Just looking for some brief opinions from the GA community.  A 7-year
old has a friend who is Jewish and can't understand why "Santa" would
not go to her house or that she doesn't celebrate Christmas.  Aside
from the whole Santa issue, how would a parent explain, in simple
concepts, the Jewish belief system to a child? I'm not looking for an
in-depth answer or a bunch of links, just a few bullet items from
someone who understands Judaism or is Jewish. Thank you, GA community!

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Clarification of Question by margi-ga on 05 Jan 2005 23:06 PST

I realize a made a major grammatical error that changed the context of
my question.   The problem is: The 7-year-old is the one that
celebrates Christmas, and it's the little friend that's Jewish.  So,
the 7-year-old wants to know why the friend, who is Jewish, doesn't
celebrate Christmas and why the little girl said that Santa doesn't
come to her house, and... specifically, she wants to know what the
Jews believe.   She's aware that there are different belief systems,
and the community here is very diverse (Christian, Jewish, Hindu,
Buddhist, Wiccan, etc.) but this is the first time for a direct
question in this context, and I want to be able to have a meaningful
talk that is, at the same time, appropriate in scope for a 7 year old.
 I started getting into the commonalities, i.e Torah and the Christian
bible, the belief in one God, belief in the Messiah, and I realized
that 1) I don't know as much as I thought I did, 2) I know more about
the commonalities than I do any differences, and 3)my response was too
complex for a child. The Santa part didn't have as much to do with the
question as the issue of "What does Jewish mean?"  Just some simple
concepts would be appreciated, if possible.  If not, thank you all for
your help. The links, pinkfreud, are still insightful.  This is not
the first time you've helped me out. Thank you.

This book, "To Raise a Jewish Child: A Guide for Parents," might help:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465086357/

Another book that sounds useful, "The Jewish Child's First Book of Why":

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0824603540/

Howdy margi-ga,

You might take this opporunity to explain things on a more global level.
You could point out that are many, many different cultures and belief
systems in the world that do not include Santa Claus or Christiocentric
viewpoints.

You might point out there are more people who do not celebrate Christmas
(at least from a Christian viewpoint) than do, and Santa Claus is unknown
in parts of the world.

This gives a perfect segue to talking about the Jewish faith.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Regarding the matter of explaining Santa and Christmas to a Jewish
child, these pages might be helpful:

http://www.onenorthpole.com/Hannukah/SantaJewish.html

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:df-G28Jogf0J:archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/12/18/hanukkah