27/12/2025
The following thoughts are offered in response to a Sky News report on changing Christmas practices in schools. While the news piece may capture the realities faced by educators in a diverse society, it stops short of addressing the central question, whether, in trying to include everyone, we are quietly emptying Christmas of its true meaning.
The recent Sky News report on schools replacing traditional nativity plays with mixed-faith or generic “winter” performances claims to reflect modern Britain. What it actually reflects is a profound misunderstanding of what Christmas is and why it exists at all.
Christmas is not a neutral cultural celebration, nor is it a flexible container into which every belief system can be poured. It is unapologetically Christian. It marks the staggering claim that God entered history, not as an idea or moral teacher, but as a baby. Jesus Christ did what no other faith claims: He was fully God and fully human, born into weakness, lived a sinless life, loved with perfect clarity, died a sacrificial death, and rose bodily from the dead three days later. As Christians we do not call Him one option among many. We confess Him as Lord, Saviour, and King.
To dilute Christmas in the name of inclusion is not kindness; it is confusion. Inclusivity does not require the erasure of meaning. Britain’s story, calendar, and moral imagination have been profoundly shaped by Christianity, and the nativity is not propaganda, it is proclamation of good news. Removing it does not create neutrality; it replaces conviction with vagueness and faith with sentiment.
Ironically, no one is offended by the clarity of Ramadan or Diwali. Their meaning is respected precisely because it is defined. Christmas deserves the same honesty. If schools want to teach about multiple faiths, it should not come at the cost of hollowing out one of the most significant events in human history.
Christmas does not exist to affirm everyone’s beliefs. It exists to announce something disruptive and world changing: Jesus Christ has arrived. Strip that away, and what remains may be festive, but it is not Christmas.