Our family likes to watch movies, as is evidence by our movie review section. We have a natural bias towards superhero movies, and classic TV shows and movies that my wife and I grew up watching, such as Gilligan’s Island, and more. Well, Christmas time is no different, and there are a great number of Christmas movies to watch, with Hallmark putting out more and more every year.
We decided to show ones the whole family would like, from recent movies, to neo-classics like Home Alone, to some of the older classics.
My wife found some of these this past season, and so we’re watching Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, Charlie Brown Christmas, and more.
One which the Internet has come out against, starting last year it seems, was Rudolph. Now I have to admit it has been a while since I saw it, but when I did, I could see what many people were talking about. Rudolph was bullied by the other reindeer of course, but in this classic, even Santa gets in on it.
Having special needs children, I have seen bullying up close unfortunately. And while one of my sons is non-verbal, I know he hears and understands a lot more than what he says, and it can effect him.
The question is, should we let our children watch this classic? Or should we banish it? I hate getting rid of things because they are inconvenient. At the same time, we can’t keep things, just because it was popular when we were kids either.
Instead, we opted to keep and, and when necessary talk about how people aren’t always nice. How there are bullies in this world, and we can’t stop that. But, we can do what we can do. Which is we can not be a bully ourselves. We can choose to do the right thing, no matter what other people do.
So yes, maybe it becomes more of a teaching tool, than a beloved Christmas classic, but there’s a place for teaching too. And even the best of us have bad days and dark spots like Santa.
