It's October which is the signal to start the Silly Season arguing about  ... Christmas, right?  The "War on Christmas" gets off to an early start this year in Falcon School District 49 where the School Board is looking to make a revision to the district's Commitment to Religious Neutrality policy.

First, a few paragraphs from the document the board will be reviewing.

(Source: http://www.d49.org/boe/2008/packets/BOE%20Packet%2010-09-08.pdf, Package supporting the Regular Board of Education Meeting, District 49, 9 October at 6.30pm)

"Martin Luther King’s birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas are amongst 10 federal holidays recognized as an element of our rich American heritage that may have religious significance to some. . .

. . .At this time it is evident that the board must clarify any existing guidance to ensure that recognition and observations of Christmas and other federal holidays with religious significance consistently comply with the Constitution of the United States. . .

What is at the heart of the proposed change? The board believes that the district is obliged to observe federal holidays to include Martin Luther King’s birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas break on its calendars.  These holidays are culturally and traditionally significant to the district’s patrons. As a result, observances of these holidays have and will continue to occur within the district. However, unlike the other federal holidays (New Years, Washington’s birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day), it only is the case with Martin Luther King’s birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas that questions may or do arise in connection with any religious entanglements. Thus, the district is presented with numerous actual controversies related to the observance of Christmas while at the same time subject to an obligation to include it as an official component of the school year. If the federal government sets forth a mandate related to something, and the local public entities are failing to observe the mandate, it falls upon their leadership to clarify and structure the proper observance of that mandate.

In April of 2006 after discovering that a volunteer committee had independently instituted censorship of Christmas from district calendars, in accordance with federal law the Falcon School District 49 board of education voted to restore the century old tradition of recognizing Christmas break  on all district calendars. "

So what is wrong in any of this? Sounds quite harmless doesn't it?

The official Federal holiday is "Christmas Day". There is no such Federal holiday as "Christmas Break" as the document describes. The document tries to neatly confuse the issue with some sly substitutions between 'Christmas Day', 'Christmas Break' and 'Christmas'.

The fact is that, assuming the District keeps the name 'Christmas Break', the break itself encompasses a period of 2 weeks, of which Christmas Day is but 1 single day during that time.

Did you know also that during 'Christmas Break'

• Kwanzaa starts on December 26th
• HumanLight, Celebrated each year around December 23rd
• Chanukah, starts on December 21st this year

In other words, "Christmas Break" encompasses at least 3 (and there are almost certainly many more) celebrations which have some religious significance and at least 1 (and there are probably more of these) celebration which has significance for us Freethinkers.

So I have a set of proposals: 

1. Instead of "Winter Break" or "Christmas Break" perhaps we can refer to it as "WinterKwanzaaHumanlightChanukahChristmas Break" (and in the meantime no doubt annoy a lot of people with the ordering of these names!)
2. Instead of "Christmas Break" or "Christmas" refer to the holiday as "Christmas Day" like you do the other holidays
3. Let's ensure that while the "Christmas Day" holiday is celebrated it is certainly not the "Christmas Break" that is celebrated

Seriously, don't they have anything better to do?