A Parent trying to get Christmas back in school

Who would go to school over christmas break? That is just nuts! Christmas break is meant to celebrate the birthday of Christ and be with family.

You are stupid.

We absolutely have gone off the PC deep end. I'm a devout Christian, but I certainly respect the celebrations of both Chanukah and Kwanza. The most important this about this time of year is respecting your fellow man. So I say, live and let live. I don't get why people get so worked up over their holiday getting snubbed. Be happy and enjoy the good tidings.

We should have Christmas off but it shouldn't be celebrated in schools. If you have a problem with that, feel free to send your kids to a Christian school.

Xmas was a pagan tradition stolen by Christians

Happy HondaDays wrote:

We absolutely have gone off the PC deep end. I'm a devout Christian, but I certainly respect the celebrations of both Chanukah and Kwanza. The most important this about this time of year is respecting your fellow man. So I say, live and let live. I don't get why people get so worked up over their holiday getting snubbed. Be happy and enjoy the good tidings.

Oh man. Here's my holiday rant:

Christmas is more important to Christians than Hanukah or Kwanzaa are to the people who celebrate them (spoken as a Jew). We really don't want or need this whole month-long celebration of Christmas. The holiday songs and decorations start to become unbearable the day after Thanksgiving. It isn't "live and let live," it's "flood the airways and shopping malls with Christmas and throw in token icons from other faiths to show we're being sensitive, but we know what this is really about."

Both the Hanukah and Kwanzaa celebrations are responses to Christmas-like celebrations that have grown way out of hand. Hanukah didn't start in its current form until just a few hundred years ago. Hanukah is not as fun as Purim, not as holy as Yom Kippur/Rosh Hashannah, not as historic as Passover. I would prefer to move Hanukah to another time of year and just ignore Christmas completely. But no. My roommate has a playlist of 256 Christmas songs (who knows how she found so many) and insists on playing them whenever she can. You can't find anything else on the radio when you're in the car. Bad TV shows, bad movies, it's unbearable.

In Japan, Christmas is a minor shopping holiday and it's actually quite nice (I believe it's also an evening when couples are supposed to have sex). In Europe it's mostly religious and the commercialization is minor in comparison with the US.

If it's so important to respect your fellow man, make it either into a shopping holiday or a religious one. But don't make it both. The fact that Christmas permeates EVERY public space (except Jewish or Muslim ones) is disrespectful. Do you ever notice when the more important Muslim or Jewish holidays take place? Do you hear the Shofar blown every year? At most you notice matzah in the grocery store, or certain stores will shut down early on Fridays. That's respecting your fellow man.

It is hard for Christmas (the generic Happy Holidays/Seasons Greetings/Xmas variety) not to permeate the culture since most Americans come from a Christian background.

However, it is sad that the idea of Christmas as the celebration of Jesus' birth can't be referenced publicly (schools, etc.) or even in most workplaces.

I agree with you. Christmas is out of hand. I'm not Christian, but I like this time of year. I just ignore the stuff I don't like: less tv, no boring office parties, and no stressing about gifts. I love watching some of the great Christmas movies. Most of all, I love the week or two away from work. It's quite nice to get a paid break that lets us totally escape all work responsibility, annoying coworkers and corporate games in order to see family and friends. I'll tolerate a month long bombardment of commercials and religious music of any type if it gets me a few weeks off work.

This is why public schools cannot really celebrate Christmas. It's one thing for an adult to be annoyed by the pervasiveness of Christmas in our culture, but he can deal with it (a lot of people like Christmas without celebrating the religious nature of the holiday). It is different for children, particularly young children, who are forced to attend school and have no control over the content. You can try to celebrate all religious holidays, but the reality is that in a country that is mostly Christian, more focus will be on the Christian holidays.

I agree that it is unfortunate that public schools can't celebrate Christmas, but I don't really see a way around that that still respects the kids from minority religions.

Christmas in the US has been hijacked by monoculture. If it were religious, it would be a lot less visible. But its not. Its commercial. It seems to have precious little to do with Christianity.

Its a good thing to scale it back.

I teach at a public school. We openly celebrate Christmas. Our break is officially called Christmas Break. Everyone knows we wouldn't have the break if not for Christmas. Why not just call it what it is? Let's stop being overly sensitive. The country was founded on Christian principles. It's fine if you aren't a Christian, but be prepared to deal with the fact that you will feel left out sometimes. Maybe we should stop speaking English in schools as well. There are lots of kids these days who don't speak it. Their feelings might be hurt as well.

as a Jew, and one who observes dietary laws and holy days, I say it's time to take down the menorahs. Chanukkah, a minor holiday (not holy day) has been over for awhile. Put up the mangers I am not insulted by them and understand the historical link to Christianity. This political correctness has gone too far.

I object to my tax money being used to worship genocide and rape as Christians do. The Crusades, Obama, W. Bush, Lyndon Johson, Robert E. Lee, Harry Trtuman, Adolph Hitler, Queen Victoria, Joseph Stalin, are a legacy of monumental Christian cowardice and murder.

iamnotconvinced wrote:

Everyone knows we wouldn't have the break if not for Christmas. Why not just call it what it is? Let's stop being overly sensitive. The country was founded on Christian principles. It's fine if you aren't a Christian, but be prepared to deal with the fact that you will feel left out sometimes.

1. Idiot. I can't believe you're a teacher. I suppose if it wasn't for Christmas (March Edition) and Christmas (June Edition) we wouldn't have Spring or Summer break. I am embarrassed for my profession.

2. It's not that anyone feels left out, but the opposite--this saccharine, cloying, meaningless celebration of spending money is everywhere and forced down everyone's throat. Someone else made the point that religious holidays are celebrated modestly and privately.

3. Unrelated to this, a 256 song Christmas playlist should be deed a crime against humanity. I feel for you.

*deemed.

oh god wrote:

1. Idiot. I can't believe you're a teacher. I suppose if it wasn't for Christmas (March Edition) and Christmas (June Edition) we wouldn't have Spring or Summer break. I am embarrassed for my profession.

2. It's not that anyone feels left out, but the opposite--this saccharine, cloying, meaningless celebration of spending money is everywhere and forced down everyone's throat. Someone else made the point that religious holidays are celebrated modestly and privately.

3. Unrelated to this, a 256 song Christmas playlist should be deed a crime against humanity. I feel for you.

Wow, you are a sad person. Makes me worry for the future of the kids you work with.

As a devote atheist I just dont get why the PC police need to attack Xmas.

It's not a chrisitian holiday, it's a celebration of Walmart & Best Buy. Anyone that acts like it's a religious holiday is kidding themselves.

If Xmas was really a religious holiday it would be more like Easter (the main Christian Holy Day).

Xmas was a pagan holiday associated with the soltice, Christian just adopted it because it was a popular holiday and placed their dogma on top of it to make it palitable to the popes etc..

There was no manger, wise men, etc.. that's just a silly story for kids.

iamnotconvinced wrote:

I teach at a public school. We openly celebrate Christmas. Our break is officially called Christmas Break. Everyone knows we wouldn't have the break if not for Christmas. Why not just call it what it is? Let's stop being overly sensitive. The country was founded on Christian principles. It's fine if you aren't a Christian, but be prepared to deal with the fact that you will feel left out sometimes. Maybe we should stop speaking English in schools as well. There are lots of kids these days who don't speak it. Their feelings might be hurt as well.

There is no national religion nor is there a national language.

So promoting one in a public school would be wrong.

America was founded on the idea of religious freedom. It doesn't matter that most Americans at that time would have called themselves Christians.

Celebrating one religion over another in a public school with young inpressionable children is wrong and if you can't see why it is wrong then there really is no helping you.

There are plenty of places to celebrate your religion out in the open one of them should not be a public school.

EZ10Miler wrote:

As a devote atheist I just dont get why the PC police need to attack Xmas.

It's not a chrisitian holiday, it's a celebration of Walmart & Best Buy. Anyone that acts like it's a religious holiday is kidding themselves.

If Xmas was really a religious holiday it would be more like Easter (the main Christian Holy Day).

Xmas was a pagan holiday associated with the soltice, Christian just adopted it because it was a popular holiday and placed their dogma on top of it to make it palitable to the popes etc..

There was no manger, wise men, etc.. that's just a silly story for kids.

.

The roots of Xmas are the pre Xian Winter Solstice celebration. And Easter started out as a celbration of the spring equinox. The early Xian leaders could not get the new Xians to give up these pagan Holidays and so just grafted their crap on top of them. The Easter Bunny, eggs, candy etc have nothing to do with being Xian