My kids' Winter Celebration

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 17 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

My son just brought a note home from his 5th grade classroom asking parents to bring treats to share at their “celebration of the winter season.” When I was a kid we called it a Christmas party.

He says they don’t call it a Christmas party because that offends a few of the people. I’m offended that they don’t call it a Christmas party. Perhaps the school is trying to teach about tyrannies of the minority, but somehow I doubt that. I also find it amusing that in the process of trying to find a politically-correct name for their replacement of Christmas they chose a name similar to that of a pagan celebration.

Simon
December 8, 2005 4:10 AM

And one that isn't globaly applicable at this festive time of year. S.

Richard Schwartz
December 8, 2005 5:04 AM

You say you're offended? Go ahead and be offended. Go ahead and be offended by people deciding that having an inclusive party is not just the right thing to to do, it is also more in keeping with the real spirit of Christmas and Christianity to be inclusive. It won't reflect all that well on you, but it's your right to be offended by whatever you want. Your son, however, is subtly wrong. There isn't a minority that will be offended if they _call_ it a Christmas party. There is a minority that will be offended if it _is_ a Christmas party that excludes those who don't celebrate Christmas but are required to be there because it's their school. And if it's really going to be an inclusive party that allows all to celebrate together regardless of their beliefs, then why call it something that it isn't? What reason other than to give the Christian majority an ego boost at the expense of everyone else? -rhs

Jemaleddin
December 8, 2005 8:37 AM

I can see why you're so offended - I mean, it's a Christmas celebration, right? They're going to celebrate Christ and all, right? You know, with some hymns and a sermon? They'll talk about Herod and the wise men and virgin birth and Mary and Joseph and angels and the holy spirit... Oh, what? They're just going to sing about sleighing and eat cookies? Oh. What does that have to do with Christmas? That sounds more like a winter celebration to me. What are you so up in arms about? Can you tell that I'm sick to death of Xtians bitching about how Xmas isn't Xmas-y enough? I'm sorry you're so deeply offended, but please keep your imaginary friends out of my kid's parties, thank you very much.

Eugene
December 9, 2005 1:19 PM

What can kid know in religion? I think that the names which were given in school for this is nothing cause it's not changing the main idea of such parties - to amuse kids and no more deeper idea in them could be found.

This discussion has been closed.

Recently Written

The Trap of The Sales-Led Product (Dec 10)
It’s not a winning way to build a product company.
The Hidden Cost of Custom Customer Features (Dec 7)
One-off features will cost you more than you think and make your customers unhappy.
Domain expertise in Product Management (Nov 16)
When you're hiring software product managers, hire for product management skills. Looking for domain experts will reduce the pool of people you can hire and might just be worse for your product.
Strategy Means Saying No (Oct 27)
An oft-overlooked aspect of strategy is to define what you are not doing. There are lots of adjacent problems you can attack. Strategy means defining which ones you will ignore.
Understanding vision, strategy, and execution (Oct 24)
Vision is what you're trying to do. Strategy is broad strokes on how you'll get there. Execution is the tasks you complete to complete the strategy.
How to advance your Product Market Fit KPI (Oct 21)
Finding the gaps in your product that will unlock the next round of growth.
Developer Relations as Developer Success (Oct 19)
Outreach, marketing, and developer evangelism are a part of Developer Relations. But the companies that are most successful with developers spend most of their time on something else.
Developer Experience Principle 6: Easy to Maintain (Oct 17)
Keeping your product Easy to Maintain will improve the lives of your team and your customers. It will help keep your docs up to date. Your SDKs and APIs will be released in sync. Your tooling and overall experience will shine.

Older...

What I'm Reading

Contact

Adam Kalsey

+1 916 600 2497

Resume

Public Key

© 1999-2023 Adam Kalsey.