How We Explain Christmas to Our Kids
Bernie Rosquites, Host: You’re listening to
Faith and Family, a Christian Family community that aims to provide Christian family values. I’m Bernie Rosquites. As members of the Church Of Christ, we uphold beliefs [that] guide both our public and our personal lives. But how do we teach that to our kids, when it means taking away seemingly fun and widely accepted
holidays, and perhaps, alienating them from their peers? What do we say to our kids when it comes to explaining why members of the Church Of Christ don’t celebrate events like
Halloween or
Christmas? And what do we tell the grown-ups around them? With me today to talk about all of this is Emirick Haro, Jewell Buenavista, and Mariel Gutierrez. Welcome back, ladies.
Everyone: Hello!
Bernie: Hello?
Everyone: Hi!
Bernie: Okay, I was like, what happened? [Laughing] So
holidays are just around the corner. Literally, one of them is literally just around the corner. Now for you, ladies: Are there holidays—is there a particular holiday that your kids ask the most questions about?
Emirick: I got to them before anybody else could. I would tell them…
Bernie: You’ve got to, yeah.
Emirick: Yeah! What the holiday was, what it was called, and I would always tell them it’s a celebration of a fake god. And God will be mad at us if we do that, so we don’t do that.
Jewell: There was a time that…it was during Halloween that [my daughter] Jasmine—I think she was like only three or four—we had to go somewhere during October 31st, so we had brought her to my in-laws, and she [came] home, she’s like, “Oh my gosh! Halloween was so much fun!”
Everyone: Oh nooo! [Laughing]
Jewell: And then we were like, “Why what happened? What did you do? We don’t celebrate Halloween!” And she’s all, “I know, I know, I know, but we had so much fun giving out candy…”and, you know. For me and [my husband] Harmony, we…it was more like okay, it’s…we explained to her, and then, of course, we had to remind our in-laws that we don’t celebrate Halloween.
Bernie: Mhmm…
Jewell: But now, it was just kind of that one time, but then, now it’s honestly not…
Bernie: … not a big deal?
Jewell: It’s not. Yeah.
Bernie: Yeah. How about you, Mar?
Mariel: Umm… okay. Now I feel bad!
Everyone: [Laughing]
Bernie: I was going to say you dressed your son up like Woody, didn’t you?!
Everyone: [Laughing]
Mariel: When the costumes go on sale! And it’s not Halloween!
Bernie: You know I have to say, I’ve done that. When a costume goes on sale, I…
Mariel: I know! Your son loves to dress up, right? I see those posts. Yeah, that’s not Halloween, right?
Bernie: Mhmm, no. He knows it.
Mariel: Yeah! I got my daughter…I think she had caught [on], when she was really small, she had watched, I think, Polar Express. Are you guys familiar with that movie?
Bernie: Yes!
