A Christmas Dare

Years ago, when our oldest daughter was in fourth grade, her public school’s music teacher put together a “holiday musical” as part of the elementary school curriculum.

As I browsed the script that my daughter brought home, I saw a variety of holidays celebrated in traditional songs. From Hannukah to Kwanza, from Bodhi Day to Yule, songs celebrating various cultures and religions filled the score. When I got to the end of the music sheet, I could not believe my eyes. To my great surprise, not one Christmas song was included.

Now, we are in the deep south, the “Bible belt.” Why on earth would a teacher not include Christmas in a December “Holiday Musical” for ten-year-old kids?

I certainly expected the musical to include other faith traditions. But excluding the one holiday most kids in that school celebrate in December is unacceptable.

I set up a meeting with the teacher and confronted her about her musical choice. I was nice, really nice. But point-blank.

“I certainly expect you to include other religions that have holidays in December, but what about Christmas? Why was it not included?”

Her response? The musical was reviewed by a committee and was chosen as the Holiday piece for the year.

Well, that made everything better, didn’t it?

Now we had an entire committee declaring war on Christmas!

She would not change her choice and was condescending, giving me an attitude as I stated their decision was wrong.

Guess whose daughter did not sing in the “Holiday Musical” that year? That’s right.

We did not come back to that school the following year, either.

There’s a war raging and it’s time to take a stand

My podcast this week offers a short reflection on Who Christ is to you, personally… and a dare. It’s only six-minute long and I believe it will make you think. Click below to listen on any podcast platform or in this blog.

Wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas!