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A Christmas Conundrum


We've got Thanksgiving break under our belt and Christmas plans are well under way. The hallways are abuzz with festive decor and crafts. Backpack hooks overflow with winter coats and puffy jackets. The countdown is on! Winter break is coming, and Christmas with it. 
 

You may remember reading about my first classroom party, the Thanksgiving party that changed everything. As I have sat with colleagues and have noticed their preparations for Christmas and sat with my own ideas, I have noticed some differences in how each teacher approaches the season.


One teacher in particular is a Kindergarten teacher and is giving her students '12 Days of Christmas.' She is using mostly non-tangibles such as pajama day, silly sock day, as well as small gifts she already had on hand, but the idea is that she is spending the days leading up to Christmas honoring her students with gifts.

This idea gave me great pause as I stopped to wonder if that sort of approach sets our students up for a successful season. Does this idea of spending several weeks getting gifts set students up to establish a healthy relationship with the Christmas season or does it give them a false sense of entitlement. The focus of Christmas should be entirely on the gift of Jesus Christ, and I worry that this teacher may inadvertently set her students' focus on the wrong ideas. 

Additionally, there is some disparity between how teachers should approach giving their student a 'Christmas gift.' One teacher 'gives' the Christmas party as her gift. She doesn't ask for help from parents to provide supplies and she manages the day's treats and games on her own. Other teachers give a small learning tool. Another teacher spends significantly more on a specific book because it perfectly matches her classroom theme. Here, there really seems to be no wrong answer but it definitely gives food for thought. 

How do you approach the Christmas season in your classroom? Do you give your students gifts? How do you reconcile a worldly Christmas approach with a Biblically focused approach? 

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