Greetings!

We designed this site in order to keep in touch with friends and family who are far away and in order to communicate with other adoptive families from around the world.

When we first started researching this wonderful way to become a family we read everything we could get our hands on. Even though there are a lot of great books out there, nothing was as informative or touching as the blogs we found by adoptees, biological parents, and adoptive families. So we are writing this blog now in hopes of returning the favor. We hope that if you are dear to us you will enjoy keeping up with our adventures. If you are someone out there involved in a part of the adoption triad we hope you will find information and comfort here and provide us with some of your own!

If you would like to get in touch with us we can be reached at: becomingafamily@gmail.com
Feel free to stop by anytime. We're happy to share our family story.

Take care,
Brian and Rosemary

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Asian Santa

So I was talking with a friend of mine, who is African American, and we were both bemoaning the fact the we don't have any of our Christmas decorations up yet.  Procrastinate much?  Yes, we do! Then she mentioned that she had found the most beautiful black Santa over the summer and was looking forward to putting it out.  That's when I started thinking about something new.  

If Santa Clause is for children and our children will be Asian do we need to make an effort to have Asian Santa Clause figures?  How important is it that children see iconic figures like Santa representing their own race?  Of course, I don't know the answer to that.  I'm just hitchhiking my way through this world but it did raise some interesting ideas.  Once again, I was grateful to have dialogue with friends from all races to remind me that being white is just one state of being and one that my children will not share.  

I think, because we are a transracial family who is making an attempt to be anti-racist, we are going to represent Santa in all of his racial identities: black, asian, white.  For the folks who will inevitably ask, "But won't that confuse the children?"  I intend to steal  from James McBride's amazing memoir of growing up in a transracial family.  If you haven't read it - IT'S WONDERFUL!  In that book, he recounts being teased by some kids about being mixed race.  Afterwards, he asked his mother what color God was.  His mother wisely responded by saying, "God is the color of water."  So in our house, God and Santa are both going to be the color of water, and we're going to try to have pictorial representation in every race.  

BTW though - finding these Asian Santas is extremely hard!!  I will certainly be combing specialty stores and buying one as soon as I see it, whenever I see it, for the rest of my life.  If anybody has any leads on where to get good racially diverse decorations please let me know.

- Rosemary

7 comments:

Maci Miller said...

Wow, that is a beautiful explanation....the color of water. A reflection of the self. Good stuff. I am so stealing that! Good post, Rosemary!
Jen

ps - we never got the tree up either. Maybe this weekend after it stops raining!
pps. If you find a cool Asian Santa I would like to know where you bought it!

Jessica said...

I love it. I've never seen an Asian Santa before. (In Thailand or anywhere else for that matter). If you do find one, I'd love to know where you got him.

rosemary said...

I still haven't found much but Becca, who is apparently a fantastic shopper, sent me these great links!
Here's one interesting one she found made in Northern Thailand: http://www.overstock.com%2FHome-Garden%2FHand-carved-Wooden-Santa-Claus%2F998863%2Fproduct.html and another interesting site is http://www.afk.com%2F they have multicultural ornaments.

Thank you, Becca!!

Becca said...

You're welcome :)

Unknown said...

oddly enough...I remember seeing some while we were in Bangkok....one of those quick, "Look, Jeremy, Asian Santa!" moments. ....but I couldn't tell you where. So hopefully when you get there in a couple weeks, you can buy them all out.

I'm excited for your shopping. It will be totally different for you this time around. And Jutiporn will have the best advice about things for Thai boys!!! How wonderful!!!

Jessica said...

Thanks for the links and hurray Becca. I love adding to my Christmas collection.

Have a safe trip to Thailand. How fun it will be to see it all through a "fresh" set of eyes.

Unknown said...

He's not Thai, but Chinese...but He's Asian

http://www.chinasprout.com/shop/A776