The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Interesting-we checked this book out from the library. It's just a little long to read as a bedtime story for Lucy right now (a surprising 40 pages or so), but I can page through and extract the most relevant stuff from it and use a combination of actual text and my paraphrasing that is tailored to Lucy's vocabulary & understanding. It's a technique that I use often in simply interpreting the big wide world for her, and then sometimes in stories that are intended for older audiences. Sometimes this "filter" can extract simple and beautiful truths that are either hidden or, as I found out in the case of "The Grinch," right there in front of you but something you aren't totally taking in due to the various other things grabbing your attention.

As I've mentioned before, I've struggled a bit with how we're going to handle this "household with Christian heritage that is not technically Christian" thing for awhile, especially with respect to Lucy; and considering the degree to which we plan to celebrate the various holidays that have a Christian origin. Well, last night we got to the page where the Grinch at the top of a cliff, preparing to give the sleigh a final push over the edge, but pauses a moment to listen back to Whoville in hopes of hearing "boo hoo." A lot-an awful lot of things & concepts going on at that moment, but this is how I essentially broke it down for my girl.

Remember, Loo? The Grinch took all their presents and Christmas trees and decorations and lights and candles and Christmas treats. It was not OK, but he did it anyway, because he wanted them to be sad. He wants to push the sleigh off the hill so everything will get broken because he wants them to be sad. But know what he hears when he listens, Loo? He hears singing! They're not sad, they're happy! Even though they don't have presents and Christmas trees and everything, they're happy! Because Christmas is a birthday party for Jesus! Jesus had lots of great ideas-he said we should all love each other and that we should not fight and we should not do bad things to anybody. We think those were great ideas and so we like to have a big birthday party for Jesus, and be nice to each other, get happy and sing!

Something like that, anyway. The story was over a page or two later, and Lucy was left sitting there, staring at the book with her lips kind of mouthing silent words (something she often does while concentrating). I've never seen her sit for so long, trying to get her head around something. Finally, I broke the silence:

Me: That's a lot to think about, isn't it, Loo?

Lucy: (silence...long pause) "Yeah... (another long pause) Let's talk about it.

So that became the topic of "let's talk about it" for the night, last thing before sleeping. Anyway, very special moments, very special night.