Backstory: Chispa and I went out to Whole Foods at 6:40pm. This is late for her, as bedtime is 7pm. The fun reason for our trip to come on a separate post. It was dark, so the ensuing conversation occurred:
Chispa: Look at all the lights Mommy. Why do some people still have Christmas lights up?
Gruppie Mama: Well, some people leave the lights up extra because they are so pretty. And some people are just lazy, and keep forgetting to take them down.
Chispa: Oh. (pause)
Gruppie: Why don't the adults know that not everyone celebrates Christmas?
Chispa: Well there are a lot of people who celebrate Christmas, so they forget not everyone does.
Gruppie: But they are adults Mommy!
Chispa: Not all adults are smart Chispa.
Chispa: Well the smart adults should tell the not-smart adults about this Mommy. Not to say Merry Christmas to everyone. They should just say Happy Holidays.
Gruppie: Good point Chispa.
Chispa: I'm glad it's not Christmas anymore. I don't like it when people don't think that some people don't celebrate Christmas. They should think about that.
Gruppie: Yeah, people don't think about the fact that not everyone celebrates Christmas. Some parts of the world have never even heard of that holiday! And in the US, there's Muslims, and Hindus, and Jews, and lots more religions, and people who aren't a religion.
Chispa: Grandma doesn't do it right Mommy. She says you should just smile and say thank you and Happy Holidays.
Gruppie: Well, Grandma isn't doing it wrong Chispa. There's more than one way to do it. You can do it like Grandma, or you can say "actually, we celebrate Hannukah, Happy Holidays to you"
Chispa: I like that better Mommy. I'm glad Christmas is all done.
Clearly Chispa is still processing her first December of being seriously aware of how pervasive Christmas is external to her little world.
The part that killed me was her telling me "the smart adults should tell the not-smart adults". You tell 'em, Chispa.
The smart adults should tell the not-smart adults on a lot of issues!
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