The first question your children will ask their brothers and sisters and friends on Christmas day is what did you get for Christmas? It's a perfectly normal question, asked by perfectly normal children, who have been taught by their perfectly normal parents how to successfully commercialize Christmas.

If parents won't teach children that we celebrate December 25 because of the birth of Jesus Christ, and if schools are forbidden to approach the subject of Christianity, and if Christmas falls on a Sunday, and if parents teach their children that it is all right to adjourn "church" when Christmas comes on Sunday (Even though churches have no other function but to spread the Gospel of Him whose birthday we celebrate), and if cowardly politicians continue to write sloppily crafted (CYA politically correct) laws open to reversal by a left dominated court, and if we let our children be taught by others (including media "stars" and psychologically brilliant "greed is good advertising"), and if too many parents continue to live and think like envy-crippled, grown-up, greedy children themselves, then there is no hope for anything other than a "commercialized Christmas." So? Christian parents should put up, or shut up, or swallow their two-faced moaning about the commercialization of Christmas.

However, one does have some solutions to offer, but first there are a few disclaimers. I am reasonably sure that I have no children of my own. In fact, I have no "hands on" experience socializing any higher animal, except the wonderful dogs in my life, and I'm not "punning" here. However, I had considerable success in training white rats to do my bidding in psyche labs at Ole Miss, a skill that one rarely put to use at formal fraternity/sorority social functions. It should be stated that, in addition to the deficiency of experience in actually raising a child, I am certainly not qualified to give anyone spiritual guidance. And, I confess that I have broken some of the Ten Commandments, but only those that really interested me, and those for which I had some talent, but, sadly, interest and talent often collide, as all aging philandering husbands, or young amateur sinners, know too well. Anyway, we now have the disclaimers out of the way. Here are some suggestions for you Christian parents who are interested in preventing the spread of greed that they learned from you, among your offspring.

Before you allow one Christmas present to be opened, ask your children to listen to you read from the second chapter of Luke . . . "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people [and] . . . For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord . . . [and] . . . Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will toward men . . . " If you're thinking, as many of you are, "my kids would think I'm nuts, or being mean, or both," I urge you to just try it. Start a family tradition, and long after your children have forgotten what they received for Christmas December 25, 2005, they will remember the day their parents began Christmas Day, well, like Christians.

After Christmas is well past, ask your older children, say sixth graders and up, if they know what the "Mayflower Compact" is, or why the Pilgrims wrote it? If they give you a blank stare, as they will, ask them to go to the library, or if at all possible go with them, and ask one of our accommodating librarians to help you find a copy of it. It's only about a page long, but it is one of our "Founding" documents, among many, that clearly shows that from the very beginning this was meant to be a Christian nation. Your children need to learn as early as possible that this is a nation created by Christians, and that all others who came later were (are) allowed to practice their non-Christian religions, because, as Christians we allow it. Teach them, early on, that while we Christians allow other religious practices, the "freedom of religion" was not (is not) meant to be an invitation to destroy the Christian foundations of this nation. Our children are helpless, especially before atheist professors, in defending the proposition that this nation is, and should remain a Christian nation. Only American Christians can be relied on for the protection of all faiths represented here, but if those other faiths are to enjoy our Christian country's protection, they should understand that while they might be citizens, their abilities to practice their non-Christian beliefs are safe only if this country remains Christian. That's why this Judeo-Christian society is so successful. Other religions should look to the Judeo-Christian, uniquely American, kinship, and learn to respect it. Remember that history teaches us that in Christ and Peter Christianity was Jewish, in Paul it became half Greek; in Catholicism it became half Roman; and in today's Protestantism there appears to be a return to a restoration of the importance of Christianity's focus on Christ and Peter's "Judaic Christianity." Thus, no Christian in America is without his Jewish roots (our belief in the Biblical God of Israel).

"Commercialized" Christmas can only be changed in the home, and it must likewise be in the home that children learn that this is a Christian nation. Your children's education is mainly your awesome responsibility. It's up to you alone, nowadays, to shape your children's Faith and Patriotism. It takes courage to buck the "It takes a Village . . ." nonsense, and we salute your resolve to raise your child, your way, no matter how many times you must exert an unpopular "no." Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah!

Kenneth Kinchen is an independent writer with a background in international business and foreign service contracting.