The Christmas Story

I had been really aggravated this year whenever I watched any of Jayce's little kid shows and saw the way that they dealt with Christmas. I know that kid's shows have agendas as well as everything else does, but I got so annoyed that every mention of Christmas was sandwiched between discussions of Hanukkah and Kwanza. Furthermore, any mention of Christmas dealt with Santa, which I'm not opposed to, but I guess I just expected a nativity scene to show up somewhere. I guess this just goes to show how naiive I am, or perhaps that I just didn't know what to expect.

So when Chris and I were out Christmas shopping, I made sure to get a book to read with Jayce that had some explanation about Jesus' birth. That night, Jayce and I read it a few times before bed, and I was surprised at his response.

The first page has a picture of a family all gathered around a Christmas tree opening gifts, and it says

"Do you know why we give gifts at Christmas? We give presents because it is Jesus' birthday."

Jayce stopped me and said,

"No Mom, not Jesus' birthday. Kids' birthday. Kids open presents." and he pointed to the kids opening gifts on the page.

I have to say that I was really surprised by this! It was totally logical (which I loved), and I was really proud of him for not just immediately accepting what the book said. But I wasn't really prepared for him immediately telling me no on the first page of the Christmas story. I explained to him that Jesus' birthday is different than other birthdays, and that on Jesus' birthday everyone gets to open presents because we're all celebrating his birth.

There were no more outbursts until the end of the book, where it said, "We give gifts at Christmas because we love Jesus."

I paused, and asked Jayce, "Do you love Jesus?"

He replied, "Oh yes! I looove trucks. I looove horsies."

There's my 2 year old.

The following night when we read the book and I asked him if he loved Jesus, he said, "I love Mom and baby."

I told Chris about this and he informed me that when they pray together they always pray for mom and the baby. Sweet!