Christmas was a pagan holiday, by the way, and some conservative Christians do not celebrate it for this reason. Modern day Santa is an invention of the CocaCola company. St Nick is an entirely different person historically.

Anonymous wrote:We do not celebrate Christmas and my 9 year old has been coming home super bummed recently because he is "the only one that does not celebrate Christmas" and "everyone at school keeps talking about Christmas and Santa".

I really appreciate that the schools try to squash Christmas/Santa talk. I don't care if they discuss the Holidays and traditions, but Christmas is very dominant and can become a bummer for those kids that don't celebrate it. Adults often make comments to my son about "Santa is going to visit you" and "have you been good for Santa" and it's definitely awkward for him and makes him feel uncomfortable - and even sad because he feels like he is missing out.

We of course deal with it as a family, but it's just another perspective.

Well my Christian kid keeps moaning about wanting to be Jewish because of Hannakauh and chocolate coins. So not every place leans towards Christmas.

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why Santa is religious? Can someone please explain the religious connection to me?

Um, St Nicholas?

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why Santa is religious? Can someone please explain the religious connection to me?

Stop. Really? Think for a second. What holiday is Santa associated with? And what event does that holiday commemorate? Now, non-Christians consider that a holiday? I'm guessing you're being deliberately obtuse b/c if you really don't understand that Santa is a Christmas tradition and Christmas is a Christian holiday, you have much bigger problems than I can help you with on here!

I don't understand why Santa is religious? Can someone please explain the religious connection to me?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A Jew here...why on earth couldn't the children sing the song at recess?? It's not promoted by school, it's not bad or offensive. Censoring kids form singing a religious song because some other kid doesn't celebrate that same religion is going way too far. Our public MCPS school doesn't have a holiday party at all, that's fine I get it (though I honestly never cared growing up and uses to love making gingerbread houses at the school party because I never did at home!).

But let the kids sing what they want on the playground! This is going too far.

The kids were singing an obnoxious version of "Jingle Bells." The teacher was using whatever method she could to get them to shut up. OP is over-reacting.

But isn't tbe playground the very place those kids should be able to sing their heart out? Better there than in the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that there was a kid standing right near them who doesn't celebrate Christmas and the teacher noticed, so she asked them to stop. Maybe given time to sit and think the teacher would have intervened in a different way, but recess duty generally isn't the best place for pondering theological ethics.

But Jingle Bells isn't a Christmas song!

My guess is she was annoyed cause the kids were singing (loudly/obnoxiously/whatever) and told them to stop. Are we sure she even attributed it to Christmas? Or maybe she said "you're bothering other kids" (which they may have been doing) and the kids inferred the bother was because of Christmas.

My guess is that there was a kid standing right near them who doesn't celebrate Christmas and the teacher noticed, so she asked them to stop. Maybe given time to sit and think the teacher would have intervened in a different way, but recess duty generally isn't the best place for pondering theological ethics.

Wait... the kids couldn't sing Jingle Bells because not everyone celebrates Christmas?

I have been sitting at my desk for the last five minutes singing Jingle Bells in my head... and I can't come up with one Christmas reference, in either the actual song or in the "Batman smells" version. No Jesus, no Santa, no elves, no manger, nothing. It's the quintessential WINTER song.

Or maybe she meant that you can't sing it because those poor kids in Florida who don't get snow might be upset.

So very confused...

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:That is part of the reason why we are in a Catholic school. I heard that saying God bless you when someone sneezes is no longer acceptable.

You should definitely stay in Catholic school (from a Catholic). Watched. Wonderful 2nd grade holiday show today where they sang about all the major holidays. So refreshing for a school not to shy away from religion. And yes, DCPS school.

I was there too -- two of the many adorable songs brought tears to my eyes: "My friend's family celebrates Ramadan" (really captures the nonchalance and respect of diversity among our kids) and "Innkeeper" (a beautiful song of inclusiveness, pleading for someone to let Mary in). "December in Our Town" is a great tradition at our school, celebrating the spirit of the season and the diversity of our families. The kids were so poised and cute. Great job teachers!

PP here. So glad I wasn't the only teary one. I grew up in Catholic school and had no idea about other holidays. I love that my kids get to spend time at school leading about what their friends are celebrating. The 2nd grade team did an awesome job.

Oh, great. So now the meaning of Christmas has to be "inclusiveness." How PC of them.

No, the winter concert was themed around inclusiveness and world holidays. Christmas was one holiday included in many. It's appropriate at public school.

Anonymous wrote:We do not celebrate Christmas and my 9 year old has been coming home super bummed recently because he is "the only one that does not celebrate Christmas" and "everyone at school keeps talking about Christmas and Santa".

I really appreciate that the schools try to squash Christmas/Santa talk. I don't care if they discuss the Holidays and traditions, but Christmas is very dominant and can become a bummer for those kids that don't celebrate it. Adults often make comments to my son about "Santa is going to visit you" and "have you been good for Santa" and it's definitely awkward for him and makes him feel uncomfortable - and even sad because he feels like he is missing out.

We of course deal with it as a family, but it's just another perspective.

I am also jewish and no stranger to being a lonely Jew. But in my experience there's no cure for the December dilemma except to get over it. As an adult I really enjoy the Christmas season. I feel lucky that I can enjoy a lot of the fun parts of the season without the stress

I work at a school with a huge Muslim population. We include a song about eid (even though eid doesn't always fall in the winter. This year it was celebrated in july) and a song about friendship in Arabic in the annual holiday sing along along with songs about Christmas, hannukah and Kwanzaa. I think including many holidays in a holiday celebration is better than banning the words Christmas or Santa from a concert.

I wonder if the teacher banned Christmas carols because she got tired of the obnoxious singing. The whole jingle bells =religious arguement is pretty weak.

I've banned singing Christmas carols in the library but then the library rules include not yelling. Recess is one the only places children can should be allowed to yell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is part of the reason why we are in a Catholic school. I heard that saying God bless you when someone sneezes is no longer acceptable.

You should definitely stay in Catholic school (from a Catholic). Watched. Wonderful 2nd grade holiday show today where they sang about all the major holidays. So refreshing for a school not to shy away from religion. And yes, DCPS school.

I was there too -- two of the many adorable songs brought tears to my eyes: "My friend's family celebrates Ramadan" (really captures the nonchalance and respect of diversity among our kids) and "Innkeeper" (a beautiful song of inclusiveness, pleading for someone to let Mary in). "December in Our Town" is a great tradition at our school, celebrating the spirit of the season and the diversity of our families. The kids were so poised and cute. Great job teachers!

PP here. So glad I wasn't the only teary one. I grew up in Catholic school and had no idea about other holidays. I love that my kids get to spend time at school leading about what their friends are celebrating. The 2nd grade team did an awesome job.

Oh, great. So now the meaning of Christmas has to be "inclusiveness." How PC of them.

The point is that it wasn't a Christmas show; it was about the many kinds of celebrations the 2nd graders in the school experience with their diverse families. Christmas was on of them, but it wasn't just about Christmas. They all shared in each other's traditions and all the families brought in their traditional foods to share after. We have families from all over the world and all over the city. A fairly large percentage of the children do not celebrate Christmas. They had just finished the standard second grade social studies unit on world cultural traditions and celebrations.

And no, "inclusiveness" was my word for the Christmas song, and it came to mind due to the lyric, "won't someone please let her in?" I'd say inclusiveness has always been a theme of Christmas and a very, very big part of Jesus's message to the world -- consider all of the shunned people he went out of his way to include in his life. Love thy neighbor.

Anonymous wrote:I always sang it

Jingle Bells
Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
Batmobile
Lost a wheel
And the Joker got away (or did ballet)

My kids both learned this song at school, I guess it's not banned in Virginia.