Christmas Gifts

Every year during Christmas a lot of money is spent on toys and other gifts around the globe. Even in India a lot of money is spent around the time of festivals like Diwali when people distribute sweets and gifts. Having experienced my young age in India and life as a parent in a western country, one thing which dass found common in both scenarios was the effect these customs have on the young Sikh children. When everyone around you (from the majority community and also majority of Sikh kids) is getting a/a lot of toys why you should not be one of them. Why should you feel neglected.

Daas for few years felt that our children expected gifts at Christmas as this was the talking point in school. Who got what. And then they had to go back and explain why didn’t get one from Santa. This didn’t feel right. So daas revived the tradition we had in our family in India where our Uncles/Aunts and Grandparents used to give us gifts or some money every gurpurab. Daas remembers those days we used to be so excited and always waited for the Gurpurab.

For last 1 year we made it sure that our children get a good gift on the Gurpurabs (for thos who think we have too many … we can restrict to 3-4 main ones). Now every year during the Gurpurab kids prepare very actively the shabad they will sing or the next pauris they will memorise for the gurpurab and then in the end the best part is they get the toy they had been looking for and thank Waheguru ji for the gift. The best part is when they go to their school and proudly share stories about the celebration of gurpurab and the gift they got. Now they don’t have to worry about explaining why we don’t celebrate Christmas. Infact they are even more happy as Christmas for them comes multiple times of the year now


Some may say this is attachment with maya and what not.. But living a youngsters life especially in these days of Kaljug is very challenging and we should support it in all possible ways.

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For last 1 year we made it sure that our children get a good gift on the Gurpurabs (for thos who think we have too many … we can restrict to 3-4 main ones). Now every year during the Gurpurab kids prepare very actively the shabad they will sing or the next pauris they will memorise for the gurpurab and then in the end the best part is they get the toy they had been looking for and thank Waheguru ji for the gift. The best part is when they go to their school and proudly share stories about the celebration of gurpurab and the gift they got. Now they don’t have to worry about explaining why we don’t celebrate Christmas. Infact they are even more happy as Christmas for them comes multiple times of the year now

Any excuse that gets one to do Gurbani Paath and get involved in Gurmat is good. I think this is an excellent effort by you to connect your children to Sikhi and bring Chao for Gurpurabs in their mind. Many kids start off going to Gurdwara Sahib just for Degh and there is nothing wrong in it. Even Brahmgyani Bhai Mani Singh jee started coming to Sangat for Degh but later on fell in love with Gurmat. Continue doing to good work.

Kulbir Singh

I think its a great initiative to award children for learning and reciting Amrit Bani. Mata Maryam Ji used to reward Sheikh Farid Ji with sweet candy everytime he recited Gods name. Eventually after much repetition , Bhagat Ji refused the candy and said there is nothing sweeter then Gods name to me I dont need any candy. Hopefully, similar results will occur on SIkh children who are rewarded for doing amirt vela, nitnem, wearing bana, keeping bibek, following rehat etc.

Also, I think we need to be cautious when we celebrate Gurpurabs as the way modern Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Puratan Christians never used to celebrate Jesus's birth by exchaning material gifts. Nowadays this has become the norm for Christians during CHristmas time and the tradition of singing hyms, doing good works etc has been forgotten. Bhai Gurdas Ji mentions we celebrate GUrpurabs by singing Gurbani Kirtan and doing Sangat of Gursikhs. If we start to modify this tradition due to our own insecurites or the insecurites of a children then we will only water down SIkhi the way modern Christians have watered down Christianity. If take our children to sangat and indulge in Gurbani Kirtan then they will not feel left out. During times of Gurpurab chidlren should not be excited to recieve gifts instead they should get excited to go to sangat.

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Bhai Gurdas Ji
mentions we celebrate GUrpurabs by
singing Gurbani Kirtan and doing Sangat of
Gursikhs. If we start to modify this tradition
due to our own insecurites or the
insecurites of a children then we will only
water down SIkhi the way modern
Christians have watered down Christianity.
If take our children to sangat and indulge
in Gurbani Kirtan then they will not feel left
out. During times of Gurpurab chidlren
should not be excited to recieve gifts
instead they should get excited to go to
sangat.

Good points, however as Bhai Kulbir Singh ji has mentioned, anything that brings good results should be rewarded.

Agree with Bhai Sukhdeep Singh Ji, Christmas is a perfect example of what changing the purpose of a religous day can turn into. Conservative Christians today are very upset at how commercialized Christmas has become, and most people have forgotten the history behind it, and its spiritual significance for Christians. We should be rewarding our kids with gifts and presents for engaging in Sikhi activities, but there's a limit. After a few decades, who knows what could become of Gurpurbs, people will forget its spirtual significance, and it could turn into a day where people are just excited to get gifts. Parents should be rewarding there kids daily for following gurmat, thorugh any means possible, but restricting it to any Gurpurb or religous day can lead to the same problems Christians today face with Christmas.

The intention of the original poster (Akaal74) is in accordance to Gurmat. He wanted his kids to be enthusiastic about Gurpurabs and he has achieved this by giving them gifts on Gurpurabs. Such gifts are Dhan that induce kids to do Paath, Kirtan and celebrate Gurpurabs with fervour. Gurbani never fails to affect through its Paaras Kala. These kids too will get affected by Gurbani's Paaras Kala and become good Gursikhs. Such parents, as Mata Maryam of Baba Farid jee, are wise parents because they use many tactics to get their kids involved in Gursikhi.

So long as the Gurpurabs don't stay limited to receiving and giving gifts only and Gurbani Paath and Kirtan continues to be main part of the celebrations, there is no danger to Sikhi by giving gifts. Wait till our posters have kids and are faced with the challenge of involving their kids in Sikhi. They will realize that if the task of getting kids involved can be made easy by using tactics of Mata Maryam of Baba Farid jee, its a good deal. We personally, used to reward our kids with gifts if they memorized certain Baani. Many times they were rewarded with their favourite foods for doing certain Gurmat tasks. These tactics worked very finely for us.

Kulbir Singh

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Wait till our posters have kids

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