Why doesn't Santa Claus come to our house? There's a story behind that
question, and that's what we're exploring today on "The Art of Life-ing with Keka."
[MUSIC]
As a young child when I was going to school, over the Christmas holidays we
had some beautiful celebrations at school. We would have Christmas concerts
where we would be caroling, writing letters to Santa, making up our wish list,
and even though in our household, as this daughter of an immigrant family from the
Hindu tradition, even though we didn't celebrate Christmas at home, the whole
holiday still held some very special memories to me. It was time to spend with
my family, and it gave me a chance to celebrate Christmas with everybody else.
You know, when we would come back from holidays, a lot of my friends would say,
"What did you get for Christmas? I got this...Santa brought me this, this, and this..."
And I, in an effort to fit in, would just make up stuff. I'd be like: "Oh yeah, I
got this toy, or I got this..." We actually have a Bengali festival called Durja
Puja, that happens in October, where we give each other new clothes.
Sometimes I would use those clothes, and kind of, name them in my conversations
with friends, and say, "Oh, I got that for Christmas." And it was just my way to fit
in. My younger brother however, believed in Santa Claus. And every year, he would
try to be so good, and he would write his letters at school, and he would have his
wish list, and on Christmas morning he would wake up, hoping against hope, that
this was the year that Santa would show up. And yet, every year, he was
disappointed, because Santa never came to us. So one day, he finally, sort of, broke
his silence. And he came to my dad and he said, "Dad, why does Santa never come to
our house? I'm good all year round. I've been trying so hard, but he never comes!
He never brings the toys that I asked! Why is that?" To which my dad responded
and he said: "Oh honey! That's because Santa only goes to white people's houses."
So...it was the best answer he had at the moment. Not to paint Santa as a racist, of
course! The funny thing was that, for my brother, for him, he thought, "Oh! It makes
sense then! Now I know why he doesn't come!" And he knew not to expect him.
So the thing is, that Christmas I think, when we hear, sort of, news
headlines around "the war on Christmas," ...it makes me really sad when people come and
say, "Oh, you mustn't say Merry Christmas because you might offend somebody who
doesn't celebrate." Because even though we didn't celebrate Christmas, if somebody
came and said "Merry Christmas" to me, I felt such a value in the celebrations,
the holiday, the traditions, the, the religious meaning behind Christmas. It
was so special, that I fully participated in it, and I said, it's wonderful! And in fact,
as a Hindu, I celebrate Diwali, which is like our Hindu New Year. If somebody came
to me and said: "You mustn't say 'Diwali', and you mustn't say "Happy Diwali"
because you're going to offend somebody, that would make me sad. So, in an effort
to make everybody feel included, I really do believe that we shouldn't exclude
anybody! At the end of the day, we should be inclusive, and we should celebrate the
uniqueness among everybody. So let's say: "Merry Christmas!" with all of our heart
and enjoy it! You know, Christmas for us ended up being a completely different
experience in high school. My dad one day, when I was in grade 11 said, "You know,
everybody celebrates Christmas in such a nice way, we should celebrate it too! We
should have fun!" And so, my brother and I were all in. We're like: "Gifts and presents?
Of course! Let's do it!" And I will never forget, my dear friends from high school
Bronwen and Heather - Bronwen whom I've known since we were three years old, and
my dear best friend, Heather - they decided that...they...when they heard that
we were going to celebrate Christmas, decided they were going to help us. So,
Bronwen had an extra Christmas tree in her house, and she asked her parents if
they could lend it to me. They brought this Christmas tree on a
sleigh. And when they came, and they knocked on my door, when I opened the
door, they'd actually gift-wrapped my front door! And I just so vividly
remember the memories of them bringing in the tree and all the ornaments and
helping us set up our very first Christmas tree. And that was the first
year that we had Christmas as a family in the house. So, the following year, my
father took my brother and I, and we went to Canadian Tire and we brought...we
bought our very first Christmas tree, and all of our ornaments. And we put it up
and we celebrated. And this family tradition started. Well, I share very publicly, that
when I was in my last year of high school, my father was in an accident
on Diwali, and he was in the hospital for two weeks before he passed away. So
that Christmas and every year following, when we decided to continue that
tradition, that my father started, it just made our traditions that much more
special and meaningful. Because now we celebrate Christmas as, as a way to live
the legacy that my father left for us, and it's incredibly special. So now, I've
got two boys that we celebrate with, and they are now experiencing a global
perspective of Christmas. You know...when we have... A couple of years ago, we
traveled to India over the Christmas holidays. So we said, we're going to
celebrate Christmas when we get back at home and opened the gifts here. We'll
celebrate the actual festival in India. Now Christmas in India is actually a
national holiday. And even families that are Hindus celebrate. They just have fun
with the holiday and they appreciate the meaning behind it. And so, we go to India
and my son - now he is 10 years old - and he's looking around and all of the
Santa Clauses are brown! They're all Indian versus the Santa's that we see in
Canada that are all Canadian! And he's like: "How come all the Santas here are
brown, Mom? And the Santa's back home are white?" And that was a little bit of a
difficult thing to start trying to answer! And I said, "Well, you know, Santa is
global, so everybody around the world celebrates in the way that they do, and
Santa takes the form that people want them to." So then, we went to a church in
Kolkata, that's just gorgeous. It's the St. Paul's Cathedral, and they have a
nativity scene set up at the front of the church. Well, here's how global the
influences are: the, the figures that they had put out, in terms of, Mary and Joseph
and the three wise men, for example, we're all wearing Indian clothes! So Mary was
wearing a sari and Joseph and the three wise men were wearing dhotis and kurtas.
It was the most amazing scene for me to watch, having grown up in Canada and
watching the nativity scenes here. So I just want to leave you with this thought:
Let's wish people whatever they're celebrating. Let's wish them the best of
those holidays. I don't think that any person who feels good and healthy about
themselves will say: "I feel offended if you say, 'Merry Christmas' to me,
because I don't celebrate." I think that we should all be celebrating Christmas,
because if we are around the people - around us, are celebrating, we
should be enjoying it with them. And we should appreciate the values that this
holiday brings: the love, the family time. There's so many...so much goodness
around Christmas that we can enjoy. So I'm going take this moment to wish you a
very Merry Christmas with your family! I wish you all the best for the holidays!
Thank you so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed the content then
please like it, and share it with anybody that you think might be interested in
this content. As well I would also love it if you could subscribe to my channel.
I put out new videos every Tuesday. Last but not least, if you have any comments, I
would love to have a conversation with you! Let's do this journey together! Let's
master the Art of Life-ing and really DO life on purpose!
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