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for schools to celebrate holidays.
My adminstrator "mandates" an evening holiday performance every year. In an effort to be as inclusive as possible, I've done a play, and a choral performance, involving songs/celebrations from as many winter traditions as I can find. That still excludes some JWs and other fundie xtian kids as well as some atheists; they don't have to show up for the evening performance, but their kids have to be excluded from the continuous rehearsals, sent somewhere else, and provided with "alternate" activities.
If you don't have a holiday party, you'll be crucified by the parents. If you do, no matter how inclusive you try to make it, some kids aren't allowed to participate. And, no matter how bluntly/blatantly/explicitly you explain the broader, more inclusive "theme" of your activities to families, it goes over their heads, and they send chocolate santas or valentines to your jws anyway.
There was a time, when my school was small and all staff were in agreement that anything we did needed to be inclusive, that we didn't do "holidays." We did seasonal festivals, broad and inclusive. And it worked. All it took was one teacher who chose to do "Christmas" instead of "Winter," though, and the unity and inclusiveness disintegrated. Because then parents see that "some kids get to do Christmas, but my child had to do Winter." And the crucifixions begin.
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