There's no mention of Santa in the bible - let the boy go to the Christmas party, for goodness sake!

I agree. An jeez, how Christian is it to exclude a little boy from a fun children's gathering?

Poor kid, I hope Santa's extra good to him this year.

I'm sure this child will really want to become a Christian now that he sees how narrow-minded and intolerant (not to mention wrong) they are.

Man, I thought for sure this happened in Florida.

It's always good to see the forgiving and open hearted nature of the Christian religon in action.
I would like to know why the parents pulled him out of
religous education. Could be they wanted him to have nothing to do with it.

I agree!

<a href='http://www.plime.com/redir.p?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40qTXlNJj9s' class='plime' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'><b>flash video</b></a>

I hate to say this Santa but you’re acting like a d**k
you should give presents to everyone that’s good
and not just to your personal click
if you bring me a toy to open Christmas morning
I’ll let you be my boyfriend
all bearded,
fat and horny
oh yeah oh yeah
What does Jesus have to do with you?
You’ve got as much to do with Jesus as you do with Scooby Doo,
what do you have to do with Jesus,
you have as much to do with him
as you do your mother’s pe*is
oh yeah
so I don’t think he’s the son of god
I think he was still a nice boy
if you ask yourself what would Jesus do
he’d say give the Jew girl toys,
give the Jew girl toys, give the Jew girl toys,
don’t be a doosh, what would Jesus do,
he’d say give the jew girls toys,
Kwaz – is that german?
Santa Claus, Santa Claus,
you made a list and I checked it twice
and there’s nobody named Silverman, or Moskowitz or Weiss,
you have a list well Schindler did too,
Liam Neeson played him, Tim Allen played you,
give the jew girl toys,
don’t be a doosh, what would Jesus do,
he’d say give the jew girl toys
give the jew girl toys

He's been chucked out of religious education lessons, too? Man, I wish I'd told my teachers I didn't believe in Jesus.

EDIT: Reread it and realised I'd misunderstood. Ah well.

with all due respect...

christianity has really become laughable.
too many of its 'adherents' are stinking up the place.
they could learn a lot from most of the atheists i know.

in fact, of the people i find that are concerned with the world and the well-being of others, the vast majority are atheists.

If he really doesn't believe in Jesus and Christmas and Santa....then he shouldn't be upset. Better than the atheists that go to the office Christmas party to get drunk and take advantage of drunk co-workers, or a few of my Jewish friends who celebrate Hanukkah AND give Christmas presents (not to their gentile friends to each other). If they pulled him out of religious ed. then I see no reason why the parents would WANT him to attend a birthday party for a diety in which they don't believe. You can't have it both ways...The better question is why is a public school offering Religious and Moral education in the first place.

What an obscure thing to do.. First you have voluntary religious teachings, then you have a christmas party with santa clause and only invite the religious kids?

If you involved santa clause in any holiday party it is no longer a strickly religious celebration.

maybe he was the kid in class that always smelled like he peed himself and the whole thing was a "good excuse"

The teachers may not even be Christian. I used to teach and there were kids in my class who "Weren't allowed" to observe Christmas.

As a result, every math worksheet with a Santa, or snowman, or whatever would be turned away with them saying "We can't do this because it's Christmas." (Same with Thanksgiving, Halloween, 4th of July)

So, after all year of using NO CHRISTMAS as an excuse to dodge work, I sent them to the Library during the party.

For me it was a consistency thing.

Hmmm....
Do you believe in Santa?
We give gifts to each other at Christmas at my company, but I don't think anyone believes in Santa... Half of the people aren't Christian either.

Kids...we are talking about kids here...and I do believe the concept of Santa is a great way of teaching kids the joy of giving. Easier than explaning how some virgin born God/Man willingly going to his death and spilling his blood was the ultimate gift to mankind.

Great point and I agree.

How about talking to them about the joy of giving? Do they have to believe in Santa to participate and learn about the joy of giving?

You can get into the spirit of Christmas without being a Christian, folks. In this day and age, they're almost two entirely different things.

My boyfriend is a staunch atheist who turns into a 5 year old at Christmas time. We go get our [live] tree, drive around looking at decorations while playing Christmas music [secular as well as religious], when he sees the wrappings of a UPS package in the garbage he searches the whole house to see if he can find his present before I wrap it. If a thirty year old man who's never believed in any sort of God can get this caught up in all the things that go along with Christmas, then imagine how it feels for a little boy who is still young enough to believe in Santa Claus to be told he can't come to a PUBLIC SCHOOL party with his friends because of the way his parents raised him.

It wasn't that the school was being "thoughtful" or "trying to bend to his parents' wishes" as some of the comments on the dailymail suggest; they flat-out BANNED the kid. If they were trying to be tolerant of his parents' wishes that he not be exposed to religion, they would have left the descision of whether or not he could come up to the parents.

My kids are 2 and 6...talking TO them is like talking to pets, having a conversation with them is very much like talking to a highly distractable adult on a high dose of psychedelics. Kids need FOCUS. I think stories like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" are the most effective way to equate giving with joy in their young minds. A fat guy in a red suit holds real FOCUS and power for them, besides the fact that children are so right brain it isn't funny. My six year old totally believes in magic AND Santa AND Jesus AND Transformers, and why should I disabuse him of the inevitably lost beliefs by shifting the emphasis of the holidays from the magic of Santa Claus to a heart to heart about how giving makes you feel as good as the person you give to (which can be seen as selfish in their eyes too). We give toys to toys for tots, I buy random kids candy in the store if they are in line behind us in the store, my six year old is always wanting to do things for "poor" kids, he gets giving, and he loves Christmas, the God side AND the Santa side.

Sounds to me like he is really into the Pagan practice of bringing a live tree into the house for winter solstice, getting presents, and the commercialism of buying stuff to decorate your house, and is caught up in music piped through every possible electronic device designed to make him buy more crap. Christmas is about Christ. I don't have a problem with Pagans celebrating Solstice, or Jews giving Christmas presents so long as those people realize the are buying a "bill of goods" holiday like Haloween or Valentines Day and are celebrating the empty joy of buying s**t and giving it to someone for the hell of it.

Christmas never was about "Christ", it was about creating a manufactured exegesis of pagan traditions in order to make them excusable in Christians' own eyes.

Obviously Santa and ice cream have nothing to do with Jesus's birth regardless. If it were a nativity play I would understand, but this is clearly not the case here, and therefore I see it as unjustified.

At the age most kids believe in Santa(2-6), allegories are better than straight explanations. They are children, not small adults.