Re: Raising kids in a different culture
hin33, just an opinion, maybe, you and your family can see the positive in being able to maintain a good balance between what is your holiday and what is others and still be happy on both.
you don’t have to feel guilty in accepting have a nice Eid Mubaraak greeting from a non-Muslims and similarly, it wont hurt u to say happy holidays or Merry Christmas to your neighbors and colleagues as u are in america, canada or europe.
we need to take human pride in being able to translate our happiness in harmless in Christmas’s case a religious celebration of people from other faiths.
be easy on yourself and maintain a
balance on this integration vs. acculturation that might take away all sense of reasonable celebrating traditional holidays altogether.
absolutely look at the charity and giving aspect of holidays and teach children about that, instead of mindless spending on new things or toys.
half of the reason why holidays are no more simply a matter of good time with family that gets together, is because adults have turned them into profiteering gift-giving business occasion. that is true in any culture or country these days.
everything is turned into money making or spending opportunity.
no matter how useless it might be..
in your better judgment, do the best you can in sharing food or decorating your home for Eid or as a gesture of respecting the celebration of Christmas, and enable your children to learn about different faiths. that is not forbidden, my God, in Islam.
for children to be open minded and at the same time, holding on to their own faith is the real thing that they should be trained to always keep in mind.
a balance must be struck and we should not be exclusivity oriented. that is not the way to be, even as good Muslims.
best,
Dushwari