Let School Children Celebrate Holidays and Birthdays

America has a rich holiday heritage. Christmas is just one of those holidays that hearken back to the earliest days of our nation. Yet, while the Christmas holiday should be a time of anticipation and excitement for children of all ages, children in many public school or governmental settings are not allowed to celebrate this holiday in any fashion. If adults allow the children to express their excitement or draw pictures depicting the holiday, they could face censorship.

Despite case after case where courts have upheld the celebration of Christmas as a cultural heritage, upheld the use of traditional Christmas holiday music or presentations, and even the teaching that Christians believe it is the birthday of Jesus, many public entities have over-reached by banning all mention of the holiday.

Not only has the nativity been banned, but also, in some cases, decorated tress, or anything related to the holiday spirit whether secular or sacred. "Merry Christmas" has become taboo. Thanksgiving Day, a holiday well represented in historical documents, has become the innocuous and totally hedonistic, self-centered, "Turkey Day."

Instead of a holiday where gratitude is encouraged, Thanksgiving Day is now simply a holiday in which to stuff our bodies and feed our egos by focusing not on our blessings, but on what we ourselves have accomplished.

Worse, some educational facilities don't even allow children to celebrate their own birthdays! Not celebrating holidays or birthdays is one thing. But to do so in an educational situation where vulnerable children clear down to pre-school are told they can't mention their birthdays, can't wish a friend "Happy Birthday" without drawing the teacher's ire, when the joy of childhood is squashed by adults who can't allow such thing for fear they'll lose their job, there is a serious problem.