#68: Watch out for Christmas parties

If you work at a library in the United States, your library is likely to be planning some kind of “holiday” party for children this time of year. Think about what this will include and how you are marketing it. If you can do a “winter party” instead, that’s ideal. Consider crafts, decorations, and advertising featuring white and blue, snowmen, bears, penguins, snowflakes, ice skates, sledding, and cocoa. However, if what your library will actually be doing is a program featuring red and green, reindeer, Santa, ‘ornaments,’ and strings of multi-colored lights, call it a Christmas party. A “holiday” party that just uses the word as a euphemism for “Christmas” sets non-Christian families up for frustration and disappointment and essentially erases the fact that other holidays are indeed celebrated in December.