School considers canceling Nutcracker trip because it has a Christmas tree

School considers canceling Nutcracker trip because it has a Christmas tree
(Image credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

A Massachusetts elementary school canceled — and then reversed its decision to cancel — a field trip for students to view the classic ballet, The Nutcracker, because the production features a Christmas tree. The cancellation occurred after the school's PTA became concerned that students from non-Christian backgrounds would take offense at the ballet's marginally religious content, which far more prominently features soldiers made of gingerbread and a Mouse King.

Critics have noted that, by the PTA's logic before the reversal, students also would be unable to view many famous works of Renaissance art, which frequently include far more explicitly religious themes and characters.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.