Christmas and other Festivals of Light

Every year I send out a short message about December in our school. As an Educate Together school, we must be mindful of the fact that while many Christians and non-Christian people alike celebrate Christmas, there are many families where the festival is not celebrated at all. In fact, even those that do celebrate Christmas in their homes experience it in many different ways and often on different dates. There are lots of other festivals of light around this time.  

While children can share their own experiences and are able to converse in a respectful manner with each other, we teach children about Christmas, much like any faith. In other words, we teach them about the story of the festival and how many Christians believe it came to happen, how it is celebrated, and so on. We do not teach the story of Christmas as a fact. The following information might be helpful to you in terms of questions we are often asked.

TEACHING AND LEARNING (See right)

While it might look like the rest of the world and its textbooks only celebrates Christmas, we have a responsibility to ensure that children learn about the entire world around them. November and December mark the beginnings of festivals of light and your first port of call should be the spreadsheet linked to the right. I've also made some links to a website to help with planning. Please note that Junior Infants and 2nd Class have two festivals of light to explore.

It's sometimes a good idea to bring in a guest speaker to talk to the children about how they celebrate certain festivals. I'll be putting a call out to families and if they reply, I'll let you know.

I've also included some links to diverse books that you might wish to read with your class. Most of them have read-alongs on YouTube.

STEAM WEEK

A nice idea for your STEAM Week display might be to find a minoritised person and tie it in with a festival of light. Or how about the idea of the concept of light as a display starter?

WINTER CONCERT

In order to ensure that everyone is included in our school, we host a winter concert, rather than a Christmas concert. This year the theme for the concert is "Movie Night." It's a fairly open-ended theme so be creative but be mindful of the ethos of the school and what we are trying to do to be inclusive to all our families. 

Like last year, we'll have some special surprises for the adults in the audience. We will have one evening concert and one morning concert. 

CHRISTMAS CLOTHING

Some families wonder if they are allowed to wear Christmas jumpers or Santa hats to our school, and the answer is the same as we would give to any group of people. You are absolutely welcome to wear whatever you like to our school, keeping in mind safety.

CHRISTMAS CARDS

If your child wants to give Christmas cards (or any other festival) out to their friends, there is no issue with this. Please make sure not to leave anyone out though!

PRESENTS FOR STAFF

We never expect to receive gifts from families but, we really appreciate people taking the effort to say thank you. Similarly to Christmas cards, we don't want to ban anything or appear ungrateful. If parents would like to send in a gift, we will leave this to parents' own discretion. 

WINTER FUNDRAISING

We will be raising money this year for the Integrated Classes to buy some resources.