My Christmas Rebellion

 My Christmas Rebellion. Many of my friends and family members know that I no longer "celebrate" Christmas. Or as I call it... "The Merry Mess." My Christmas rebellion has occurred in stages, and it has included multiple incidents that covered several years. I don't want to get into the reasons for my rebellion, though I am sure that you could guess many of them. (If you are interested, read Barashango's Afrikan People, European Holidays). What I do want to do is share one good idea that came from one rebellious incident.

One Rebellious Incident. When my son was about 5 (maybe 6, I can't remember), we were preparing for a Merry Mess hell-ebration... (pardon me) ...celebration... when I asked him, "Do you remember the dart set I got you last year?" He looked at me sadly and said, "Yeah Dad, I remember it, but I never got to play with it. I had too many other gifts to open and to play with..."

I don't know where the conversation went from there. It didn't really matter. What occurred to me was yet another absurdity of the Merry Mess. We give children so much junk... (oops!) ...We give children so many gifts that they don't have time to truly appreciate them. So this spawned the idea that I will share.

The One Good Idea? From this point on (or at least until I abandoned the Merry Mess all together), I opted out of the gift giving except for one "special gift." The "special gift" was accompanied with much fanfare. After all it was a special gift. The "special gift" was a lesson on a topic of his choosing. The first year he wanted to learn to shoot a bow and arrow. The Lord of the Rings was out that year and he had aspirations of Logalos-like heroics. So, for the cost of a Jr. Archery Set and a foam target. This gift gave us an enjoyable activity that we were able to share year round ever since.

A Few More Ideas. What special gifts or lessons can we as parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers and family friends give to the children in our care? We can teach a child to... change oil in the car, bake a pie, write a letter to a relative, arrange a floral bouquet, host a dinner party, build a bookcase, hang a picture, make strawberry jam, pitch a tent, stitch a hem, or any one of thousands of other practical hands-on skills. Have Fun!



Jomo W. Mutegi is a husband and father committed to the improvement of the African world community, an author of science-related children’s books, and an Associate Professor of Science Education. To learn more about Jomo’s children’s books, visit www.JomoMutegi.com. To learn more about Dr. Mutegi’s research visit www.ES2RP.org.