In the spirit of inclusivity, Aberdeen school describes cards made at Christmas as Winter cards

[cakeorwine]

Children at this school have been making cards in the run up to Christmas for ages.

Many children still make Christmas cards during this activity and they are free to call them Christmas cards

However, the school announced they would be adopting the phrase "winter cards" to show "value and respect" to different cultures.
The email sent to families said: “To reflect this inclusivity in our communications, we refer to seasonal cards as “winter cards” rather than “Christmas cards”.
“This terminology helps ensure that our language is welcoming and inclusive of all members of our school community.
It added that families were still free to use the phrase Christmas cards if they preferred.

You can imagine the online reaction. The Deputy Headteacher received a threatening phone call

"Unfortunately, following the communications, our deputy head teacher received an abusive and threatening telephone call.

"This was followed by disappointing comments on social media suggesting that Christmas was somehow being removed from our school.
"I want to reassure you that is simply not the case"

We had Winterval in Birmingham. Haven't people learnt? I can imagine it's been done with the best intentions but I bet they didn't consult with the parents before doing this. It has come at the worst possible time for relations with other communities and it's spreading like wildfire online.

I'm an atheist I have no problem with schools making Christmas cards. Just don't try and force a religion on my son.

I am sure most people, regardless of faith or lack of faith, have no problem with Christmas Cards.

Winter cards is a stupid idea

I don't tend to participate in discussions about the relative cruelty of one method of slaughter over another

I didn't ask you to offer an opinion on the relative cruelty of one method of slaughter over another, only the religious reference.

Did you mean ’reported by the head teacher to the school community via email’?

Seems like the depute head was on the receiving end of threatening communications.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/7126492/kaimhill-school-aberdeen-winter-cards-row-education-boss/

This isn’t about Muslims (however convenient that narrative might be for some). This countries has lots of Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, etc, etc.

Oh. I assumed the discussions about meat involved people objecting to halal and kosher meat because they think its cruel not to stun the animal? Are you saying that people object to these meats only on principle, because Jewish and Muslim people may want them on the menu for religious reasons? That seems unnecessarily intolerant if so, because the method of slaughter presumably doesn't impact the taste?

We’ve been doing ‘winter’ everything for years in our school as one of the children in my dc’s class is Jehovah’s Witness, and they can’t celebrate Christmas. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Winter cards, winter play, winter tree in the classroom. It’s a bit silly, but I’m not offended. I’m Jewish and I’m very happy to do Christmas stuff. It’s a secular, not church, school, so not religious anyway, but there is a difference between Christian festivals being different to your religion and your religion banning you from celebrating them.

I’m happy to do Christmas stuff (heck, we celebrate Christmas culturally even though no one in our house is Christian), but we should also be celebrating or at least acknowledging other things. I’d like to see them do more for Rosh Hashanah or Diwali, rather than celebrating nothing.

I think the challenge in our case is a child/children who can’t participate/won’t attend school when Christmas is celebrated, and they have tried to find a work around to that. The winter plays have been excellent, btw. There are quite a few out there apparently because they manage to come up with a new one every year and I think we’re 5 years in now.

Intolerant to not want to participate in a religious practice?

Oh. I assumed the discussions about meat involved people objecting to halal and kosher meat because they think its cruel not to stun the animal?

Many people do object to halal and kosher meat because they think it's cruel not to stun the animal. My specific reference though was to 'religiously stunned meat' as often the animal is stunned (although there is a debate around the timing and effectiveness as well).

However, there is also an obvious religious aspect to the slaughter, a ritual/ religious invocation which may offend or be off-putting to others not from that religion.

Are you saying that people object to these meats only on principle, because Jewish and Muslim people may want them on the menu for religious reasons?

No - a problem arises when only halal or kosher meat is offered on the school menu and not an alternative meat option, although I doubt there are any non-Jewish schools who only offer kosher meat.

I chose the religious reference in view of your apparent opposition to religion; ('you're not going to bully people into celebrating things because you say so. Religion isn't compulsory in the UK') - although I suspect you really only object to Christianity.

Negative much???

I tend to agree with this statement!
"pollyputthemicrowaveonandwarmupthetea · Today 19:47
I wonder what would happen if I went into a Muslim country and said I’m not comfortable with all this Muslim culture can we rename the traditions iso it’s not so religious based?"
It is vital that the cultures of the world be preserved to provide our and future generations with a sense of their familial history. The country founded on Christianity has no obligation to erase that foundation to make others comfortable. We would never expect that in their countries of origin so why do you think they expect it in America? Stand firm for culture preservation. It is much more important than some of you think.

Ridiculous!🙄I will be doing Christmas cards and I will get DD Christmas cards for her to send to her friends

If this is true then it’s stupid. Our kids are taught about all the celebrations at school including Diwali and Christmas. The Head doesn’t deserve abuse but I think multiple complaints should be made

I have access to the same media outlets as you do.

So I have no idea, You could ring them. I can see that the Parent Council has turned off commenting on all its Facebook posts so I can imagine people were posting on there,

In what way is this bollocks?
A school made a decision to rename Christmas Cards as Winter Cards, even though children can still call them Christmas cards

The school is having Christmas events, a Christmas lunch, Christmas play etc

But they chose to rename Christmas Cards as Winter Cards. It came out now because the school emailed parents recently

It went viral. There's been some predictable outcomes and the Deputy Headteacher has received a threatening call from someone who is upset that Christmas cards are not the default. I don't think that's a Christian thing to say to someone but he's probably not a Christian

Sorry, haven't quite read all the replies yet - but I have many friends of different faiths - eg Muslim / Hindu / Jewish neighbours put up Christmas lights, send cards, buy their children Christmas presents etc, and in return we celebrate Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah etc. with them. Please just let the people choose, stop this ridiculous attempt to separate ordinary people who just want to live & let live - and yes, I do know that there are many who don't want this, & they don't belong in a 'normal' society.

Yes there does seem a disconnect which likely depends on which religion it is.

One is bullying if it’s wanted but the other is deemed intolerant if not accepted.

If you suspect that, then i assume its because you have picked up the unfortunate habit of stereotyping those who disagree with you as holding certain attitudes in common. I'm vegan and not 'fuming' about 'traditional values' being lost, so therefore i hate Christians. The reality is more nuanced.
In fact, i dont object to Christianity or to any other religion. I'm very much live and let live. Which means that while I'm happy to respect people's right to practice their religion, I'm strongly against others being forced to participate.
So I'd never support a ban on children making Christmas cards, nor would I support the compulsory making of them for children who could join in in another way by the simple extention of the activity to winter cards, which makes the Christmas element opt in or opt out.
I see the provision of kosher and halal food differently only because a non Muslim or Jewish person isn't required to participate in any religious ritual when it appears on the menu. They just fill their plates and eat food that is undetectable from food that isn't kosher/halal. The religious part having been done by others prior to it arriving on their plates.
If the food was conditional on celebration of Judaism or Islam, I'd feel differently.
I accept there is nuance in the type of animal cruelty people are happy with in order to consume meat. But that's not something I've a great deal of interest in getting into, as from my perspective anyone that bothered about animal welfare wouldn't eat it at all. So fight that one out between yourselves.
To me, this is a case of your right to swing your fist stops where my nose starts. So let's allow everyone space to celebrate what we want, observe the rituals we choose, provided they hurt or compel no one else.

Does that mean it with be Father Winter who brings the presents?

Yes so that food should be for those who practise that religion.

The cards should be called Christmas cards for those who want to and not compelled for those who don’t. The email isn’t necessary.

There's been some predictable outcomes and the Deputy Headteacher has received a threatening call from someone who is upset that Christmas cards are not the default. I don't think that's a Christian thing to say to someone but he's probably not a Christian

Which ‘he’ is ‘probably not a Christian’?

The person who made the abusive call to the Deputy Headteacher complaining that Christmas seemed to have been cancelled.

I'm assuming it was a male.
I'm assuming he jumped to the conclusion that the school had cancelled Christmas

And clearly someone so upset that Christmas had been cancelled must be passionate about Christmas.

But there are clearly 2 groups who celebrate Christmas.
Those who see it as just family time with presents, food and drinks
And Christians whose main reason is celebrating the birth of Christ

I can guess which group this person was in

Ah, get you now.

Do you similarly change Eid, or Diwali, to neutral celebrations inclusive of all religions?

No? We celebrate Christmas in school. We have Christmas parties in each class and a Christmas nativity and Christmas jumper day and a Christmas fair and Christmas decorations. We don’t do any of that for other religions. We just call the fundraising project ‘holiday cards’ and everyone makes whatever they want. It was an entirely self serving decision by the PTA to get more sales by being clear the children can make whatever suits their family best.

I'm still a bit concerned about Rebekah. But I bet it's a beautiful drawing of a rabbit as she's obsessed by them and the red hat is a nice touch,

That's great. Why would anyone want to stop a child making a Diwali card for their mum/granny/best friend. I get Christmas cards from Jewish and Muslim friends, I take Hanukkah gelt for the children's Hanukkah parties (chocolate money in gold covers not real gold but the kids seem to like it.). I don't understand the fuss.