The Magic of Christmas

I was born in 1956 and I suppose both of my parents and both sets of my grandparents would have been considered Christian conservatives. I just called them, “Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa,” but you know what I mean.

I didn’t even know what the words “liberal” or “conservative” meant until I was in my mid-twenties. Now that I do know what it means, I suppose I would be considered a conservative too, only when it comes to voting I have crossed the line and voted for people from different parties, some of whom are considered liberal. I don’t think of myself as liberal or conservative. I am just me, but I admit I am a product of my environment and that environment was conservative.

All I knew about life I learned from growing up  in the small town of Edmonton, Kentucky. It was (and still is) a small town that until recently did not have a stop light or a McDonalds. It really was a place where everybody knew your name (and your parent’s names) There have always been more churches than stores. Edmonton was the type of community where most folks left their doors unlocked and if you needed something you didn’t have to sign up for public assistance, your neighbors and church family helped until you got back on your feet.

There were problems in my tiny elementary school, I’m sure, but I was blissfully unaware of them. My childhood memories of school sort of evolved around holidays. Valentines Day we got to decorate a big box for our cards to go in and our moms brought cupcakes and Koolaid for a party. Saint Patrick’s Day we colored green shamrocks and pinched each other if we forgot to wear green. Halloween we dressed up in costumes and did our best to scare each other out of an extra candy bar, but Christmas was the granddaddy of all holidays.

We wrote letters to Santa and tacked them on a bulletin board and the local newspaper published them. Each classroom had a tree that the children got to help decorate and we all swapped five dollar gifts that usually broke or tore up before we got home.

What I loved about Christmas (at least while I was at school) was the glitter and glamor. The decorated bulletin boards. The extra candy and treats. The smell of the tree (back then there were no fake ones) and the bright colored lights. The excitement of two weeks of vacation! The possibility of snow, and of course, Santa Claus. Sometimes he came to town on the fire truck. Sometimes he attended our Christmas programs, and sometimes he came to our classroom to pass out gifts.

Christmas was magic.

I have a friend who is even more nostalgic than I am. Sometimes we discuss how things once were and we know that we are viewing the past through rose colored glasses, but a lot of people do that.  As far as I know there isn’t a fine or a tax for that yet. So while things may not have been exactly as I remember them, the description I just gave you was close.

Things have changed and that was a long time ago.

Yesterday though, I woke up in a different country, or at least that’s the way it feels to me. A country where Rhode Island’s Governor calls a Christmas tree a Holiday tree and a Texas school refuses to let Santa into a classroom.

How do I know about these things. The media and the Internet.

Here is the article I read about the Texas school who banned Santa.

The school district’s attorney sent a memo Thursday declaring that it’s now prohibited for students to “distribute personal holiday messages” or exchange gifts during class, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Also, there will be no visits in class from Santa Claus.

The reason, argues district attorney Bertha Bailey Whatley, is that allowing students to exchange gifts and messages during class would “allow a student to distribute a religious message with the gift or card.”

Here is the article I read about the Rhode Island holiday tree.

Taking the Christmas out of the tree is in the Rhode Island spirit, Chafee said, invoking the 1663 Colonial charter and the legacy of state father Roger Williams.

“I’m just continuing what other governors have done,” Chafee told the Herald after dedicating a separate tree to soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I just want to make sure I’m doing everything possible in this building to honor Roger Williams.”

Say What????

Uh, excuse me Governor, but Roger Williams is not who we honor at my house at Christmas.

I never was an Andy Rooney fan. I know a lot of people idolized him but I think he was a grumpy old man who got a great job and refused to retire. At the risk of sounding like Andy, I just have to leave you with the following opinions which are most certainly my own and in no way reflect on how other Nanas and Poppas may feel.

Calling a Christmas tree a holiday tree is like calling a Menorah a candle stick. Yes, Governor, you have the right to call it whatever you want. If you want to look at a Christmas tree and call it a bologna sandwich you can, but that won’t change what it is. A Christmas tree by any other name still looks and smells (if it’s not fake) like a Christmas tree, not a bologna sandwich.

And to the school in Texas who banned Santa from class, I hope the folks in charge find coal in their stockings on Christmas morning! Shame on you (and other educators who do the same thing) for trying to take the joy out of the season. Yes, education is important. Yes, we have to cram a whole lot of information into the short time we have children in the classroom but people, life and education is NOT only about doing well on standardized tests and meeting the goals of No Child Left Behind (as some would have us believe).

I believe in freedom of speech and as an educator, I know education is extremely important but the Governor of Rhode Island will never convince me that a Christmas tree is a holiday tree and if Santa knocks on my classroom door and he’s wearing a visitor’s pass, I will invite him in.

How about you?