Dear Poor Lucky Me,
My sister is a married with two daughters in high school. Her husband is a non-practicing Jew and she is an atheist (former Catholic). They do not celebrate Christmas and in a recent email she mentioned to me that “the girls were going shopping for Solstice.”
I’m not a big fan of organized religion or any religion for that matter. I am, however, a big fan of Christmas, and by that I mean Santa and gingerbread houses not Mary and mangers.
Here are my questions: Would I be out of line to send the family a Christmas card and a couple of small gifts for the girls? Is it rude to simply ignore whatever hogwash they believe in? And finally, what the hell do you get someone for Solstice anyway?
Signed,
Curious Elf
Dear Curious Elf,
I’m glad you brought this important matter to everyone’s attention.
Can we all agree that holiday sentiments are meant to convey love and good wishes, no matter what holiday the other person celebrates? I know that not everyone uses the end of December for religious observations, but doesn’t everyone like a nice card or a gift in the dark days of winter?
On that note, I don’t think it’s rude to send cards and gifts to your neices. If your sister wants to rip off the Christmas wrapping and replace it with a Yule goat then so be it. Unless you are very religious, this can all come down to semantics. If you decorate an Evergreen tree and exchange gifts I really don’t care what you want to call your special day. In fact, I call the tree in my apartment my no-religious-affiliation-winter-holiday-tree. And I do accept gifts and cash. Not just during the holiday’s either- let me be perfectly clear about that.
I did some research on what to give people for winter Solstice and here are a few great ideas:
- Tumbled agate or quartz crystals
- Animal or crop talisman
- A bag of seeds
- Anything Yule-related (logs, trees, fires, etc)
Any of these gifts are sure to ring in the Winter Solstice with great joy. Unfortunately the children who receive these gifts will be horribly disappointed, so I think you should stick with your plan.
Sincerely,
Poor Lucky Me
