Bunches of years ago, our local schools ditched the Halloween holiday, I guess because it was offensive to some religions. Some parents were asking that their children be excused the afternoon of the Halloween parade/party. The kids were never allowed to bring weapons as part of the costume, but then it became no scary costumes, then it was no costume parade at all and it was a "Fall Festival" celebrated quietly in the classrooms.

Same thing goes for Christmas. Emphasis on snowmen and penquins....no Santa (like Santa is a religious symbol anyways...LOL), etc.

Have your schools eliminated holidays as we knew them as kids? What do you think about this?

Personally, I think it stinks! I view these holidays as fun time for the kids and that we've taken politically correct a bit too far.... I feel that families can reinforce (or not ) their religious beliefs and values in the home and teach children to seperate them from a costume party.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

our school does a fall harvest party also. But we still do a Christmas one.

There reasoning for no halloween party was that the costume were to distracting for the class

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Our school still does both. The costume aren't worn to school, and kids need to be able to put their costume over the clothes, but last hour or so the kids put the costumes on for a parade/party.

Our new school also still does the Santa workshop, where the kids bing in money and shop. I think its a good idea, teaches about money, plus gives them an opportunity to show some Independence.

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The elementary school here has switched the Halloween celebration to a parade first thing in the morning. The children can wear their costume to school, they parade through the halls and across the stage, and that's it. They return to their classrooms, remove the costumes and proceed with a regular school day. There is no longer a Halloween party at all. For those students whose parents don't want them to participate in the parade, they are sent to a classroom with a teacher until the parade is over.

I think this pretty much stinks since some kids don't get to participate. I would much rather see them switch to a fall festival type party and eliminate the costumes. Some parents and some kids don't like the costume idea and expense. If it was just a party, everyone could participate. The kids who are into the costumes have the opportunity to wear them trick or treating and to private parties, but those kids who don't do costumes are eliminated from everything. A nice fall themed party would be great for ALL the kids.

When it comes to Christmas, our school still has a Christmas party. They do use winter themed things as opposed to religious. Although my daughter's choir teacher has surprised us in the past few years by including actual Christmas carols (religious themed) along with other songs in the Christmas concert.

As an aside - to the person(s) who follows me all over MyCoupons setting every post that I start as 5 star rating (except where it would be utterly tasteless): I really appreciate your admiration and respect , but enough is enough. Can you just grow up and move on? This behavior is the epitome of childishness. Most of us left middle school behind a long time ago; it's now your time.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

My daughters school does both Halloween and Christmas. The last 1 hour of school is set aside for party time. The costumes are not worn to school all day on Halloween but they allow any kids that want to, to put their costumes on just before the party. Sometimes the kids will parade from room to room(very small school)in their costumes for fun. Christmas trees are usually up in each room along with a small one in the front outside the office door. Again, I live in a small town where every one knows everyone(except me, I know no one, LOL).
I think the kids enjoy it and it's a time for fun after working hard. I know some religions don't celebrate these holidays and they don't allow their kids to participate so I suppose for them, it's not an enjoyable time. I would think those kids may feel left out or embarrassed even. Maybe those are the kids that don't come to school that day or leave before the party starts?? That is their right though. Personally I LOVE all the parties, lol....makes me feel like a kid again.


cjs216, do you have a secret admirer?

No Halloween anything here, but still have Christmas party with all the fixins!

They are allowed 2 parties a year, so they get Christmas and End of the Year.

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At my kids elementary schools we still have the parties, but they are now called "fall party" instead of Halloween, "winter party" instead of Christmas and "spring party" instead of Valentines party. My oldest DD is in 5th grade this year and in her Kindgergarten and 1st grade years they got to bring costumes to school and dress up, but they did away with it after that. Their reasoning was some of the kids' parents did not send in costumes and they would feel left out. I can kind of understand that, but there were always some backup costumes fo the kids who didn't have one. At any rate, I think it was honestly the parents who were more upset about the changes than the kids. So in the end it hasn't been that big of a deal.

They also did away with parents bringing in treats for the kids on party days. It was getting to the point of being ridiculous with the amount of candy the kids were taking home, but instead of trying to work with the parents and set some kind of limits, they just completely stopped it. Now the PTA buys healthy snacks for the parties.

It is up to the teacher but younger grades have both a fall and winter party. As they get older they may not have both but usually have a winter party. The school has a fall carnival on the Saturday before halloween so kids can go to both the carnival and go trick or treating. The kids can wear costumes to the carnival but not to school except for kindergarten. They get to wear their costumes and they parade around the school. It is very cute.

Most of you are pretty lucky. We are even in the "Bible Belt," but nothing "Christmas" is said, only "winter/holiday party." Nothing about Christmas at all. I think they do allow Santa stuff and Christmas trees, but generally it's snowflakes, generic stuff like that. I can't stand it! Halloween is totally off limits: it's all "fall party" stuff. If I were to bring in cupcakes/cookies, they could be orange and pumpkin SHAPED, but cannot have triangle eyes/mouth, etc, because then it's not a pumpkin but a JACK-O-LANTERN! Anything that parents send in for "fall parties," cannot be remotely scary, not witches, monsters, etc. NOTHING AT ALL that says Halloween! There would never be a parade of costumes in my kids' school (and BTW, they're at public school!), nothing like that. This is ridiculous to me, as I've always said and felt that Halloween is a children's holiday, just b/c you participate in it doesn't mean you're into devil worship or something nutty like that!!! I still remember getting to wear my Halloween costumes to school when I was in elementary school, that was such great fun!

As for the rest of it.... there's a spring party (nothing "Easter") and a small Valentine's Day party, which my twins love b/c that's also their birthday.

Suzanne

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I totally agree, Suzanne! It's not nearly as much fun to be a kid anymore!!

cj/

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We have both. Halloween is a half day of school. Parade through the school, then a big party. Except for early 5's which does theirs the day before. That teacher gets to do whatever she wants.

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Well, we must be in the minority--Our kids still have Halloween, Christmas and Easter (of course, our Spring Break has been falling within Spring Break).

edited to add: They even sang several religious Christmas songs at last years Christmas Program (yep, they still do a Christmas Program....)

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Nope. My kids are now 23 and 16 and NO CHRISTMAS for any of them. It started quite early in this liberal area.....a Big Ten college town. The had Halloween parades but ditched that. (It was really cute) and I think they just have a quick party. I dont' know if they put their costumes on for that-they did when my youngest was in 6th grade. Not allowed to mention God BUT my 16 yr old was lectured at high school in the first week for 15 minutes about how gay marriage should be legalized, taught evolution as FACT not theory, etc.. They also let the black students say the F word ALL THE TIME, even in front of teachers, etc... The white kids get in trouble if they swear....I guess it's ok to take the name of the Lord in vain but not celebrate His birth....go figure!!!! lol Needless to say, my 16 yr old is not in public school this year-we took him out and he's home schooling. I really missed watched them go through school with none of the fun "holiday" stuff I did when I was a kid. It's pretty ironic they can do Halloween costumes (they are supposed to be non-offensive of course) but can't say Merry Christmas!

no christmas party ,no halloween party ,no easter ,nada.....
we have a fall snack(yep you read it ,a snack,but no cupcake,cookies.etc, only healthy snacks and of course no candy....)
we have a winter party(no cupcakes ,cookies,sodas.......fruits,vegies and water....yeah...........)
we have end of teh year party....no cupcakes...ok you got the drill by now..

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I can have a "fall party" but usually choose not to. I am going to secretly ask parents to perhaps donate ice cream to have floats (or maybe we will make something as a class) to celebrate the end of the nine weeks next week- but other than that it has been pushed aside due to schedules & such.

I still have a Christmas party. Have it on the last full day of school before Christmas break.

Man, I'm probably older than all of you that have kids in school. We didn't do any parties when I was in school - we went there to learn! This was public school. Makes even more sense to me today. With school budgets strained, why spend part of the school day on parties and holiday celebrations? That's what home and places of worship are for. Don't spend my tax dollars on parties, please! (Besides, the last thing kids need these days is another excuse to eat a bunch of surgary snacks.)

We did our parties during the recess time usually. I don't mind an occasional party, but, I agree,let's keep the learning on track. OTOH, an occasional break from the norm is good, too.

I haven't had a child in elementary school in a few years. I don't really remember if it was a Halloween party or Fall party, or a Christmas party or Winter Party or whatever, and honestly, I don't mind either way. If those obecting to it not being called a Christmas party, would you have a problem with it being called a Hanukah (sp?) celebration?

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Well, our school district did away with Halloween (is now harvest), Christmas (is now Winter celebration and Easter (is now Spring celebrations). Think it is kind of sad, but has been that way for like 9 years now, so most of the kids don't know what they are missing.

When my kids were littlest and still in schools with parties, the district NEVER paid for parties--parents of the students (led by room moms) paid for all food, decorations, gifties, etc. I have never known of a district paying for the school parties out of their budget. I don't think the parties usually take away from the learning environment much--they usually are something the kids look forward to and can even be an incentive. I think an hour once or twice a year to reward the kids is not asking a lot from students--especially when they are the ones paying for it.

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We have a Fall party, a Christmas party, a Valentines Day Party, an Easter Party and an end of the year Play Day (organized games and blow up toys at the park for the whole school). No tax dollars are spent for parties, the parents donate everything for all the parties, for the big thing at the end of the year, businesses donate.

Ours are now Fall for Halloween, Winter for Christmas(although last 2 years Son has had gift exchange if they so choose to participate but I think it depends on Teacher). We still have Valentines and end of year parties. Kids just like parties so I don't really think they are "missing" anything by not specifically calling them Halloween or Christmas. As long as they are having fun they don't really care what they are celebrating.

maybe their trying to avoid ALL the religions from coming out and saying well you celebrate Christmas, then you should celbrate X too. I dont care for the bags of candy coming home I usually try to throw it away but that's after they gorged on everything in the bag on the way home we just dont do sodas, candy, ice cream but on rare occasions.

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We still have Halloween (including the costume parade), Winter & Valentines. The Winter party is not supposed to be Christmas-y but it always is. All these parties are done during the last hour of school, except the Halloween get's an hour and a half because of the parade. The kids don't wear their costumes to school, they change right before the parade.

I think the kids should have the parties. Having fun, spending time with your friends makes school enjoyable. I agree school is a learning environment, but they're kids for god's sake. Why be in such a hurry for them to grow up. They'll have time for all that later because the parties are gone in middle school. They are kids for such a short time, let them enjoy it.

And, we pay a fee at the beginning of the year to cover all the parties and the teachers birthday gift. None of it comes out of the taxes. But, I wouldn't care if it did -to me it's a part of elementary school.

Lisa

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I doubt your tax dollars are paying for the parties. Most PTA's pay for the parties that are held or the parents donate stuff for them.

I don't see ANYTHING wrong with having Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day parties. It's not like they have a party every week. Once every few months isn't going to take away from the kids learning. They usually have them on a Friday or the last day of school before break and are in the afternoon for an hour or so. Our district has a limit on how many parties the kids are allowed to have a year. It's either two or three, I think.

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2 years ago we did Halloween but last year it stopped. Everything is now "fall harvest". We don't have Christmas parties either but here's what irks me: they talk about Hanakuh (sorry if I spelled it wrong), kwanza but do not talk about Christmas. They do have snowmen and I think my kindergartener had a santa pic to color but they do not talk about Christmas. Uh...you can talk about Christmas without talking about religion. We are not religious, nor do we celebrate the religious aspects of Christmas but we DO celebrate Christmas. Most of what Christmas is anymore is not religious in nature anymore. NO offense to those who do celebrate the religious side of Christmas (hopefully it didn't come out that way) So, I don't get why they can talk about other "holiday" celebrations and not mention Christmas. They are adding some Muslim stuff to the curriculum this year too. HUH?

sorry to rant. We do have a Valentines party and they will have a class party about every 3 months if they are well behaved (it's an earned party). I think that's it.

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I don't think jujubee2 means they are spending tax dollars on the party supplies, but, taking the time that they are paying the teachers to teach, and the kids are having a party during that time. At least this was my interpretation of it. Hopefully jujubee2 will clarify for us all.

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Yes, that's exactly what I meant. I didn't think they were buying the supplies out of school funds.

This is JMO...

Even if you feel that tax dollars are being spent because teachers are spending time at a party instead of teaching, isn't there a lot to be learned while having fun? I know last year at my 3rd graders Halloween party, we had cupcakes with multiplication facts on them and the kids had to answer the question to get their cupcake. I think kids learn to take turns, share, count, sort, etc. At Easter parties, they have to count their eggs. We play educational games for prizes at the parties. Teachers are involved and the kids also get to have parents around showing them that the teachers and parents are working together not only teaching but having a little fun. After all, we're all human and we all need a little break from time to time.
I just know from the experiences at my kids' school, they have fun at parties, they look forward to them but it's not a waste of time nor of MY tax dollars.

These are some of the bazillion reasons why I homeschool my dd and she's never set foot in a public school and hopefully never will. I'm so thankful we're able to homeschool. We celebrate Halloween (All Soul's Eve), Christmas, Easter and have Bible study every day in our homeschool.

I purposely joined an inclusive homeschool co-op with lots of different religions represented. I wanted dd to be around others with different beliefs as everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. I wanted her to be able to make her own decision on her beliefs. We all respect each other's beliefs and have had classes & parties where we learn about different religions/cultures. So my dd is exposed to many different beliefs in a respectful way without compromising her/our beliefs. My dd is only 8 and has such a strong Christian faith she amazes me. I hope I can continue to nurnish this and help her grow more in the Lord. But if she ever wants to pursue another faith, I would support her even though it's not what I would want, it's her choice.

Jenn

My kids attend public schools and from reading the other posts are probably a little out of the norm...

Halloween: Kids can wear costumes but they can NOT wear masks. They can dress up, wear make up, wigs, etc....just no mask over the face. The last hour of the day is a Halloween Party. Parents bring cupcakes, chips, dips, etc.

Christmas: By the "books" it is not supposed to be referred to as Christmas, but it is and does not seem to pose a problem. The day before school lets out for Christmas Break, the day is set up for fun.....Usually, the kids watch a Christmas movie, eat popcorn, have snacks, exchange goodie bags, etc.

Valentines: The day goes along as usual, but they do exchange cards/goodie bags the last 15 minutes of class.

Easter: Morning class is normal. Then in the afternoon, they have an Easter egg hunt. Have snacks, cupcakes, etc.

Our schools are small and pretty traditional in an old timey sense.....

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I hated the Halloween parties and Christmas parties when my kids were in school. Everyone had to out spend each other for costumes. Then the treats were just not at school but some parents started sending them so then other parents followed suit. But then there were too many dietary restrictions. This one can't have chocolate this one no peanut this one no sugar etc. Then at Christmas there were the moms that thought they should buy the teacher a gift and have her kid give it to the teacher at the party, then some kids did and some didn't. Of course the ones that didn't felt bad that they weren't giving a gift. I was one of the kids in school that couldn't participate for religious reasons. This not only included the party day but also the music class where you had to sing the caroles, the Christmas programs, the art projects that were based on Christmas. The same with Halloween. I see no problem with simply having a fall party a winter party and a spring party. I think gifts should be eliminated. And I also think treats should not be a sugar fest. How many of you have ever successfully brought a cupcake home in a lunchbag? One holiday I think they should not allow is Valentines day. That is a total horror for the unpopular kids. Gradeschool kids can be evil to each other and this day is the perfect cover for some of the more devious ones. Besides how can you celebrate a real old fashioned Halloween with a fairy costume? Unless its a zombie fairie

PRDNME, I think that you have hit the nail on the head.

A lot of these holidays have been downplayed in the public schools because of the competition that ensues between parents and children. Many children (and parents!) just can not handle the competition and others just do not have the money!

Also, with 'No Child Left Behind' legislation, it is difficult enough for the schools to get everything done that needs to be done without the excitement and off-task behavior that is inevitable when holiday celebrations are taking place.

I am not happy with NCLB and what it is becoming but am happy that the schools have toned down some of the holiday celebrations in the last few years.

By the way, I work in the public school system as a sub teacher and former full-time teacher who dealt with a lot of this at the First Grade level.