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

86 replies

Plutovsgoofy · 24/07/2025 15:47

Yes for me.

OP posts:
TotallyKerplunked · 25/07/2025 09:16

My kids are autistic and hate all the changes to their routine it causes so providing all the hype around it from September onwards was also gone then I'd send mine in. However as it would be likely their teachers/many classmates would be absent and they wouldn't likely do normal classes that would disrupt them as well so I'd probably keep them off for that 🤷

MrsEverest · 25/07/2025 10:13

SleeplessInWherever · 24/07/2025 20:05

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!

Interesting contrast to health care…..no colleagues take Eid off, and they all do their standard 12 shifts throughout Ramadan also.

OP we wouldn’t as we work shifts including over Christmas so are accustomed to fitting family celebrations if all kinds in around work.

jetlag92 · 25/07/2025 11:06

Yes, but then I wouldn't live in a country which didn't have school on Christmas Day or Sundays.

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Plutovsgoofy · 25/07/2025 13:46

Meant to come back to this thread sooner. Trying to read through it all. There was no particular reason for asking question, other than a post on another thread that triggered my thought process (would I keep a child off school for Christmas, so why wouldn’t I keep off school so that we could actually have a Christmas without being ill).
I meant it from U.K. perspective, so purely hypothetical. If I lived in a country where it wasn’t a national holiday, I’d go with the flow of what others did and either celebrate on nearest weekend or take the day off, whatever was the norm. I just like the family side of it and the run up.

OP posts:
Cinaferna · 25/07/2025 13:56

I'd move Christmas to the nearest weekend. We don't know for certain that Christ was actually born on 25th December. That's an agreed date to celebrate his birth, conveniently intersecting with Saturnalia and Yule so that Christians could convert people without them feeling they were missing out on key festivals. So it would be fine to celebrate on another day close by.

dontforgetme · 25/07/2025 14:02

Yes. Plus Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.

pokewoman · 25/07/2025 14:04

Nope. Not a chance. They'd also have the day off before and several days off after.

pokewoman · 25/07/2025 14:05

Misread the title...absolutely wouldn't be going to school

Kjpt140v · 25/07/2025 20:16

If my aunty's had bollocks she'd be my uncle. Stupid question.

sashh · 26/07/2025 07:21

Goatinthegarden · 25/07/2025 06:39

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.

Yes the same in England.

But it depends where you work, one college I worked at I was often the only white person in the room.

On Eid the place was like a ghost town.

I was supposed to teach as normal and then have students catch up later but there was no way I was teaching 1 or 2 children as normal.

One class I taught was 4-5pm. This group of students had morning classes and then something like a 3 hour break.

A couple of students asked me if they could go home at lunch. Well I couldn't let them but I did tell them that if they had not turned up by 4.10pm I would mark them on the register as observing a religious holiday.

I covered my backside by telling my manager I didn't know which students were Muslim so if they didn't turn up I would mark the register as a religious holiday.

I do think there is an argument for schools where there is a significant number of children of particular faith (and usually staff too) to have a day off.

AmyDances · 26/07/2025 07:26

My child had to attend school on Christmas Day for four years, as he was at a choir school and there were three services that day which needed the choristers. No, we didn’t keep him off school. Nor on Christmas Eve, nor on Easter Sunday.

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