Our school has banned the word Christmas?

[Fayethefair]

I’ve heard from a friend on my DD’s school’s ptfa that our Cambridgeshire school has banned the word Christmas to make the school events feel more inclusive. So now it’s Festive Party, Festive Fayre etc. I’m happy to let mumsnet know the name of the school if they don’t feel this post is genuine so they can check this themselves but I won’t put names on here as this is my child’s school, I just don’t think this right and want to see what others think.

My daughter attended a Diwali lunch put on by the school recently and I genuinely thought this was lovely. I feel everything should be represented equally, I don’t understand or agree that the head should be picking and choosing what’s allowed and what isn’t. Surely this isn’t right?

Christianity has adopted some of these but they don't own them

Or, in "most" cases, don't practice them.

Yes, the thing that says the PTFA shouldn’t use it for their events. Which is exactly what I said. PTFA events aren't the sum total of ‘the festivities’ in school.

Are posters boycotting Tesco now because they are selling Evergreen Trees in their Christmas section?

Telegraph, Mail, Express, GBN are outraged

Depends on why they have removed the word Christmas, from what are essentially Christmas trees.

Not to ban Christmas for sure.

They haven't removed the word Christmas. The trees are literally in a box which says "Merry Christmas" on it - see base.

Well no, but again, this seems to be centred around Christmas not being ‘inclusive’ to all, and to my mind it’s no more exclusive than any of the festivals celebrated by other religions. If you’re not of the faith or the culture, why would you want to celebrate it ?

Yes, the trees are standing in a box which says Merry Christmas. But the word doesn’t appear on the individual boxes. They are what would have been termed as artificial Christmas trees and for the life of me I can’t see anything wrong with that.

And? So bloody what?

It should be quite clear to anyone with one working eye and half a brain cell that the word Christmas hasn't been wiped from the store.

You'd also have to be monumentally unaware not to realise they're bloody Christmas trees despite no obvious label saying "this is a Christmas tree you thick twat" - for all those confused buyers who think they're buying an inflatable palm tree for the pool or something.

Not the point, but then you know that. They are artificial Christmas trees - why is Tesco rebranding them ‘Evergreen Trees’ ? Why do people find the word ‘Christmas’ so offensive that they have to go to such lengths to write the word out ?

An artificial tree in the Christmas section, now what could that be?

They also have pre-lit snowy pinecone trees and pre-lit snowy alpine trees

All displayed in a Christmas box

Tesco is FULL of the word Christmas right now. They haven't gone to any lengths to apply any kind of restraint as far as I can tell in that regard. There is no writing the word out due to offence. Christmas is inescapable right now and will be for another six weeks or so.

How have you come to the conclusion that labelling them as "evergreen trees" is due to offence, rather than just cheap packaging and branding?

To be fair, it does help when somebody is spouting utter racist bollocks to have something more than a 'friend' chatting shit as their alleged source.

We had the word Christmas banned at my primary school in the 1970s. Absolutely true. Mainly because the teachers were sick of hearing about it from early October onwards. We were allowed to say it in December and not a moment before.

As pointed out, the box they are in says ‘Merry Christmas’.

Ffs. How petty can you be?

Why don't you ask Tesco's Sales Manager why the company finds the word "Christmas" so offensive it's gone to huge lengths to display seasonal goods in a box cleatly marked "Christmas"? You'll get more of an answer than asking randoms on the internet.

Or you could get a life.

Then why rebrand artificial Christmas trees as ‘evergreen trees’ in the first place if you’re going to put them in a Christmas display ? I’m really not trying to be petty here, but every bloody Christmas this same argument crops up. The word ‘Christmas’ is no more exclusive than Eid, Diwali, Ramadan etc. But every year there seems to be more and more effort to write the word out of the celebration by officials hell bent on being offended on behalf of other cultures and religions.

That's it, Christmas is definitely cancelled now. People being offended by artificial trees not bearing the word Christmas.

There is no fucking effort to write the word Christmas out of anything.

I'll tell you exactly what will have happened here:

• Tesco buyer team goes over to / talks to factories in China / India / Bangladesh to look at artificial trees for the Christmas 2025 line. This probably happened back in summer 2024.
• Buyer team finds a suitable tree for the right price point and agrees to buy however many thousand.
• Producer quickly mocks up stock image packaging for the store to ensure it's branded differently (since the same tree is going to be sold at lots of different shops, not just Tesco).
• This is done as cheaply and as generically as possible.
• Tesco branding team OK the design after about 30 seconds after making sure the right font is used and there's no erroneous 'The Range' labels on it.

Roll on to November 2025 and certain sections of Twitter start complaining vociferously of some sinister conspiracy theory at the very top of Tesco to remove the word Christmas, despite an avalanche of Christmas-labelled products in the shop.

People throw tantrums because one Christmas tree doesn't have the word Christmas on it.

Accusations of causing offence and how it's all the fault of those other cultures and some malicious supermarket cabal to have Christmas deleted from the cultural psyche abound.

I can’t get offended by any of this. Schools may feel pressure to use inclusive language but so what? You celebrate Christmas as a family and as a community and nothing will change that. No one is taking away your freedom to do that and Christmas is obviously a massive tradition that runs for at least a month. Enjoy your Christmas and let the school do their thing!

Stolen from X but fits this thread perfectly:

@Yesimmoaningaboutbenefits

😂

What type of tree do you want?

A christmas tree, stupid.

Fine. What type?

One that says Christmas on it.

They're all Christmas trees. Which type do you want?

Does it say Christmas on the box?

They're all Christmas trees. What type do you want?

A Christmas one.

O...kay. there are lots of sizes, colours, finishes, brands, what sort of tree they're supposed to resemble, characters, stands, plushness, quality, materials, spread, brands...what type do you want?

A Christmas tree.

FFS. Take this one. It says it looks vaguely like an evergreen tree (instead of a unicorn's bog brush).

IT DOESN'T SAY CHRISTMAS ON THE BOX THAT'S GOING TO BE IN THE LOFT OR OUTSIDE ON TOP OF THE WHEELIE BIN BY JANUARY.

Maybe there's an opportunity here.

Maybe I should start importing Christmas stuff en masse from Alibaba and sticking numerous oversized neon glittery CHRISTMAS stickers on it. I could call my business "Clearly Christmas" or something.

I could make a killing out of the professionally outraged Christmas snowflakes on Twitter.