doesnt matter how ';good'; you are. Its how much money your parents make. So now I have to explain why ';santa'; thinks that they were not good. Ugh this is frustrating. Can I please have some advice? Thanks alot. Merry Christmas.%26lt;3How can I teach my daughters the true meaning of Christmas?
A Creche





The earth circles the sun in an elliptical orbit, taking us near and far. And I imagine there comes a special singular moment at the extreme of our trajectory around the sun.





Yes I know December 25th does not coincide with this moment. But beneath my consciousness of this planet’s revolution, and our rotation on it, is the moment we are at a standstill, like children on an amusement ride, before we continue our journey to sun’s other side.





I did the oddest thing: I set up a creche. I am a middle aged professor with two young children and I installed a creche. I do not sanction close ties between religion and government; I believe that the word “God” should not be in the pledge or on our currency and our freedom does not derive from religion.





Yet I will be telling my children that Christmas is when we remember the birth of someone we murdered because he suggested we love each other.





Did something happen that night, over 2000 years ago?





Yes I know if something happened, it was not in winter, but I will not let the coldness of facts obscure the beauty of a deeper truth’s light. Early Christians appropriated a pagan culture of the solstice, yet that same culture evolved from the spirit of this philosophy of love lingering on the decaying vines of the Roman Empire: what goes around comes around.





So what happened that night? A woman gave birth to a baby whose paternity was unknown.





My own paternity is removed from the moment my children were born; nine months before their birth. Maternity, however, is bloody certain - I saw it with my eyes. So I imagine a perfect force in this universe that is unseen and I sense a majestic magnetic maleness to it. And I imagine a force that is visible; and majestically, electrically female – Mother Earth. And I imagine a higher power not as God the Father, nor God the Mother, but the perfection of their Love.





On December 25th, we say a child was born who suggested that we love one another. And the earth stopped - it simply stopped spinning for just a moment, I believe, from the shock of this thought’s simplicity.





It is known that when electric and magnetic waves are in harmony, the result is light. I imagine what physics suggests: from String Theory to the Big Bang. My reason sees the perfection of electricity and magnetism pulsing in harmony – a seen force infused with a force unseen – becoming light and cracking open the heavens. From this vibrating portal pour forth shimmering sub-atomic particles glittering in the winter night’s angelic snowfall. And I imagine a universe expanding and collapsing with an explosive Love that shepherds us to be greater if we can love unconditionally. I imagine earthly Kings bowing down before this power of Love. I imagine a family as the chrysalis of humanity: a father that pulls to an unknown place and a mother who pushes from her center. And I fuel this nativity with a musical memory: with the quiescence of a Silent Night, the spirit of a Holy Night and the simplicity of the First Noel.





Now I have two children. I want them to know this not antecedent to Judaism or precedent to Islam, but an end in itself - an extreme of an orbit. I want them to know we murdered an innocent person because he suggested we love one another. This individual so much believed in Love that he became Love. And when he said “the path back home to the unknown - the Father - is through me,” he had become Love, living; he had become light. When my kids say “Merry Christmas,” I want them to transcend the gifts and sales and understand this. I won’t dissuade them from the common images: I want them to experience Santa, Rudolph and Frosty; for these images rest on the surface of a turbulent lake. And when that lake calms, these distractions dissolve to reveal what is lies beneath - images of a baby, that night, and that Love.





Yes, deep within my consciousness is the Earth hurtling through the blackness of space, with all of us hanging on by a string. And for a moment, in the darkness of this solar system - just as we swing sharply to the other side of the ride - everything comes to a stop. All my confusion, fear, anxiety, anger, greed, selfishness and worry that far too often permeates my life, comes to stop and dissolves at the extreme of earth’s motion when I try, just a bit more, to move beyond myself, to live his suggestion. This night a child was born of the love between what we see and what we know and has fused both into a spirit whose Love lights the world with perfection.





Tom Impelluso


impelluso@engineering.sdsu.edu


619-818-6091How can I teach my daughters the true meaning of Christmas?
make a nativity set with them and explain to them wat each set means.


e.g explain who mary was or jesus





you could also read them the christmas story from the bible and other christmas books





make sure you go to church on christmas day


merry christmas good luck =)
read to them the christmas shoe story or whatever it is


also the grinch is a good movie that may help them understand
Watch Christmas movies like the ';GRInch Stole christmas'; and christmas carol....ect do research and look for xmas movies......rent them or buy them and eat xmas popcorn
give them cookies
Don't put presents under the christmas tree.


Then give it to them until they learn the meaning
take them to a homeless shelter and watch them and help maybe?? thats the true meaning of giving
First on Christmas before having them open there presents tell them about the Financial (well say Money cause they will understand it more) Problems and yeah they may be a little disappointed but then have them open there presents next so they will cheer up. Print out Christmas poems or songs of the internet and you guys can read/sing them together. If you want bake home made cookies and have them help decorate them with icing. If you having any Christmas movies watch one during the evening or night. Some time in between all that explain the True Meaning of Christmas.
Talk to your children and ask them ';list all the things we have.';


Then say, ';Imagagine if we did not have most of those things. What would you life be like?'; And then give them examples after they think about it. Then say ';Well, a lot of people have a life that you just imagined. And they do not get present at all.'; Then they probably will ask why santa does not give them presents. Tell them the truth about this man. Then tell them that he can still live in your heart. For you should always keep him in there because what he does is what ever one should- he gives and loves. And then tell them thats what Christmas should be about- giving and loving. ';And that's why this year we should focus about being a strong family and loving each other on christmas even if you don't have a lot of gifts. At least we have food unlike most people.'; Maybe voluteer somewhere or something and get along and love each other.
honestly, they sound like brats. tell them santa desided they were not as good as other children, and other get nothing at all from anyone, so he had to divide all the toys between all the boys and girls and that they need to be more selfless and caring towards others.


that or just tell them mommy and santa got ina fight and he took all ur money and ran. lmao





gomen, okay then, so ur a brat. anyway, just explain it to them. they'll understand.
It depends on your definition of the ';true'; meaning. If you don't want it to be about gifts, have them give their gifts to another needy family. There is always someone worse off. It sounds like they won't appreciate them anyway.





About Santa, I have no idea what you're talking about. Not real? What? Seriously, you can always try the truth if it bothers you that much. Focus on the Spirit of Santa and why that's important.





Get involved with your Church. Donate your and their time helping out at a soup kitchen or something. You learn to appreciate what you have, even if not much, when you see those with nothing.





Good luck and Merry Christmas.