On The Front Lines
Know Your Rights at Christmas: Constitutional Guidelines for Celebrating in Public, at School or Work
Charlottesville, Va. — As part of its annual effort to clear up much of the legal misunderstanding over the do’s and don’ts of celebrating Christmas, The Rutherford Institute has issued a Constitutional Q&A on the ‘Twelve Rules of Christmas,’ which provides basic guidelines for lawfully celebrating Christmas in schools, workplaces and elsewhere.
Over the years, The Rutherford Institute has been contacted by parents and teachers alike concerned about schools changing their Christmas concerts to “winter holiday programs” and cancelling holiday celebrations altogether to avoid offending those who do not celebrate the various holidays. In one incident, a public school 6th-grade class was asked to make “holiday cards” to send to the troops but were told by school officials that they could not use the words “Merry Christmas” on their cards. Similarly, nativity displays, Christmas carols, Christmas trees, wreaths, candy canes and even the colors red and green have been banned as part of the effort to avoid any reference to Christmas, Christ or God.
“While Christmas may be the “trigger” for purging Christmas from public places, government forums and speech—except when it profits Corporate America—it is part and parcel of the greater trend in recent years to whittle away at free speech and trample the First Amendment underfoot,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “While the First Amendment prohibits the government from forcing religion on people or endorsing one particular religion over another, there is no legitimate legal reason why people should not be able to celebrate the season freely or wish each other a Merry Christmas or even mention the word Christmas. After all, the First Amendment affirms the right to freedom for religion, not freedom from religion.”
Although the Christmas season is celebrated by persons of all walks of life and beliefs, it has frequently become one of many casualties in the misguided dispute over the so-called “separation of church and state,” a controversy that has given rise to a disconcerting and unconstitutional attempt to sanitize public places of any reference to God or religion. Hoping to clear up the legal misunderstanding over the do’s and don’ts of celebrating Christmas, The Rutherford Institute’s Constitutional Q&A on “Twelve Rules of Christmas” provides basic guidelines for lawfully celebrating Christmas in schools, workplaces and elsewhere.
In issuing the guidelines, Institute attorneys cited incidents from years past in which, for example, teachers at a Connecticut school were instructed to change the wording of the classic poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” to “Twas the Night Before a Holiday.” In Virginia, a high school principal debated about whether he could mention Santa or distribute candy canes given that they were symbols of Christmas. In Massachusetts, a fourth-grade class was asked to list 25 things that reminded them of Christmas. When one young student asked if she could include “Jesus,” her teacher replied that she could get fired if Christmas’ namesake appeared on the list. A New Jersey middle school cancelled a field trip to attend a performance of a play based on Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" because some might have found it "offensive." Things have not been much better outside the schools. In Chicago, organizers of a German Christkindlmarket were informed that the public Christmas festival was no place for the Christmas story. Officials were concerned that clips of the film “The Nativity Story,” which were to be played at the festival, might offend someone. And in Delaware, a Girl Scout troop was prohibited from carrying “Merry Christmas” signs in their town’s annual holiday parade.
The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, defends individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated and educates the public on a wide spectrum of issues affecting their freedoms.
