The 'Twelve Rules of Christmas'

Posted Monday, December 12, 2005

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In response to a growing tendency among public schools and government officials to ban references to Christmas or Christianity during the holiday season, The Rutherford Institute has published "The Twelve Rules of Christmas," a simple, step-by-step guide to understanding
what can and cannot be done to celebrate the holidays in public.

The Twelve Rules of Christmas
(Compiled by attorneys for The Rutherford Institute)

1. Public school students' written or spoken personal expressions concerning the religious significance of Christmas (e.g., T-shirts with the slogan, "Jesus Is the Reason for the Season") may not be censored by school officials absent evidence that the speech would cause a substantial disruption.

2. So long as teachers are generally permitted to wear clothing or jewelry or have personal items expressing their views about the holidays, Christian teachers may not be prohibited from similarly expressing their views by wearing Christmas-related clothing or jewelry or carrying Christmas-related personal items.

3. Public schools may teach students about the Christmas holiday, including its religious significance, so long as it is taught objectively for secular purposes such as its historical or cultural importance, and not for the purpose of promoting Christianity.

4. Public school teachers may send Christmas cards to the families of their students so long as they do so on their own time, outside of school hours.

5. Public schools may include Christmas music, including those with religious themes, in their choral programs if the songs are included for a secular purpose such as their musical quality or cultural value or if the songs are part of an overall performance including other holiday songs relating to Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or other similar holidays.

6. Public schools may not require students to sing Christmas songs whose messages conflict with the students' own religious or nonreligious beliefs.

7. Public school students may not be prohibited from distributing literature to fellow students concerning the Christmas holiday or invitations to church Christmas events on the same terms that they would be allowed to distribute other literature that is not related to school work.

8. Private citizens or groups may display crèches or other Christmas symbols in public parks subject to the same reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions that would apply to other similar displays.

9. Government entities may erect and maintain celebrations of the Christmas holiday, such as Christmas trees and Christmas light displays, and may include crèches in their displays at least so long as the purpose for including the crèche is not to promote its religious content and it is placed in context with other symbols of the Holiday season as part of an effort to celebrate the public Christmas holiday through its traditional symbols.

10. Neither public nor private employers may prevent employees from decorating their offices for Christmas, playing Christmas music, or wearing clothing related to Christmas merely because of their religious content so long as these activities are not used to harass or intimidate others.

11. Public or private employees whose sincerely held religious beliefs require that they not work on Christmas must be reasonably accommodated by their employers unless granting the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer.

12. Government recognition of Christmas as a public holiday and granting government employees a paid holiday for Christmas does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

For more information, email The Rutherford Institute at tristaff@rutherford.org.

"Whether through ignorance or fear, Americans are painfully misguided about the recognition of religious holidays," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Every year we hear many complaints from parents about school officials banning any reference
to the word `Christmas.' There is an irrational bias against anything remotely religious unless it's sanitized and secularized, and unfortunately far too many parents, students and teachers erroneously believe they cannot do anything to celebrate Christmas in the public schools."

Whitehead referenced several incidents involving misguided attempts to censor expressions of Christmas. For example, Institute attorneys recently intervened in a situation in which a Florida elementary school omitted songs about Christmas from its holiday concert program
while including songs celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the "winter season."

Institute legal staff addressed the school's fear of violating the so-called "separation of church and state" by pointing out that not only does the First Amendment's Establishment Clause not mandate that all Christian religious references be banished from the classroom, but that the school's conspicuous exclusion of Christmas from the program was in itself a violation of the Establishment Clause.

Incidents of censorship of Christmas in past years are equally reflective of the misunderstanding over the separation of church and state. For example, city officials in Tillamook, Ore., acting on a
citizen complaint, ordered the removal of a Nativity display at a drive-thru espresso stand because the owner leased the property from the city. The city manager justified the order by saying, "It appeared to be a conflict between church and state."

According to one Michigan parent, an elementary school music teacher, acting on instructions from the school principal, eliminated the word "God" from all songs in her school's holiday concert. Children were instructed to be silent rather than say "God" whenever the word appeared in the music.

In Texas, school officials are reported to have encouraged some Jewish parents to assist in instruction when second graders were taught the religious significance of the Menorah. However, when a Christian parent offered to assist in a similar fashion regarding Christmas, he was turned away.

The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.

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