Quote Originally Posted by cajunscot View Post
Given that I teach history & folklore, I'm well aware of what you describe here. I frequently lecture on St. Patrick's Day as symbolic of how Irish-Americans struggled to fit in to traditional "native" American society, as well as how most Evangelical Protestant Americans of Puritian and Presbyterian stock rejected Christmas as a "papist" holiday until the end of the 19th century.

And for the record, my children will know both St. Nicholas's Day (Dec. 6) and Santa Claus, a la Coca Cola and Norman Rockwell. My son, who will soon make his arrival, will be named for the Bishop of Myra in fact.



T.
Okay...I was getting a little heated there, but I'm better. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who wants to teach his son "our" traditions but also where they came from and how it was done by the people who originated them before being assimilated into the American Collective. (Star Trek reference...how nerdy)

Congrats on the upcoming child...mine is only 5 months, so he doesn't care what I tell him yet as long as he's warm and fed and has a nap and clean diaper. Oh, for the simplicity of infancy.

There is, I believe, plenty of room for the staunch traditionalist, the neo-traditionalist, the rebel, the confused, the curious and all points in between.

Oh, and I'm only 1/4 Scot. 1/4 Irish and the rest is (gulp) Welsh. I'll crawl into the bomb shelter now.