Whitby school omits Christmas while celebrating other religious holidays, again

Christmas has been erased from Pringle Creek Public School in Whitby, relegated to a “winter” display while the school continues to openly celebrate other religious and cultural holidays.

Christmas has been erased from Pringle Creek Public School in Whitby, relegated to a “winter” display while the school continues to openly celebrate other religious and cultural holidays.

For December, the school’s main display board featured a winter scene with snowflakes, a decorated tree, and Olaf from Disney’s Frozen. The winter festivities include a similarly generic cookie sale free from references to Christmas.

On its own, this wouldn’t be especially remarkable but the Christianity-shy school regularly observed non-Christian cultural and religious holidays without reservation. In October, the school promoted a similar cookie sale for Diwali on its Instagram account. The school’s display board during that period also clearly identified Diwali as the celebration being recognized.

The pattern has raised community concerns. Following True North’s earlier reporting on Pringle Creek, a second community member independently reached out, expressing concern about what they described as the school’s “ongoing erasure of Christian holidays while giving preferential treatment to others.”

A review of the school’s Instagram account showed frequent and explicit recognition of Islamic and South Asian observances. Past posts included a video of primary-aged students dancing to an Arabic-language Eid-themed song, while the Easter display was relegated to cute imagery of the Easter bunny and spring flowers.

In the previous school year, Pringle Creek posted seven times about Diwali, three times about Lunar New Year, and shared a Grade 1 classroom post celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa as part of “December celebrations,” again without mentioning Christmas. Easter, meanwhile, was framed as a spring-themed STEM activity to “Design an Easter basket,” rather than a religious holiday.

A member contacted the school’s principal to ask why Christian holidays were consistently treated as generic seasonal greetings while the cultural and religious elements of Diwali and Islamic holidays were respected.

The principal acknowledged the concern, stating, “I understand your surprise regarding the front bulletin board not being decorated specifically for Easter or Passover this year,” and added that the “office display case” had been decorated for Easter.

Images shared with True North show the display contained no references to Easter, featuring instead eggs, flowers and the Easter bunny, all with a spring-themed pastel décor. There were no references to the holiday’s Christian roots or traditions.

The principal maintained the school is “committed to equity and inclusion,” ensuring that many “cultures and faith-based celebrations are acknowledged and respected.”

True North contacted Pringle Creek Public School and the Durham District School Board for comment regarding the December displays and the concerns raised by multiple parents but did not receive a response by publication time.