If attendance at school was mandatory on Christmas Day, would you keep your child off

[Plutovsgoofy]

Yes for me.

We celebrate Eid, and just do it on the first weekend afterwards. So if we celebrated Christmas and had a similar situation, I suspect we’d just do the same.

Lots of my staff (education) take 2-3 days for Eid, always at least one.

So I’m hopeful if the “rules” ever changed about Christmas then the same would apply!

Yes I would because it’s a Christian day of celebration. At our schools, the children of other religions are permitted days off (when it’s a mandatory day of attendance) to observe their important religious dates so why would the biggest religious day of the Christian year be any different? I’d do the same with the important Easter days too.

It is, I assume, some complicated “Christians are discriminated against in the UK” thing.
Apologies, @Plutovsgoofyif it isn’t .

No. I’m sympathetic to schools trying to manage their curriculum. I also have lived abroad and adapted to local custom.

Obviously I would!

Not all Christians celebrate Xmas on Dec 25th.

My child has left school now but I would send her in on Christmas Day because we are atheist.

There's long been the argument that public transport in London should operate on Christmas Day so that people can visit family more easily.

I work shifts and Christmas Day is the only guaranteed day off. My public holidays are banked and I only have one weekend off in six. So, even if Christmas was moved to the weekend I might still not be able to get the time off. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I would keep them off, but it would probably be indicative of a wider more substantial issue, so would probably be also looking at relocation options!

Yes I would.

Christmas is banned in China, so presumably the children go to school regardless.

Is this another one of those "ah, I see it's school holidays" threads?

Yes

Well, the staff and pupils where I teach (Scotland) are entitled to take days off for important religious festivals if they’re not during holidays, so you’d be fine. I assume England is the same?

Interestingly, lots of children prefer to come to school on their religious days (in case they miss out on what’s happening) and celebrate with family later that evening or on the weekend.

if It meant I didn’t have to host Christmas with all the drama involved, absolutely.

Yes because the children would want a day off because more than likely their friends and most of the rest of the school wouldn't be in either.

Is this ever likely to happen?

I’m not sure. Because there are already a lot of Christian holidays we can’t celebrate as a family due to school (epiphany, ascension, all saints). So if they made it mandatory I’m not sure of the difference.

We lived in a country where Christmas day was a school day for a few years when I was a child.

We aren’t religious at all, although culturally we had always celebrated Christmas in a secular way. My parents kept us off for one day on Christmas day but we went as normal the day before and after.

School we’re understanding in the same way that UK schools are understanding of kids being off for Eid.

Would depend on whether I was in a culturally Christian country like the UK. Christmas Day would never be a school day.

Otherwise I would follow the rules in the country I was in. Christian Orthodox country I would take the Orthodox Christian Day. Secular country I would celebrate at the nearest weekend unless there was special provision ( as in UK ) for religious holidays.

I'm not sure...my kids go to Catholic school so I imagine school on Christmas day would be quite fun and they'd do a mass or Carol service for the parents to attend.

That's true. My kids school are always lecturing about how Advent isn't the Christmas season and Christmas goes on until Epiphany. Then the Christmas holidays can end as early as January 2nd which rather undermines their message 😆

No, we don’t celebrate christmas so for us the christmas break always seems a bit wasted.

It could be really useful...open presents in morning...send them off to school, get on with cooking the lunch in peace, pick them and have Christmas dinner.

No, I’d celebrate before and after school. Aside from illness, there really are very few things that would stop me from sending my child to school.