Keep traditions alive
CAVALCADE OF LIGHTS For the sake of our children, we need to return to the traditional spirit of the season — peace and goodwill
Re Cavalcade of Lights My family and I attended the Cavalcade of Lights on Saturday night at Nathan Phillips Square. It was an enjoyable experience for the children despite the lack of traditional Christmas festivities. I had hoped to enjoy an evening of Christmas tradition with my young family. It was a disappointment there weren’t any traditional Christmas carollers or choirs present.
While waiting for the festivities to start we listened to very loud pop/ rock music. Members of one of the bands that played music were grabbing their groin areas throughout their song, which I really would have preferred had been omitted considering the occasion and the age of my children.
I really fear the loss of tradition for my children and others. I am not sure that we need to modernize and commercialize our holiday celebrations in order to keep the younger generation involved. In fact, throughout most of the entertainment, there was a group of teenagers behind us mocking the performers because I speculate they found them very contrived. The holiday season is all about tradition and I think the younger generation would embrace that as they have in past generations. Our next stop with the children was to view the Christmas windows. I have fond memories of viewing them as a child with my grandmother. I was really disappoint- ed in the displays. There was one main window at the Bay and really all it contained were toys from the store. Gone were the elaborate moving dolls, toy soldiers, trains, etc. There were several window displays to promote the Narnia movie and they contained moving dolls fighting each other with spears and swords. To me, this speaks loudly regarding the problems with our youth. These were not appropriate holiday windows. My 5- yearold daughter, without hearing comments from us, said, “ Mommy, I don’t want to look at this window anymore, it is going to give me nightmares.”
I really believe we need to maintain traditions for our children. Someone needs to take a stand and stop the violent images our children are exposed to. We need to return to the traditional spirit of the holiday season — peace and goodwill. Melanie Kehoe, Caledon East