The Cruises banning Christmas
Today I stumbled upon this article in the paper that informed me that the Cruises are not celebrating Christmas (and therefore not telling their daughter about Santa or giving her presents) because they "do not hold to the belief that Christ is the son of God". Now, I don't read much about the Cruises, and I don't know how accurate the reporting is (and to say nothing of the fact that Santa has very little to do with Christ being the son of God anyway, or the sadness of their disbelief) but I felt like there was a sense in which you had to give them some credit for that decision. It would appear that they have investigated what Christmas is really about, decided that they don't believe in it, and therefore that they are not just going to capitulate to society and indulge their child in the all the 'seemingly harmless' paraphenalia that comes with its celebration. Whatever you happen to think of Tom Cruise (and I am just going to leave that, and the errors of scientology, alone), that, at least, is conscious and deliberate parenting.