Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia just sent a survey to parents floating the elimination of Christmas break from the school calendar, and somehow they're surprised that people noticed. The district dressed it up as a scheduling question — more five-day school weeks, better consistency, blah blah blah — but one of the options on the survey was literally "eliminating religious/cultural holiday observances," and the holidays they listed were Christmas, Diwali, Eid al-Fitr, and Rosh Hashanah.
Because nothing says "world-class education" like telling families their faith is a scheduling inconvenience.
The survey, which has a deadline of midnight on June 22, asked parents: "If the school calendar required modifying one of the following, which would be the most acceptable to you?" Among the options were a shorter winter break, no day off before Thanksgiving, a shorter spring break, fewer federal holidays — and, of course, the nuclear option of axing religious holidays entirely. Keep in mind, fewer than half of FCPS school weeks currently contain five full days of instruction. So naturally the solution is to go after Christmas.
Stephanie Aurora Lundquist, a mother of three children attending FCPS, wasn't having it. She blasted the district's leaders for what she called their "anti-Christian bias" — and she's got receipts that go back years.
This isn't the first time Fairfax County has played this game. In 2022, the school board voted to decouple spring break from Easter. Not move it for logistical reasons. Decouple it. As in: we don't want this break associated with that holiday anymore. Then, in 2024, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to commemorate Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday. Because of course they did.
See the pattern yet?
FCPS released a statement so packed with bureaucratic fluff it could fill a semester of administrative bloat. They said they're "committed to developing an academic calendar that works best for students, staff and families" and that "calendar development is a complex process that involves balancing many different parameters to create a successful framework that prioritizes teaching and learning and exceeds state-required instructional hours as we continue to provide a world-class education for students." That's a lot of words to avoid saying "we put killing Christmas on a survey."
The school board has already been making moves on the calendar. In April, they voted 8-1 with 3 abstentions to add Veterans Day as a holiday, 5-1 with 6 abstentions to cap elementary early release days from 12 down to 8, and a motion to add Indigenous Peoples Day failed 7-4 with 1 abstention. So they'll debate Indigenous Peoples Day with a straight face but float scrapping Christmas like it's a reasonable trade-off.
Parents across the county are now rallying against what they see as a deliberate pattern of marginalizing Christian holidays in public school scheduling.
Here's the thing they keep pretending isn't obvious: nobody floats "eliminating religious holidays" and then acts shocked when Christians take it personally. You don't accidentally put Christmas on the chopping block. You don't accidentally decouple Easter from spring break. You don't accidentally schedule Transgender Visibility Day on Easter. At some point, "coincidence" stops being a defense and "intent" starts being the only word that fits.
The survey closes June 22. Something tells me Fairfax County is about to hear from a lot of parents who celebrate Christmas — and vote.
