Teachers: Decorate for all holidays or don’t decorate at all

Although we have moved on from saying “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” in schools to be more inclusive of all celebrations, some teachers still focus on one holiday more than others. Students are still being excluded in their classrooms if they don’t celebrate Christmas, and then little effort is put into fixing that after.

One teacher posted a TikTok, surprising her one Jewish student with a plush latke because she had decorated the entire classroom in Christmas decorations and thought this would make up for it. The comments were filled with positive statements and applauding the teacher for making her students feel “included.” However, the student is, if anything, singled out more. Representation is not having just one little decoration and only having it because you have a student who celebrates it.

School is an environment where children are supposed to learn, which includes learning about various cultures. The holidays are a great time to get students familiar with celebrations outside of their own cultures, but not if the classroom is focused on Christmas. Instead, teachers could either decorate a little for each holiday celebrated around this time or not decorate for specific holidays at all and keep it winter-themed if they really wanted to decorate. Both of these options allow students to be open-minded and gave teachers the opportunity to teach about all the holidays and be inclusive. Some may argue that you can still teach about other holidays with Christmas decorations, but that could come off as passing off other religious holidays as inferior or alternatives and still making Christmas seem like the main focus.

In the US, there are an estimated 2.4 million children living in Jewish households and about 1.35 million Muslim children. That is 2.4 million children who are being raised somewhat around non-Christian culture; decorating a classroom only for Christmas feels like a huge slap in the face to those kids. Not only is it a lack of inclusivity, but it also sends a message that their cultures aren’t as important compared to those who do celebrate Christmas.

Apart from lacking diversity, it has become so easy to seem inclusive to people that the absolute bare minimum is praised. A teacher putting up one decoration only because they had one Jewish student after decorating does not show inclusivity at all. Instead, it makes the student seem like an afterthought. If a teacher truly cared about including all of their students, they wouldn’t pull something like that. It is even worse to video it and post it on social media, making it less genuine and seems more just like an excuse to tell people how “good” of a person you are.

Children who don’t celebrate Christmas deserve to not feel like outsiders from their classmates. Include everyone equally whether they are in your classroom or not, or don’t decorate for religious holidays at all.