* The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled that public schools must ban the singing of religious Christmas carols or prohibit the distribution of candy canes or Christmas cards.

* School officials may refer to a school break in December as "Christmas Vacation" or as a holiday without offending the Constitution.

* School officials do not violate the Constitution by closing on religious holidays such as Christmas and Good Friday.

* No court has ever held that celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas as religious holidays requires recognition of all other religious holidays.

* The "Three Reindeer Rule" used by the courts requires a municipality to place a sufficient number of secular objects in close enough proximity to the Christmas item (such as a crèche) to render the overall display sufficiently secular. Although the overall display must not convey a message endorsing a particular religion's view, Christmas displays are not banned as some people believe. Simply put, the courts ask, "Is the municipality celebrating the holiday or promoting religion?"

Hillsborough County School District was the 13th largest school district in America in the school year 1999-2000, and is likely ranked even higher in 2004-2005. So killing Christmas holidays in Hillsborough County marks a real coup for Muslims, CAIR and the ACLU. AND THE HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD JUST BENT OVER AND CAVED IN WITHOUT EVEN THE SLIGHTEST ATTEMPT TO FIGHT BACK!!!

And in order that you NOT remain misinformed - WHAT ARE THE LEGAL RULES REGARDING KEEPING CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS?

Christmas has always been celebrated in America as both a secular and religious holiday. In recent years, secular groups advocating the complete separation of church and state have been circulating misinformation about the legalities of public celebrations of Christmas, seeking to confine Christmas to the church or home and out of the public. As a result, many public officials have been mislead into believing the legal falsehood that Christ must be removed from Christmas in public schools and other public venues. Even some Christians, wanting to be inclusive of others, have acquiesced to confining Christmas to home and church. Christians have sometimes tempered their own verbal greetings and decorations in their own private businesses to reflect this new trend of celebrating a secular "winter festival" instead of the keeping Christmas as the religious holiday that it still should be for them.

Despite these new assaults on Christmas, the Constitution does not require public officials to obliterate religious themes or displays from all Christmas observations in public areas. In fact, no court has ever ruled that the Constitution prohibits Christmas carols, Christmas displays, or Christmas greetings in public streets and parks, or in public schools, or commercial establishments. The Constitution does not tell Christians that they must keep the religious aspects of Christmas behind the walls of their churches and homes.

What then does the Constitution really require of Christians at Christmas?

1) The Constitution continues to guarantee both freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion. Therefore, public officials and school administrators may not censor the religious aspects of a national cultural holiday like Christmas. Private religious speech, such as saying "Merry Christmas," even in public or in public schools or workplaces, is protected speech.

2) Including a religious component to holiday displays and concerts in communities or in public schools does not violate the supposed "separation of church and state," a doctrine often cited by separationists as part of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

In fact, in its most recent cases the United States Supreme Court has stated that the Establishment Clause requires neutrality, not prohibition. Instead of taking Christ out of Christmas, all the government is required to do is to practice neutrality. Therefore, a school or community may have seasonal decorations that include a crèche along with secular symbols of Christmas, such as snowmen, and symbols of other religious holidays, such as the Star of David or a Menorah. The nativity may not be banned while other seasonal decorations are permitted.

Ninety-six percent of all Americans celebrate Christmas, according to a recent poll. Despite that overwhelming reality, many local government and school officials have prohibited any religious displays for Christmas. Public school classroom and community decorations often depict only non-religious symbols of a winter holiday, such as snowmen and reindeer. Extremists have even eliminated Santa, candy canes, and Christmas trees because of their peripheral religious connotations.

Schools and public areas are eliminating any religious or seasonal music in their winter plays and concerts, and some calendars now refer to the "winter break" instead of Christmas. Many businesses and workplaces have banned the greeting "Merry Christmas" out of a fear of offending the only four in one hundred customers who might not celebrate the holiday. None of these extreme measures are legally required by the Establishment Clause, despite what secular legal organizations hostile to the public recognition of Christianity would have us believe. The reality is that Christmas in America has been both a federal and state-recognized religious holiday for centuries, with no conflict between it and the First Amendment Establishment Clause.

YOU HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN YOU THINK

The following Christmas activities are fully constitutional and may be practiced without fear of violating the doctrine of the separation of church and state.

1) Your children may sing Christmas carols during holiday concerts in their school, and your community or workplace is not required to ban religious content from their holiday celebrations.

Religious Christmas carols may still be sung in public schools, government or private workplaces, and community celebrations without violating the Constitution. In fact, to completely obliterate religious content from a public program would violate the Constitution's Establishment Clause principle of neutrality between religion and non-religion. Holiday programs should contain additions, not subtractions. It is appropriate to add secular songs and songs that recognize the winter celebrations of other religions. It is not appropriate to subtract the presentation of Christian themes.

2) Children may give religious gifts to their teachers or to other students, just as government workers and other employees may distribute religious greetings to co-workers. Private businesses, which are not affected by the Establishment Clause, may clearly keep Christ in Christmas without any requirement of constitutional neutrality.

3) A public school student may write about his own Christmas observations or discuss them in a class presentation, and a teacher is permitted to provide an objective explanation of the religious origins of Christmas to students as part of a curriculum about the cultural and religious aspects of national holidays. Government officials may also recognize the religious aspects of this celebration.

4) A public school or local community may include religious items in a holiday or winter display.

A classic discrimination in holiday celebrations is for local communities to decide not to include angels or stars in the decorations they place on community light poles or on school bulletin boards. Christians should continue to remind government officials that neutrality requires addition, not subtraction; accommodation of religion, not hostility. According to the United States Supreme Court, even a crèche is an appropriate and constitutional part of a school or community Christmas display.

WHAT MAY CHRISTIANS DO TO HONOR JESUS AT CHRISTMAS?

1) Make sure to get the message out to as many people as possible that it continues to be constitutional to keep Christ in Christmas. Pastors should give this message from the pulpit, and it should be announced in any newspaper column or radio or TV program where Christians may speak.

2) Church members should write letters to newspaper editors to make sure other citizens understand that it is still legal to celebrate December 25 as a religious as well as a secular and cultural holiday-even in the public square. Letters to the editor are particularly useful when they are polite, positive, and well-reasoned.

3) Encourage your church and church members to place religious holiday decorations both outside and inside their homes and churches. Often Christians are concerned about the government removing Christ from Christmas, but their own holiday decorations are devoid of any religious symbols for passersby to see.

4) Vocally support elected officials and school personnel, including principals and school board members, by letting these public servants know that you appreciate them when they keep the religious aspects of Christmas within seasonal programs and displays.

5) Commend those businesses, stores, and schools that continue to display religious symbols of Christmas and greet customers with "Merry Christmas." A few years ago, one of our attorneys was conducting business at a local government building. When she noticed a banner with "Merry Christmas" above the counter, she quickly took a comment card and complimented that government agency on continuing to recognize that Christmas is a national state and federal holiday. When such positive comments greatly outnumber negative complaints, both government and private businesses will be more encouraged to continue to positively recognize Christmas.

For centuries under our Constitution, Americans have recognized national religious holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Such observances are part of our cultural and our religious heritage. They are part of the tradition of America. President Franklin Roosevelt said on December 24, 1944, during a national wartime address:

Here at home, we will celebrate this Christmas Day in our traditional American way-because of its deep spiritual meaning to us; because the teachings of Christ are fundamental in our lives; and because we want our youngest generation to grow up knowing the significance of this tradition and the story of the coming of the immortal Prince of Peace and Good Will.

Along with a foreign war against terrorism, America is now engaged in a cultural war that is no less dangerous to our nation's well being than in President Roosevelt's era. Now is not the time to lay down our spiritual arms and surrender to the very small percentage of Americans who are hostile toward Christianity and who want to eliminate Christmas and all things religious from our national life.

AND this applies to Jews and Yom Kippur as well.

MEET the brave school board members(images above) that voted for banning Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Good Friday, in the face of a threatened Muslim backlash (I'm sure that they'd enjoy hearing from you):

Chair - Candy Olson, Vice Chair - Carolyn Bricklemyer, Doretha Edgecomb, Carol W. Kurdell, Jack Lamb and Susan Valdes.

ONLY Jennifer Faliero voted against the decision.

Update: A fellow conservative blogger, James, at Outside the Beltway, feels that Hyscience and Lost Budgie are being alarmist - saying "Contrary to the alarm being spread by Hyscience and Lost Budgie, Christmas and Easter aren't being canceled." To which Lost Budgie replied:

According to the Hillsborough County School Board, The Christmas Holidays are now "Winter Holidays", while Good Friday has been removed from the school holiday calendar. Yes - Easter falls on a Sunday, so the Hillsborough County School Board and the Council on American Islamic Relations couldn't get at that one.

No need for me to say much here, Relapsed Catholic sums it up just fine in picking the "best line" in the source article

:"Only board member Jennifer Faliero voted against the new calendar, saying she checked with other lawyers and believes Good Friday is a secular holiday: 'It is now about the Easter Bunny."

At issue here is just what James pointed out in his post - that "Christmas is so non-religious in its celebration at this point as to be virtually universal."

And that's very true, and school boards are taking that a major step further by wiping out our long-standing religious holidays altogether, or completely secularizing them by renaming them as "winter days" or "snow days" - and continuing to relegate them to an "Easter bunny" status.

Furthermore, only two groups have pushed this - ACLU and CAIR! And voluntarily giving a single inch to either one is facilitating the demise of our heritage, traditions, and culture, and allowing secularism and multiculturalism to, as mentioned above, advance the flames of radical Islam and it's agenda, and the ACLU's war on faith in America.

So, are we to simply sit back and allow the ACLU and Muslim groups with radical agendas such as CAIR, who supports terrorists, to change the face, culture and traditions of American society?

If being unwilling to do so makes one an alarmist - COUNT ME IN!

Special recognition for the most creative "post title" linked to this post goes to Chad at In The Bull Pen.

Another special recognition to a fellow blogger in Jerusalem, Tel-Chai Nation - for linking to us and providing a Jewish prospective.

Readers need to keep in mind:<blockquote>Every attempt to appease "Muslim opinion" preserves, promotes, and emboldens our enemies. Every concession to angry Muslim mobs gives hope to the Islamist cause. Every day we allow terrorist regimes to exist gives their minions time to execute the next Sept. 11. America needs honest leadership with the courage to identify and defeat our enemies--"Muslim opinion" be damned - Alex Epstien, writing at TheRaphi.com

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Constitutionally Permissible Activities in Government Schools Related to Religious Holidays

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