What I still don’t see is any evidence that anybody actually is saying that ‘we can’t still call it “Christmas”‘. I don’t see any evidence in the cases cited - the Truro one is the only one where there’s any case to answer, and that’s not entirely conclusive.

I’m afraid the “Name three cases” strategy is my standard response whenever I’m told that something is commonplace. I used to use it when people resisted using CSS because “lots of big companies still use Netscape Navigator”. They could never name three such companies, or even one, it was just hearsay repeated as fact.

So, my early Christmas present to you is the “name three test”. It’s really good for testing any kind of generalisation by pulling it back to the specific.

1. I acknowledged in my last comment that those places weren’t necessarily excluding Christmas entirely — but did certainly play it down a bit by dropping it from the title. I’ll acknowledge the Hogmanay thing too; it’s pretty logical to combine the two.
2. I remember that Guardian article too. It may even surprise you to learn that I agreed with it, and can add some more examples — the Post Office being surprised that religious figures were “pleased” that they had “seen sense” and returned to Christian imagery for stamps this year and pointing out that for the last 10 years they had alternated between secular and Christian imagery on their stamps. In fact, I looked into it last year too.
3. I’m not claiming there is a “war on Christmas”. I just don’t understand why when some Christians celebrate a religious Christmas, and pretty much the rest of the UK celebrates it on a secular basis, we can’t still call it “Christmas”? After all, like I said last year:

we could follow the example of the nursery my children go to, where they are taught about the different religious festivals that different religions celebrate throughout the year, and are encouraged to take part in — BTP made a crown for Diwali this year. Wouldn’t that help us all to understand one another and break down racial and religious intolerance? Isn’t that a better idea than trying to suppress religion?

The Clackmannanshire Winter Festival page mentions the word “Christmas” seven times in a quite short press release, including plugging a “Christmas Carol Concert”. Not much evidence of rampant secularism there.

The Edinburgh page talks about their “winter festivals” - i.e. Christmas and Hogmanay. The two have a more equal billing in that part of the world - apparently Christmas “was a traditionally quiet time of year” until recently in Auld Reekie.

“Lewisham Town Centre will come alive to the sights and sounds of Christmas when it celebrates its 10th Winter Festival between 11am and 5pm on Saturday, 24 November” (emphasis mine). The Lewisham “winter festival” appears to be what they call the “get some Z-list celeb to switch the Christmas lights on” event - not a replacement for baby J’s birthday.

In Aberdeen, “This year also heralds the city’s first Winter Festival which brings together a tremendous programme of events taking us through the festive season and Hogmanay and into the new year.” Plenty of C-word use in that page too.

Inverness’ Winter Festival starts in November and runs out into the new year - “St Andrew’s Day and Hogmanay will be other highlights in a comprehensive programme of events”.

In Cornwall there’s some case to answer - they have a “Truro Winter Festival Park and Ride” which could perhaps better be called a “Christmas Park and Ride”. Maybe Trurovians(?) get narked by calling things “Christmas” things if they start in late November? Who knows? Plenty of mention of Christmas on the page though.

So, up and down the country, there isn’t really any evidence of local councils replacing Christmas with some PC “Winter Festival”. Sometimes they have one as well (Lewisham), sometimes Christmas is included in one along with other things (various bits of Scotland), but nowhere do I find anybody having one instead.

There was a good article in The Guardian about this last year. Examines the background to all the famous “banning Christmas” stories and finds they’re all nonsense. Who’d have thought it? Gratifyingly it’s hit #4 when you Google “Winterval”.

Happy Holidays!

For example, Clackmannanshire, Edinburgh, Lewisham, Aberdeen, Exeter, and Cornwall councils are having something they pitch as a “Winter Festival” this year.

Or you don’t have to take my word for it - search for it yourself.

To be fair, it’s probably more accurate — for many of these at least — to say that they appear to be playing down the religious aspects (dropping “Christmas” from the title, for a start) rather than excluding them completely, but why?

I object to the fact that organisations up and down the country seem to want to have the festivals but not the religious aspects.

Name three such organisations.

I know this story is a regular space filler in the Daily Mail around this time of year, but does it actually happen?

people can legitimately arrive at different conclusions based on the same evidence.

Does this mean that I have to surrender the belief that “My God, my flag, my dad, my whatever is bigger or better than yours, so now I am going to have to kill you”?