A Massachusetts school system is embroiled in a war on Christmas debate after Santa Claus was initially banned from visiting elementary school children over “religious” concerns.

Since 1960 firefighters in the town of Saugus dressed up like Santa Claus and visited every elementary school handing out coloring books. But on Monday, the school superintendent told firefighters that they would not be welcomed into the classrooms.

“Certainly everyone acknowledges their holiday in a special way they want. But there is a conflict between the church and the state in that regard,” Superintendent Richard Langlois told MyFoxBoston.com.

However, Santa Claus is not a religious figure – and is not mentioned anywhere in the Biblical story of the birth of Jesus.

Regardless, the superintendent stood by his decision until word began to spread across the community. By late Monday, Santa had been given a temporary reprieve. The Saugus School Committee is expected to address the issue next month – meaning Santa’s days may be numbered.

“I couldn’t believe it,” firefighter Mark Gannon told MyFoxBoston.com. “There are so many things in the world going on – to see that all of a sudden Santa can’t go to the schools – what else are we going to give up?”

Gannon said he’s been participating in the Christmas tradition for the past 14 years – and said the children absolutely love to see Old Saint Nick.

“It’s a great thing,” he said.

Superintendent Langlois defended his Santa ban – saying he was simply enforcing the rules..

“I’m carrying out the orders of the school community,” he said. “I’m not overstepping my bounds.”

But the firefighters said there is absolutely nothing religious about what they are doing.

“There’s no religious content in the coloring books,” Gannon said, noting that the coloring books feature characters like Strawberry Shortcake.

At least one school committee member is supporting the firefighters, calling the Santa controversy a case of political correctness gone amuck.

A traditional Christmas carol is at the center of a controversy at an elementary school in Michigan. The music teacher decided to change the lyrics to “Deck The Halls” because one particular word had the students giggling.

The music teacher at Cherry Knoll Elementary School removed the the word gay: changing the verse to “Don we now our bright apparel” rather than “gay apparel.”

“There were some students that had been snickering at the lyrics to deck the halls, she had been attempted to get them back on track quite a few times, and just decided to make a change in the wording,” said principal Chris Parker.

Parker says when he found out the lyric had been change, he immediately talked with the teacher. “I had not heard of the subtitution of the word bright before in that song it sort of caught me by surprise,” said Parker.

Parker wishes the teacher would have used the situation as a teachable moment — the word gay in the carol means happy or joyful.

“We have an anti-bullying and discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation, so going forward the teacher will be addressing, this is how we’re supposed to be reacting, this is a way to be respectful about this.”

Many parents thought the teacher’s decision to change the lyrics was completely inappropriate. Some said they were now taking time to explain to their children that gay is not a bad word.

“There was a different way to handle that, and a different decision that could have been made,” said Parker, who had the teacher go back to using the original lyrics.

At Hopkins Elementary, students recently dressed up as Christmas trees as part of the Judson Independent School District school’s annual holiday musical. Several held up signs spelling out “Merry Christmas.”

This week at North East ISD’s Huebner Elementary, fourth-grade students gave presentations about their family’s holiday traditions. A row of children’s books about Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa lined a nearby shelf.

And in many other schools in San Antonio, Santa Claus has been spotted roaming hallways adorned with Christmas trees, wreaths, festive garlands draped near images of snowmen and reindeer, all the while greeting kids and sometimes distributing gifts.

But exactly how public school children celebrate Christmas has become a matter of public debate. Two recent incidents in which school officials in Beaumont and Fort Worth tried to set guidelines on how Christmas could be celebrated — or not — made national headlines.

And a political ad by Gov. Rick Perry claiming kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas in school also fanned the political firestorm.

But in San Antonio, the spirit of Christmas seems to mostly be alive and well.

Even though state law prohibits public schools from using the holiday to promote any one religion, most local school districts have no ban on Christmas-related events and say that students are allowed to openly celebrate Christmas in school, according to an informal San Antonio Express-News survey.

“We let the kids sing Christmas carols as they were written at our events,” Harlandale ISD Superintendent Robert Jaklich said. “It’s more of a cultural celebration and we don’t intend to impose any kind of religion.”

Still, because Texas law doesn’t provide strict, detailed guidelines on the issue, school districts acknowledge Christmas differently — even, for example, in how they use the word “Christmas.”

East Central ISD calls the time off around the holidays “Christmas break.” But at Northside ISD, the city’s largest, it’s called “winter break.”

As a whole, larger districts in Texas with more diverse populations tend to go as secular as possible when describing the time off around Christmas or events touching on Christmas.

Rural or smaller districts with a more religiously homogenous student population, such as the Catholic or Christian strongholds in South San Antonio, more openly celebrate Christmas.

By law, public school officials are barred from advancing a religion, making children pray, or celebrate solely the Christian aspects of Christmas, according to the Texas Education Agency.

But there’s no federal or state law that prohibits a student from praying or celebrating Christmas in school by distributing gifts at school outside of class time, as those actions are protected under the First Amendment.

Christmas actually can be discussed in class as long as it’s for academic purposes, said TEA spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman.

“We discourage anything done where the instructional period be interrupted, but each district is left to resolve how it handles Christmas,” Marchman said.

Last week in the Beaumont area, students singing “Joy to the World” replaced “the Lord has come” with “my shopping’s done.” They sang “the first snow ball” instead of “The First Noel” at an elementary school’s annual Christmas pageant to avoid using religious references, the Beaumont Enterprise reported.

And earlier this month in the Fort Worth ISD, the school district’s attorney told staff that students should not be allowed to exchange gifts or “distribute personal holiday messages” during class. Santa Claus was also banned.

The next day, after a media firestorm, the district issued a statement with the headline “Fort Worth ISD Loves Santa Claus,” clarifying that these activities could be done before or after school or during lunch — but not during class.

While some saw Perry’s ad as an inflammatory overstatement, others point to those examples as evidence that there may very well be a so-called “War on Christmas.”

One Texas-based organization, The Liberty Institute, has launched a website called StopScrooge.com where people can submit complaints about Christmas-related prohibitions in schools.

Most districts do ban decorations using religious imagery such as a Nativity depicting the birth of Jesus Christ or the Star of David, said Tim Carroll, Allen ISD spokesman and president of the Texas School Public Relations Association.

However, Christmas trees and Santa Claus are seen more as iconic figures and not religious, Carroll said.

Edgewood ISD spokesman Maclovio Perez said districts walk a tightrope with concern that they could get sued for either being too lenient or too strict on guidelines regarding Christmas.

In one of Texas’ best-known examples, the “Candy Cane Case,” the issue has dragged on in the courts for more than eight years.

After administrators at an elementary school in Plano stopped an 8-year-old boy in 2003 from distributing candy cane pens with religious messages on them, several parents sued the district on free speech grounds.

Usually, controversy over how a school or district handles Christmas doesn’t arise until a parent or community member publicly voices concern, which then can lead to a change in policy, said Sylvester Vasquez, a Southwest ISD trustee and immediate past president of the Texas Association of School Boards.

“I don’t recall having that problem locally, or really too often around the state,” Vasquez said, noting his school board prays before meetings. “I think it depends on the culture of the area.”

The Superintendent of Tuscumbia City Schools says students at G.W. Trenholm can proceed with plans to sing ‘Silent Night’ in their Christmas program next week.

Someone protested the use of the song in the program, and got the backing of a national group, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The group sent a letter to the school system earlier this week, saying the song was unconstitutional because it contained religious wording.

Dr. Joe Walters, Superintendent of Tuscumbia City Schools, says the school board’s attorney, James D. Hughston, has reviewed the matter closely.

“The Christmas program includes a variety of well known Christmas songs that advance the students’ knowledge of our cultural and religious heritage,” Dr. Walters wrote in an email to WHNT News 19 on Friday.

“We have been advised by our attorney that the use of traditional Christmas music, including carols such as Silent Night, in the context of a school Christmas program has been permitted and ruled not to be in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution,” wrote Dr. Walters.

“Accordingly, we intend to allow our students to proceed with the Christmas program they have prepared to perform,” Dr. Walters added. “We are confident the program will be enjoyed by all of our students and their families.”

The students will perform the Christmas program on Monday and Tuesday nights. They have been rehearsing for several weeks, and have even learned sign language for ‘Silent Night.’
Parents we talked with earlier this week were furious about the matter.

“I just don’t think that other people should impose their values or beliefs on us, just like we as Christians impose it necessarily on others,” said Johnson. “I don’t think they’re making people participate if they don’t want to. It’s their choice.”

Johnson saw the kids practice the program, and said ‘Silent Night’ is very moving.

“If you see it, it’s beautiful. They sign, it’s the whole school,” said Johnson. “It’s like watching angels sing it. It’s beautiful.”

The superintendent of a public school district in Arkansas said it’s time for Christians to take a stand and that’s why he’s decided to reinstate a Nativity scene – in spite of possible legal action.

“Enough is enough,” said Jerry Noble, superintendent of the Green County Tech school district. “It’s His birthday. We celebrate Jesus’ birthday. One person should not be offended by that. We don’t leave it up all year. We’re not promoting religion. It’s not an effort to convert anybody.”

Noble told Fox News & Commentary the controversy surrounds a Nativity scene on a bulletin board at Green County Tech Primary School. The bulletin board also included the words, “Happy Birthday, Jesus.”

Noble said they had received some complaints about the decorations and after consulting with an attorney, he decided to remove the Nativity.

“My personal belief is that we should fight this sort of thing, but I didn’t want to put the school district at risk,” he said. “I could not take it upon myself to get the school in a legal entanglement over separation of church and state because we would have to use tax dollars to fight it and that’s not my job to do that.”

But his decision sparked a massive outcry in the community – and one organization offered to cover any legal costs the school system might incur over a lawsuit. That offer helped change the superintendent’s mind.

“To be honest with you, we offended a lot more people by taking it down than leaving it up,” Noble said. “So we put it back up.”

Noble, who is a Christian, said he doesn’t understand why anyone would be offended by the Nativity.

“Personally, I’m a Christian and if I’m going to offend somebody, I’d rather offend the non-believer – if it’s legal to do so,” he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas said told radio station KUAR that the school district must obey the Constitution.

“To say that if you have to offend somebody you’d rather offend those in the minority, well that’s just what the Constitution and the First Amendment are all about – not offending the minority, standing up for everybody’s right to practice their religion whether there is one person in your town or a thousand,” ACLU Director Rita Sklar told KUAR. “That the superintendent and perhaps others don’t have respect for that, I think is very sad.”

The Nativity scene was erected by Kay Williams, a counselor at the primary school. She’s been doing it for more than 20 years without any hint of controversy.

“We do live in the Bible Belt,” Williams told the Paragould Daily Press. “One thing that really disturbed most of [the supporters] was we hear about things like this all the time in other parts of the country. But, this is kind of a first for the Bible Belt, here in Arkansas.”

That, Williams told the newspaper, is why they decided to take a stand.

“I think the people realized [this issue] is here and we better take a stand,” she told the newspaper.

Noble said the community support and the offer for free legal services led to his decision to allow the Nativity back into the primary school.

“The Christians in America have been silent for too long,” Noble said. “That’s why I struggled with it in the beginning.”