Editorial December 16, 1961 Issue

The Children's Christmas

Helen Wood Bauman

Children love the Christmas season, with its festivities, gifts, and general excitement. They feel a deep interest in the infant Jesus, being close to infancy themselves. They listen intently to the Scriptural accounts of the shepherds, the heavenly host singing of peace and good will, the guiding star, and the Wisemen with their gifts. The impressionable stage of childhood offers opportunities to parents to instill in children the deep, spiritual meaning of the Saviour's birth. These lessons will never be forgotten.

Children can be taught the meaning of Christ as the Son of God and the mission of Jesus as the perfect example of the true idea of sonship. They can be told that the wonderful purpose of Christian Science is to purify all people until their real being as God's sinless children is brought to light. Ideals of Christliness can be established early as the devotion to humanity and the unselfed love of Jesus are dwelt upon. The power to heal, which Christliness bestows, can be stressed as lying within the ability of all who obey the teachings of Jesus, the Saviour. Under no circumstance should children be left with only the story of the birth of Jesus to remember. His entire life should be remembered at Christmas.

Mary Baker Eddy took special note of the need to cheer the children at Christmas time. She says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany'" (p. 261): "The wisdom of their elders, who seek wisdom of God, seems to have amply provided for this, according to the custom of the age and to the full supply of juvenile joy. Let it continue thus with one exception: the children should not be taught to believe that Santa Claus has aught to do with this pastime. A deceit or falsehood is never wise."

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