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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP back.

I know it's June. School just got out and people are looking ahead at the school calendar for next year. If you've never been part of the obnoxious discussions about school closures on non-Christian holidays, good for you; stay far away from those discussions online and in person. Someone inevitably points out that schools close for two weeks for Christmas (and a week tied to Easter), so a day here and there for Yom Kippur and Diwali is not a big deal. And then the cultural Christians pop out of the woodwork to opine about how [i]everyone [/i]can celebrate Christmas, because Santa isn't Christian, so what's the big deal? And by not decorating our house and making cookies for Santa, we're denying our kids the magic of Christmas. Or they admit that it has religious elements, but it's also just a secular American holiday, so anyone who doesn't celebrate it isn't doing the American thing. Those are the people I take issue with. I just don't understand what their goal is.[/quote]

I have been part of those calendar discussions online and [i]never[/i] seen anyone push secular Christmas on people. I have seen people mention it's a federal holiday (true!) and that it's the best time to travel to the global south for people who still have family in various countries across the global south, so many people take 2-3 weeks around that time of year (they do!). Could you chose to do a winter break at a different federal holiday near semester end in February? Maybe. That would cause inconvenience for the people who are used to traveling for Christmas though, while leaving it keeps those people happy and allows for the above 2 needs to be met.

But again - never seen anyone say that just because school is off for 2 weeks you must set up Elf on the Shelf.[/quote]
I think you misunderstood my point. It's not that people are pushing Christmas because we get two weeks off. There are people (I'm not one of them) who would like to see winter break at the end of the quarter in January and I recognize that that's a ridiculous idea, since so many people travel for the holidays in December. I appreciate traveling at the end of the year. We go visit friends every year and it's a lovely tradition.

Here's what happens:
1. People complain that schools are closed for "random" days in the fall (for Yom Kippur, Diwali, etc).
2. Others point out that closing for a day here or there for minority cultures is not that big a deal, especially when the schools close for two weeks for Christmas and one week for Easter.
3. People come back to defend those long breaks, particularly for Christmas. Those arguments usually fall into a few different camps:
   A. So many people celebrate Christmas and travel to be with family that the schools need to close for a long time to accommodate that travel.
   B. Christmas is a Federal Holiday, so the schools have to close. I don't think they need to close for two weeks for a Federal holiday (maybe 10 days, just to cover both Christmas and New Years), but fine.
   C. The "Christmas is secular" argument, which is what I'm taking issue with in this post. It's ok that you haven't seen it, but it does happen. There was a crazy post (that got deleted) on the antisemitism thread last week about how Jews shouldn't have a problem with celebrating Christmas, because it's not religious anymore and their kids can have Santa. Again, I don't care if cultural Christians want to celebrate secular Christmas. But when somebody identifies themselves as another religion, don't tell them they should still give their kids gifts from Santa, so they don't miss out on the magic of Christmas. Or, a couple weeks ago, someone on the FCPS forum argued that "celebrating Christmas is as American as celebrating the Fourth of July," as if not celebrating Christmas was some failing as an American.[/quote]

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