I love holidays. Growing up in my family was filled with robust traditions for every holiday and birthday. Easter was certainly not an exception. The elaborate egg hunts my mother arranged every year will remain as some of my fondest childhood memories. I loved waking up early and trying to peek down the stairs to see any eggs or chocolate bunnies. Waiting for my siblings to wake and line up at the top of the stairs was always a torturous adventure. But the thrill of the hunt was exciting enough to make any wait bearable, and certainly provided more of a high than the massive amounts of sugar we amassed in our baskets.
One of the major parenting goals I have set for myself is to instill in my children the same strong sense of holiday traditions. Achieving this goal, however, has come with its own challenges. Firstly, as a non-religious family religious holidays can appear problematic. Both of our extended families celebrate the more traditional Christian holidays, so we wanted to be sure our children did not feel left out of either set of family traditions. As a result we choose to celebrate these holidays not as religious celebrations but as cultural ones. After all, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus are about as far away from religious symbols as you can get so it doesn’t seem that odd to celebrate a holiday that is already deeply entrenched in the cultural climate.
But speaking of the Easter Bunny and Santa another serious concern we have about holidays is the excessive amounts of lying that parents do on behalf of their children’s traditions. Telling children that a random bunny comes into their house once a year to hide candy filled plastic eggs just seems like a little over the top for me. So we choose a different path by telling our children that the Easter Bunny and Santa (and other holiday tales) are just stories and that we celebrate easter not because of some bunny but as a way to celebrate with family and that mom and dad put on a fun hunt to help this celebration.
Of course it remains to be seen if our manner of celebrating holidays will have any damaging effects on our children, but in the meantime we can enjoy a set of rich traditions with our family while at the same time feeling good about not deceiving our children.
