Religious sourced holidays should be available only to card-carrying members of the subject religion. Everyone else should turn up at work.

Have an opinion that groups Christians and other religious positions together as one big homogenous threat. Ask a couple of students and parents whose position you already know regards the stated opinion. Write article, rinse and repeat at regular intervals.

This is disapointing as I think it falls well short of Crikey’s independent minds and independent media position. Usually Crikey is prepared to create space for nuance in response to the main stream media’s use of homogenous groupings on issues, not so much when it comes to Chris’ articles.

Remember where you first read the FULL story folks.

Now I’ll just be off to scoff the rest of those Xmas eggs.

It’s a time off to enjoy the world without the stresses of work and life. Yeah, some people have it tough and/or don’t believe in it, but that doesn’t make it any less a time to enjoy life and existence. That’s the point!

Have fun on your day off.

Now, if a sanitised vision of Christmas cheer is under threat in schools, then I say good riddance. It does irreparable harm because it represents an impossibly idealised vision of human happiness. This time of year can be a pit of misery for many of us, and having to put a happy face on it only makes things worse. Most of the non-religious carols we sing seem to be about a winter wonderland, which is strange given the general lack of snow at this time of year. There are Australian Christmas carols, but who has the time to teach them in the age of NAPLAN?

Where I have a problem is the premise that sacred and secular are eternally separated spheres of influence. This is patently not the case, as the presence of figures in our public life from Tony Abbott through to Peter Jensen and Jim Wallace demonstrates. There is a predominance of a particular sort of religiosity among public figures, and this is a problem. The main public face of religion at the moment is a very rigid and antagonistic one, and it can be very hard for people to see that this is not the end of the story. Certain people get away with bandying around punitive ideas ‘because the Bible says so’ only because the majority of people don’t have the wherewithal to question it right to the very bottom. This is very bad news for women, for gay people, indeed, for anyone who does not enjoy white hetero male privilege. Unsurprisingly, it was the equivalent of the white hetero males of around 2,000 years ago who strang up some peasant from Galilee.

As far as Bible teaching and religious education in schools goes, I’d say parents are absolutely right to run for cover when religion is used as a tool for ideology. But they owe it to their children to see that they are culturally literate enough to be able to recognise the misuse of religion. Religious illiteracy only makes it easier for the pious quacks to make converts and build influence. They owe it to their children to make sure that they have enough of a handle to be able to beat the next generation of public fundamentalists of the world over the head with it.

The good news of Christmas is that in the middle of all the messiness of our lives we’re not cut off from something greater. What you call — or don’t call — that something doesn’t matter so much.

No matter how you look at it, the two weeks holiday i am about to get put cheer on my face.

Just when you think they can’t concoct any more weirdo stuff (eg: virgin birth) they produce fresh material. In the northern hemisphere snow must symbolise the dandruff of Jesus.

Since we let publicly funded untrained indoctrinators, aka “scripture teachers” and “school chaplains” loose on our unsuspecting progengy.

The secular celebration IS Christmas for most Australians. Sure it used to be a christian festival (for some it still is). Before that, it used to be a pagan festival.

Now, it’s a time to rest, reflect, spend time with family & friends, stop working, go to the beach, eat a lot, give presents, share a meal, celebrate family, friends and life. Importantly, it’s an opportunity to do that at the same time everyone else is doing it, because despite Thatcher’s dire predictions there is still a thing called society.

If you are so inclined, you can go to church at Christmas. Most people don’t. So what? The rest of the tradition still has substantial meaning and value. Babies and bathwater spring to mind at this point … that or “bah humbug”. Either way, I think you’re wrong.

Fine, in that case presents for little kids only - anybody over 10 years of age enters a No Gift Zone, let’s prune this commercial travesty known as Christmas. Perfect.

However, one suspects the dismissive 15 year-old will have his/her hand out for something on 25th. The latest i-phone perhaps…