Is Celebrating Christmas Appropriate in a Multicultural Setting?

It’s that time of the year, and in that very multicultural part of the world where I come from – Australia – celebrating Christmas in our education care settings can be quite a challenge.

Why? Because, our education & care settings reflect the cultural, linguistic & religious diversity of Australia, and many Educators are uncertain about whether to celebrate, for fear of not being inclusive and respectful to all the children and families in their classroom.

I would like to unpack these feelings of uncertainty, explore the “celebrations” debate and encourage practitioners to move forward and celebrate at this important time of the year.

There is so much opportunity for learning and spreading the message around diversity, inclusion, respect and acceptance. In fact, Christmas for me is the best time of the year for reflection, conversations and hands on experiences around inclusion, belonging, understanding, awareness, acceptance, celebrating our diversity, connecting with children and families as cultural beings and exploring and growing our own cultural competence & inclusive practices as practitioners.

As practitioners, we need to be developing & delivering culturally inclusive and authentic programs that reflect the diversity of our classrooms and are meaningful to our children & families. Whatever happens in the classroom is extended to the home environment and vice versa. So if these conversations and celebrations are happening at home and in the classroom, this can also lead to stronger partnerships and a wonderful exchange and learning about our rich cultural experiences.

Although celebrations are a very important aspect of culture (being either religious, festive, historical or nationally based), the most common challenges I hear about include:

“Celebrations are too hard & a very sensitive area, so we would rather not celebrate.” “We don’t want to be disrespectful or do the wrong thing, so we prefer to have a “No Celebrations Policy.”
Celebrations are not relevant, age appropriate or meaningful to all children & families.
Families may oppose the involvement of their children in various celebrations – including those that may contradict their religious or moral views.
Celebration programs focus on the commercial or ‘exotic’ which highlights difference and doesn’t provide authentic information to children on how people live their daily lives.
Celebrations may verge on promoting stereotype – the idea that all members of a particular group or culture share the same attitudes and values about a particular celebration.
Uncertainty around which celebrations to recognise, in order to be inclusive and equitable.

Despite this list of challenges, I strongly believe that “it’s great to celebrate!”. All these perceived challenges are valid, but these challenges and concerns can be unpacked and worked through. With reflection, consultation, collaboration, some guiding tips & strategies, the celebration journey can be a meaningful, authentic, inclusive, educational and fun learning experience for everyone involved.

Why celebrate?

Celebrations help foster a positive sense of self and self identity in children, and contribute to increased pride in cultural identity, self esteem, cultural being and sense of belonging.
When we recognise days that are special to families and cultural groups, it demonstrates that we value them. Consider it as an opportunity for children and families to share a special holiday or tradition.
Celebrations provide children, Educators and families with an opportunity to learn about values, experiences and celebrations that are different from their own (or even similar to theirs).
Celebrations can create an extension of the child’s home environment and help celebrate the child’s cultural being – celebrations demonstrate caring for and educating the child in a cultural context.
Celebrations provide opportunities for Services to develop inclusive policies & practices that celebrate diversity.
Celebrations provide opportunities for developing & building respectful partnerships with families through establishing cultural connections. If you have families that celebrate, ask for their input & ideas. Invite your families to help lead the celebrations and participate.
Celebrations are a good opportunity for Educators to reflect on their cultural competence journey, share aspects of their culture and reflect on how cultural and religious diversity and celebrations are reflected in their program.

Tips & ideas to consider when planning celebrations:

Reflect on your current Celebrations practices as a team & Service.
Develop a Celebration policy to help your Service choose, implement & evaluate celebration programs & activities. Evaluate you Celebration policy every year to check in on whether all staff & families still find it relevant and appropriate.
Ensure that your Celebration policy incorporates the cultural and linguistic needs of all your children, families and staff and that policies are translated so that all families are able to provide input. Ensure that your policy respects the right of families and children to not participate in celebrations.
Reflect on how you choose celebrations that are meaningful, developmentally appropriate and inclusive to the children, families & community.
Focus on events that are culturally relevant to individual children, families & Educators. Keep Celebrations inclusive, relevant, developmentally appropriate and have fun celebrating! Consider what celebrations contribute to forming each child’s identity within the Australian and global community.
Incorporate a question in your enrolment form that asks families what celebrations are important to them, what they would like to celebrate and how.
Consult with the children about their current interests around celebrations, what they would like to celebrate & how. This helps develop their sense of agency and belonging. Offer children authentic learning experiences based on their prior knowledge & experiences.
Consider the values we want to impart with in children through what we chose to celebrate. The key is to ensure that there is balance in our celebrations and in the messages we leave with children about the celebration. eg. an appreciation of diversity, inclusion, respect & belonging.
Explore the diverse (and similar) ways in which families & Educators celebrate events/festivals.
With religious celebrations, it is important that all families are informed and consulted. The key is to reflect this in your Celebration policy and ensure that all religious celebrations and cultural festivals are reflected in your overall programming and celebrations so that ALL children and families feel included.
Present celebrations equally, rather than focus on one festival in depth. Do you have children & families that celebrate at particular times of the year? (eg Ramadan, Diwali, Hannukah etc). Start with these celebrations, and over time, you can move towards celebrating more diverse festivals, especially if the values that you want to foster in children include an appreciation of cultural diversity.
Keep in mind that it’s impossible to celebrate everything. In Education and Care, we are bombarded with a plethora of celebrations, “days” “weeks” for us to genuinely cover and address. Sometimes acknowledgement of this celebration is adequate.

Children’s interests are a good starting point, and be sure to tap into your in-house Educator resources and any associated local community events (eg Moon Festival event through local council or cultural organisation).

Ensure that celebrations are not just celebrated as a program ‘add-on’, but rather the values and messages we want to instil in the children are embedded all year round. Incorporate celebrations into your every day curriculum (through books, puzzles, games, music & movement, storytelling) not just stand alone, tokenistic events.
Celebrations usually start on the surface level of culture (eg art/craft, music, food etc). In every day family life, cultural festivals have deeper meaning (such as celebrating religion, family relationships). The challenge for programming respectfully & authentically around celebrations is to also incorporate cultural information and understanding at a deeper level alongside the fun activities. Be sure to discuss the meaning of the celebration/holiday/festival with children.
Begin by incorporating celebrations that are relevant to individual children and families in your program. Invite the families to become involved and share their celebrations. Through their guidance and input, we are in a better position to provide non stereotypical and respectful celebrations (that move beyond the celebrations through art & craft activities, but also enable the conversations around the meaning & significance behind the celebration).
Parent consultation, input & participation is important. Develop a system to encourage family/Centre communication (eg. notice board, digital, Newsletter, informal conversations, surveys) giving parents the opportunity to let you know when a celebration is coming up.
Set up a library of items for loan to families and ask families if you can borrow celebratory items from them. eg books, greeting cards, traditional dress, artefacts, decorations.
Research and tap into opportunities to celebrate with your local community. eg Local Festival excursion or cultural celebratory incursion.
Extend on your cultural competence and learn about celebrations that can be explained to children and build on their existing knowledge.

What happens when families do not want their children to participate in particular celebrations?

Quite often, families do not want their children to participate in particular celebrations, for various reasons (eg contradiction of moral or religious views). Policies should respects the right of families and children to not participate in celebrations and families who do not wish to be involved in celebrations should have options for ‘opting out’. Offer appropriate alternatives for children and families who chose not to participate in celebrations.

References:

Casley, Celebrating With Children: A Cultural Perspective, Diversity in Child Care Queensland, STTAR Program, 2001.
Tsambouniaris, Festivals and Celebrations, Bankstown Early Integration and Networking Group, 2004

Extract from Putting Children First, the magazine of the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC) Issue 33, March 2010 (pages 17-19), Genuine Celebrations: Including cultural experiences in the program.

Cultural Connections, Child Australia, 2017

Meni has been in the early childhood education sector for 35 years. She has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology (UNSW) and has worked in various multicultural children’s services positions over the years under the Commonwealth Inclusion Support strategy including co-ordinating Sups Programs and managing the NSW Bicultural Support Program. She is an early childhood author, resource developer and trainer on cultural inclusion. In addition, she is a CALD representative, adviser and consultant on various platforms. Meni currently co-manages a multicultural consultancy program called Diversity Kids and has a strong passion for cultural inclusive practice, bilingualism, and embedding cultural perspectives in education & care settings.