The Meaning of Christmas by Finnegan Smith
This season, my six-year-old son, Finnegan, has requested to try his hand at "writing" (he’s dictating, I’m typing) to share his views on the meaning of Christmas. Our very best to you and yours during this enchanted holiday season, and best wishes for an inspired 2007.

What is the meaning of Christmas? In kindergarten we have learned that Christmas is about having fun and being with your family. I think there is more, though.

Christmas means that you need to share. And if you share and do good things, you will get lots of presents like Legos, Star Wars stuff, Batman games, a sled, Power Rangers (welll mom says I have to wait until I’m seven for that, though), gum, princess and a pony castle for my sisters, and maybe some of that candy that the Candy Fairy took away after Halloween. Sharing also makes you feel good inside.

To help other kids learn to share, you should show good manners so others can copycat you. I only show good manners. Well, maybe not that time at recess when I thought it would be funny to pull my pants down. Or that other time in Mrs. Mitchell’s class when I was kissing all the girls after the teacher told me to stop. (By the way, mom, I haven’t been getting trouble for kissing anybody anymore. Mrs. Mitchell always thinks it’s me, but that time it wasn’t.) Or that other time, I thought it would be funny to make burp and fart noises with my armpit at the dinner table. Some of the good manners we should have at Christmas and all the time are not walking away from the table without being excused, not throwing food or having food fights at dinner, and saying thank you. Always say thank you.

Christmas is also about eating healthy. Eating healthy helps you grow. If you don’t eat healthy and exercise you will stay small like a baby and babies don’t get really know how to play with their toys and presents. Some of the things you should eat to be healthy during Christmas are broccoli, salad, cucumbers, carrots and candy canes.

It’s not all about gifts, though. It’s also about celebrating Jesus’ birthday. Jesus has a birthday every Christmas. Some of the things you can do are to bake a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. You should also give presents to kids’ who might not get any others. This also helps out Santa, who is Jesus’ helper. He has a lot of houses to get to on Christmas Eve and I think he drops a few presents along the way so some kids might only get one instead of two. Jesus and Santa are a good part of Christmas.

Maybe they do know a something at school, because I was thinking that I can do all these things I said and still have fun and spend time with my family this Christmas. I guess that’s what Christmas means.