A Bone to pick with Barnes & Noble

James and I were at Barnes & Noble booksellers at Crabltree Valley Mall last Friday. I needed to get the next book in the series I am reading and I wanted to get a children's book of the Nativity story for James. I encountered two issues in doing this. One, the selection of books in large display area in the children's section has all sorts of books about Santa Claus. Some are traditional stories like "The Nutcracker" and "Twas the Night Before Christmas". But then there is "Disney Christmas Storybook Collection" and "Fancy Nancy", "Charlie Brown" and "SpongeBob". And over on the far right are small board books of the Nativity story. I counted 4: 2 board books and 2 storybooks. One of the storybooks was nice...until you read it to the end. THAT book paralleled the birth of Jesus to new parents today experiencing the birth of their child. Um, excuse me, but Jesus wasn't just ANY baby. While I marveled at the birth of my own son...he is NOT the son of God and the two stories don't mesh when thinking about WHY Christians celebrate Christmas. It might be appropriate in some other context, in my humble opinion. The second problem I encountered was when I asked for help from customer service to locate other Nativity story books. I thought maybe I had missed them or something. Maybe they had a special display table elsewhere in the store. No, they didn't. The man directed me to the "religion section" in the children's area. I use the term loosely because there was a bunch of children's bibles (which were quite lovely) but no Nativity storybooks. But, to my horror, I found ALL the Berenstain Bear books! They were hidden away in the CHRISTIAN religious section (i.e., 1 small bookcase). I was so confused. The Berenstain Bears books are NOT religious. Not all of them anyway. There is one about "sunday school" and one about "God loving you" and "saying prayers"...but "treat or treat" and "the sitter" and "a visit to the dentist" hardly count as religious! And when exactly did teaching MORALS (or learning about the dentist) become synonymous with RELIGION? Can't one teach morals without the religious context? SURE you can! I was angry because the books with something to teach (that Charlotte Mason may not necessarily lable "twaddle") are kept separate from the other paperback books for kids that WOULD be "twaddle" like SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer, Superhero books, and Biscuit books. If I hadn't been looking for a book about the Nativity, I would have assumed that the bookstore just didn't have any Berenstain Bear books. James needs to know exactly WHY we celebrate Christmas. He needs to know that it's not just about Santa Claus and toys and Christmas decorations. Besides, in this day and age, Santa Claus is so far removed from the "Reason for the Season" that anyone of any religion could join in the fun. I wonder why it hasn't happened yet really. Some sweet grandfatherly old man gives out toys to GOOD boys and girls. Can't one work on character development here and completely edit out the religious beginnings of it all? Sure! History of Santa Claus In fact, the only Christian aspect of Santa Claus is that Saint Nicholas of 4th Century Greece was the giver of gifts. Now, I am thinking about the REAL reason Christians celebrate Easter. What does Easter eggs  and jellybeans have to do with it? Oh, my head hurts! But just one more thing, MERRY CHRISTMAS!