half a day's notice!

[EbwyIsUpTheDuff]

A friend texted to say that the school had sent her a text (I don't get them, which is frustrating since I've opted IN for them) to say the children need to wear "something christmassy" tomorrow, I.E. a christmas jumper or similar.

It's another fundraiser.

half a day's notice. I can't get into town at short notice like that, most parents need notice. and I'd resent paying out £s for a christmas jumper for my child to wear ONCE in order to donate 50p to charity.

My poor friend has to find christmas clothing for 4 kids!

My son and I don't even celebrate christmas.

It's not like I can just pop out and get a pagan festival jumper for him to wear to not feel utterly excluded by this. So instead of wrapping presents and tidying the room ready for solstice this weekend, I'm now going to spend the little bit of energy I have on tacking some greenery to a jumper for him, because he'll be disappointed if I don't.

WIBU if I make him a Holly King head dress and send him in with that on?
WIBU to email about their policy of inclusion and the lack of notice?

Crazy. What is it with the Christmas jumper thing the past few years. We celebrate Christmas, but none of us (6) have, or want a Christmas jumper.

The half day notice thing is unacceptable too.

You sound as bad as an ex smoker. You are the one making him 'different' don't blame the school.

erm Chipping, I think the OP was complaining about the late notice rather than that they are doing Christmassy thing

Cos half a day to arrange an outfit relating to something you don't believe in is short notice.

And, we love Christmas but only DH has a Christmas jumper!

Wear something Christmassy doesn't have to be a jumper.

Hat
Reindeer antlers
Stick some tinsel on another jumper
Red/white/green top
Child can draw a Santa or Christmas tree and put it on a string to pin onto a jumper

Lots of different things

It's not 'an outfit' it's something Christmassy. 2 minute job.

...and the OP IS complaining about celebrating Christmas!

I think it's only half a day's notice because the OP didn't get the text.

Oh, and I celebrate the Winter Solstice too. And Christmas.

Oh again. Supermarket. String of tinsel. Wear as scarf. Sorted.

oh for goodness sake!

I never said ANYONE shouldn't celebrate christmas. Just that we don't, which is why I don't have a bloody christmas jumper for him.

I know very well when it is, thanks.
what I didn't know was that with half a day's notice the school would expect everyone to find something on that theme for them to wear. I'd complain the same no matter what the sodding event was!

Because I don't celebrate christmas, I don't have a santa hat. or a christmas themed jumper or anything similar.

I couldn't care less what anyone else celebrates as long as they don't try to force it on me, just like I don't force our celebrations on anyone else.

As for stopping your children's school... I don't even want to stop my own child's school or even his class from celebrating, it's not like he's being raised in a vacuum. So I talked to his teacher about it and she was relieved! He needs to know about it, to see what the majority of people around him are celebrating. I am very aware that this is a culturally christian country, so he needs to know about it

My complaint was the lack of notice, and the rest was explanation as to why we don't have anything suitable.

Put your persecution complex away, and try seeing that I was actually complaining about the time scale and then answering everyone else's questions.

I've never known ANYONE actually say that you shouldn't celebrate christmas in the UK.

the text was only sent this morning too. no-one got much notice.

I would email the head- half a day is not acceptable.
If you dont complain then they will do it again .. and again. Schools think that you have nothing in your life except them and that they are the most important thing.
I think its important to feedback to school - and do it to the Headteacher or governors.
I complained about the timing of a Xmas fayre being discriminatory to working parents and the timing got changed.
So make a point!!!

"All the WE don't celebrate Christmas so no one else should, especially the school, is driving me batshit. It's the UK. "

Please can you C&P or link to anyone saying this ever.

Just pin a bit of tinsel to him. My children never do the Christmas jumper thing either. They don't really care very much.

TheRealMaryMillington If they are claiming to go to centre parcs to avoid it my friend paid a fortune last year to go to winter wonderland.

Our school Celebrates all sorts of things Diwali , Chinese new year. My DS loves it all.

I don't think you can blame the parents for the kids noticing the difference...MY DS wil come home and tell me about things other children do that are unusual to him ..He however took about 3 years to notice the lady on cbeebies only had one hand.

You sound as bad as an ex smoker. You are the one making him 'different' don't blame the school.

Lovely. Do you feel that Jewish parents also 'make their kids different'?

Thank goodness I grew up in an area which was really diverse. We celebrated Christmas at school but we also had the Jewish parents (largely Jewish area) come in and talk about Hanukkah. We knew different people did different things, and guess what, it didn't stop Christmas.

I know this is not the OP's point but why can't the school say 'a Christmas-themed outfit or something from your own festive tradition'? That's not hurting Christmas and not excluding anyone.

I say this as a fully paid up Christmas freak btw.

the one-handed woman was a source of confusion for my boy "but Mammy, WHY she only has one hand?" "does it hurt her?"
until he got used to it. doesn't comment any more.

oh, the children tend to notice differences by themselves, but don't really worry about it. Then a few days later some not-so-nice comments started to be said - by the children of the parents who assume I'm deaf and were moaning about it at the school gates. So in their case, yes it is coming from the parents.

No, Hak, I won't. Feel free to wade through all the moaning about schools doing Christmas stuff threads, plenty of them.

i celebrate both solstice and christmas. I celebrate both of the pagan & christian holidays because they're all the same - I'm pagan and my parents are catholic, i choose to do christmas because I like it but I also love Yuletide.
DP has a christmas tree but they only get, say, two little things to open then some money. thats it. We get absolutely loads and have a big dinner and prayers and carols and it's amazing.
There's a lot of children who WON'T do the jumper thing. Don't do it if you don't want. simple.

I bought my kids £1 Santa hats from Hobbycraft. Not saying you should OP, just putting the info out there in case anyone else is looking for cheap ways of Christmasing up a school uniform.

By the way OP, may I reel out my party trick for you? I know you will appreciate this more than most people. My first born son was born on the summer solstice, and my second born son was born exactly 18 months later on the winter solstice. On that basis, I have been called a witch, though I don't believe in such things myself.

Happy Yule.

again, I'd be happy to adapt to fit both the requirements... easy enough to do a yule tree or some snowflakes with more time.

My complaint was the TIME, they do know they have a non-christian in the school so they should extrapolate that we don't tend to have christmas themed things... why on earth would I have a santa hat etc?

I'll be cutting up one lot of clothing to decorate another.

I feel for the parents and especially children where both parents work and won't have time to get anything.

My youngest was invited to solstice get together by his best friend in reception class some years ago and it was a "dressing up" party.

I got the felt tips out and drew a picture of a robin and a few candles on a piece of old white sheet (was being saved to be recycled as a duster type cloth really) and safety pinned it onto a sweater.

Robins to me symbolise this time of year as far as nature is concerned and you can't go wrong with a bit of nature. The candle was about looking forward to the nights drawing out again.

Ds didn't give 2 hoots so long as he could go to a party with his best friend and they spent most of the time playing with Thomas the tank engine toys.

Robins & candles acceptable ?

"No, Hak, I won't. "

Because you can't. It's Winterval all over again.

My mil standing under the Christmas lights in Bradford saying "We can't celebrate Christmas any more in case it offends the Muslims"

The notice is unacceptable. To quote my sister: end of.

Please say something.

One of my son's friends don't do Christmas either so she pinned snowflakes all over her sons jumper - she does craft so had felt. It looked very good and i felt inadequate for my shop bought job which we only had because ds1 spotted it in M and S when shopping for ds'2.

The lack of notice is ridiculous.
There's such a plethora of Christmassy events these days, it's very hard to keep on top of it all especially if you have several kids. I do enjoy the Christmas build-up but I wish they would focus on fewer events and make sure they're all planned properly.

Lack of notice used to be a big problem at our school, especially for things that cost money. We're in a low income area and many families don't have a spare £5-£15 to buy superhero/Christmas/certain coloured outfits with a few days notice. Lots of parents complained and now we get at least a weeks notice if not more. If everyone moans to each other about lack of notice instead of complaining to school it will never change.

Tinsel round the sleeves/hem of a t-shirt/jumper should be fine. If OU have time you could see a felt tree on the front and stick some pompoms on for baubles