Christmas Is for Children

Let's devote part of it to thinking about children's need for freedom.

PICRYL

Dear friends,

I’m writing this on the day of Christmas Eve. I’m excited. This is the first Christmas I will be celebrating with three new grandchildren. Three! Two born just this year and one, who came already a beautiful four-year-old along with my stepson’s wife, when they married this year. Christmas is for children, and children are what make Christmas special.

For devout Christians, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. Baby Jesus, the newborn child who for many represents the purity and potential of all newborn babies. For the more secular, it’s about Santa Clause, that magical person whose sole purpose on earth is to make children happy.

Officially, November 20 is International Children’s Day, declared so by the United Nations, but nobody here seems to notice that or celebrate it in any way. The real Children’s Day, celebrated, is Christmas. Wouldn’t it be great if we adults thought of Christmas as a time to give kids not just toys, which in some cases will just pile up along with too-many other toys, but respect and freedom?

This is a great time of year to think about what we might do to grant gifts to children of much greater value than toys. It is a great time to think about how we might attune ourselves to children’s real needs, listen to them even when their communications are not spoken words. A time to think about how we might allow children to manifest, more than we currently do, their great drive to play and explore independently and with other children, as they are designed by nature or God (your choice) to do. To allow them in that way to grow with each year toward increasing independence and power. And then, maybe, turn those thoughts into New Year’s resolutions.

Of course, Christmas, while primarily for children, is not just for children. I wish you all Peace and Joy, not just for tomorrow but forever.

With respect and best wishes (and dare I say, love),

Peter