During the holidays, everybody has to go all-out with their Christmas joy. The season is meant to be enjoyed, of course. But during the holidays, tensions are high for teachers. With tons of Christmas activities and preparing for the big holiday break, a lot falls onto their shoulders. One Texas teacher asked TikTok if they think schools are expecting us to do too much right around Christmas. She talks about ‘themed days’ and how she thinks schools are taking it too far.
Tina (@mommaevilone) is a teacher in Texas. She shared a TikTok video explaining how the school she works at expects teachers and students to participate in themed Christmas days. This goes on for an astounding two weeks around the holidays! So, what does this entail? Well, this means they’ll participate in days like “ugly sweater day, sock day, Grinch day, reindeer day, Christmas tree day,” and more.
Tina thinks this is ridiculous and they’re expecting too much from parents and teachers. She suggests, “How about instead of having parents go out and buy stuff for their children so their kids don’t feel left out, how about each classroom present an ugly sweater?” She said teachers can get cheap socks and hand them out to their students for sock day for their Christmas present. For Grinch Day, she suggests somebody dresses up as the Grinch and visit each classroom. It seems so much simpler than expecting every child to do these things. And if they don’t participate, they’re left to miss out. This means underprivileged kids might not get to participate in any of these activities, which is just wrong.
Tina says she “doesn’t understand why this has to happen for two weeks, on top of making Christmas happen for our kids.” She continues to ask, “What about the parents who have no choice and can’t do it? That’s gotta hurt those little souls.” She said she thinks the schools have to take a closer look at these expectations. They can tell people it’s fine not to participate, but it’s not kind that there are children being left out of the holiday fun. And it’s all because they can’t economically afford to participate.
One person asked, “What about just doing a Christmas party on one day? Then be done. It’s too much of a financial burden for parents during an already stressful time of year.” This means that every child could participate and nobody would be left behind. Another parent exclaimed, “It was the whole month of December at our school!” That seems really overkill.
