A frosty debate is playing out in one Tennessee community.
For at least the last three decades, public school students in Tennessee’s Sumner County referred to the December holiday school break as “Winter Break." Last year, the school board abruptly changed the name to “Christmas Break”.
Now, a secular movement to change the name back to “Winter Break” is splitting the community in two, igniting impassioned debate and a new school board vote.
https://www.facebook.com/UniversalLifeChurch/videos/868257265622918
It’s not even Thanksgiving yet. Is the War on Christmas already here?
Winter Break Put on Ice
The vote appears to have been brought up by school board member Wade Evans, who says his constituents felt the pivot last year to “Christmas Break” might feel exclusionary to non-Christian kids. He noted that 16 neighboring counties use secular names for the break, and brought the idea of changing the name back before the school board.
A compromise was even suggested – calling it “Christmas/Winter Break” – which failed.
“It’s not about erasing faith,” said board member Shellie Young Tucker. “It’s not about taking Jesus out of the season. In fact, I’d challenge you to say that it’s the opposite. It’s about recognizing that we are a community. That’s why I moved here. We are a community and we need to care about each other.”
She said that formally using “Christmas” instead of “Winter” can make "families feel invisible, unseen in the very school that their children attend."
Not every board member agreed.
“Would you rather me lie to you or tell the truth?” asked board member Andy Lacy. “Christmas is Christmas, why do we have to worry about offending everybody over the truth? It’s not my intention to offend people, but Christmas is Christmas and why do we have to appease the one percent?”
Christmas Break Remains
After extended discussions, the board voted to keep the “Christmas Break” name.
The decision no doubt left some community members disappointed. Schools have a legal obligation not to endorse one faith over another, though there is plenty of wiggle room in that requirement – and not everyone agrees that naming a school break "Christmas" crosses the line.
But when it comes to keeping schools secular, should public opinion matter?
Local news outlet FOX17 asked readers if they agreed with the board’s decision to keep Christmas Break on the calendar, rather than change it to Winter Break – and a whopping 84% of voters agreed.
What is your reaction? Does the use of the word Christmas constitute an endorsement of Christianity? And do schools have an obligation to represent religious minorities?
11 comments
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Dorothy Hawkins
The Christians may be surprised to know that "their" holiday has its roots in pagan beliefs and customs from antiquity: Here's a link to learn more: the unexpected pagan origins of popular christmas traditions https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-unexpected-pagan-origins-of-popular-christmas-traditions/
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Dorothy Hawkins
The Christians may be surprised to know that "their" holiday has its roots in pagan beliefs and customs from antiquity: Here's a link to learn more: the unexpected pagan origins of popular christmas traditions https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-unexpected-pagan-origins-of-popular-christmas-traditions/
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Rev. BH
Since "Christ" is a title and not a name, we could rename the winter celebration Mistermass, or KIngmass, or Kahunamass, or CEOmass, etc. to avoid religious connotations.
Or If you want to get really traditional, Yule came first. Happy Yule Y'all!
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Robin Anne Hannon
It doesn't matter to me. A rose by any other name etc. Winter Break, Holiday Break, everyone knows it's Christmas so no need for that repetition, but nothing wrong with it either. I'm not Christian by heritage, but as a biblical scholar I studied it. There are some pretty neat parallels between that and Judaism, but I digress.
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Douglas Robert Spindler
This just goes to show you Christians are members of a cult. In the US we have renamed several holidays to reflect the changes in society. We decided decades ago to call it Winter Break to accommodate ALL Americans. Once again this is the Christians who are force their religion on others.
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Nicholas J Page
Here in England it's Christmas break and it's been going on for centuries it's not even winter yet. Leave traditions alone Go back to Christmas break or holidays
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Douglas Robert Spindler
Robert you are right. Christmas in the US was and always has been been about the commercialization of the holiday and making as much money as possible for the Church and businesses.
The story of Christmas is not like Columbus at all. We know the exact dates of Columbuses voyages. Where he traveled and what he did. The Christmas story of Jesus was made-up in the 11th century to get people to attend church at the beginning of winter. We know that this is a lie, and every since the Christians have continued to tell the lie and embellished it every year ever since.
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ServantOfJudgement
I extensively researched the origins of the end of December break. It's harder than you might think and simultaneously evolved in other countries like England.
What I found might be had to believe but the reason the break started was because it's a Christmas break. Crazy I know. It's no coincidence that it's centered on Christmas. It's actually by design.
Christmas break is literally Christmas break.
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Echo
Call it winter break. Yule, christmas, hanukkah, or whichever holiday you are celebrating, go and enjoy. It is still winter, so winter break. One faith doesn't decide for all, so have courtesy not to force people to call it your holiday while someone else celebrate something different.
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Robert Gagnon
Here we go again, a few people don't like to hear the word most used for the last few centuries. Christmas in grade school since I can remember was not Jesus focused as much as the commercialization of the holiday. These same kids would feel excluded in every store, elevator, and radio station. These kind of complaints brought in the Xmas to remove the Christ component. Everywhere they look is Christmas for the month of December. Christmas is based on a story, no different from the story of Columbus. Black Friday sounds much more menacing, should we call it post pilgrim sale day?
Blessed Yule! If we’re going to get technical about it, the pagans started the whole thing. (Of course, I’m a pagan witch so I may be biased…