Naeela, Buddhist
My parents are from Northern India and moved to Australia before I was born. I have grown up in a strongly Buddhist household while living the typical western school-girl life.
While Christmas was never a highlight of our home life, my parents did give us a couple of small Christmas gifts each year just so we wouldn't feel left out. My siblings and I all took part in the usual school Christmas events, with my younger brother one year playing Joseph in the school nativity play. None of this slight attention on Christmas ever shifted my core Buddhist beliefs.
As parents ourselves, my husband and I even now pay scant attention to Christmas. Although we have raised our children as Buddhists we know they will always be exposed to the influences of the silly season.
We have no objection to the community celebration the Jesus Story and the Christmas story but we do strongly object to the overwhelming and insidious nature of the commercialism of this time of year.
We choose to not use the television, as we find it fills our minds with clutter which distracts us from maintaining our peaceful home life. Our children do mix widely with non-Buddhists and often come asking for this or that toy for Christmas that they have seen in the homes of other children.
We are careful to explain to our children that the real idea of Christmas is to celebrate a Christian tradition and it has nothing to do with spending lots of money to buy lots of toys and food that we don't need and that have no part in our lives. Having raised our children in this way there is no issue as to whether they 'accept' this way of life.
It is our way and how we live. They do not see themselves as part of that consuming community throughout the rest of the year and it is no different at Christmas time.