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Homeschooling in Illinois
Dec. 10, 2007
St. Nicholas and Christmas
We missed St. Nicholas day. I had planned on learning about him the 6th and then giving the boys a gift. I the Polar Express and I hated to wait until Christmas to give it to them, because then there isn't alot of time left to want to watch Christmas movies. So today I searched the internet trying to find out more about this mysterious Saint and how he became Santa Claus. Do you know that I could hardly find anything about him? Most of what I found sounded like made up stories. From what I remember, he was a generous man who gave to the poor. The stories that told about that were really goofy ones. Who knows if they are even true? And then trying to explain to the kids why someone becomes a siant and then why people pray to them is hard, because that's something I don't understand. So, it was an unproductive day. We did learn one interesting thing. Martin Luther wanted to get people's minds off of St. Nicholas and onto Christ, so he changed the name to Christ Child. But in German, Christ Child sounds like Kris Kringle. How funny is that!! Santa Claus is Jesus. HAHAHAHAH!
We also learned a little bit about how Christmas started. I asked the kids when it started and they said when Jesus was born. Well, that makes sense, but no. I was curious as to why people don't celebrate Christmas. They say it's because it started as a Pagan holiday. I've even heard it said it's the same as if we were to try and make Halloween a Christian holiday. Well, back in the day, the head people wanted to celebrate Christ's birthday and were trying to pick a day. They decided on Dec 25 because people were already celebrating that day because of the sun god. Their reasoning was because they wanted to take the focus off the sun and put it back on the Creator of the sun. Sounds noble. And in the end, it's just a day picked to remember that Jesus came to earth for us. I find no reason not to celebrate Christ's birth. Yes, we should celebrate Jesus all year long, but we celebrate our birthdays with a special day, why not Jesus'? And when we celebrate our birthdays, do we pretend we don't exist the rest of the year? No. Niether do we ignore Jesus the rest of the year. In this holiday season, we make sure our focus is Jesus and not getting things and certainly not a man who children eventually find out is not real.
So, there you have it. My thoughts on Christmas.
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Posted by
Cousin Bill 
Posted by
Dec. 10, 2007 - Untitled Comment
:>Michelle