For centuries Christians have been taught that wise men from the east brought gifts for the baby Jesus.

But, according to polling, one in 10 young adults in Britain now believe that Father Christmas also makes an appearance in the Biblical account of the nativity.

Significant numbers also think that Mary and Joseph might have brightened up the stable with a Christmas tree.

Over a third of the public think that the Bible records December 25 as the date of the Jesus’s birth.

And a quarter appear to have confused the lyrics of “Away in a Manger” with the gospels by believing that the Bible states that Jesus did not cry when he was born.

More than 2,000 people of all ages were polled on their knowledge of the Christmas story to test whether younger generations are becoming increasingly ignorant of religion.

The ComRes survey, conducted on behalf of the Christian Institute, involved giving people a list of elements and asking whether each was included in the Biblical accounts of Christ’s birth.

Overall 87 per cent believed that the Bible says that Jesus was born in a stable – a location at least implied by the gospel of Luke’s account that he was laid in a manger because there was no room at the inn.

Meanwhile 84 per cent said the accounts include three kings or wise men made visiting Jesus. Although the Bible does not quantify the magi, it but does specify three gifts.

Similarly three quarters think the Bible mentions Mary riding a donkey or that the cattle were busy lowing at the time of the birth.

Perhaps more surprisingly one in 20 Britons think that Father Christmas makes an appearance in the Bible – a proportion which rises to 10 per cent among the 25 to 35 age group.

People who work in the public sector – a category which includes teachers – are almost twice as likely as private sector employees to think that Father Christmas features in Scripture.

Similarly seven per cent thought that the Bible makes room for a Christmas tree – an innovation introduced in Victorian times. Among 18 to 34 year old the proportion almost doubles.

Colin Hart, head of the Christian Institute, said: “This poll shows a worrying lack of knowledge about our country’s Christian heritage that has shaped our history, institutions and laws, even who we are and our values.

“When one in 10 public sector workers, including social workers and teachers think that Santa Claus is part of the Bible’s account of the nativity, what hope is there for our children?

“Our Christian heritage is being corrupted and airbrushed and the central Christmas message about the birth of Jesus Christ is being lost.

“For many pupils RE has become a multi-faith mishmash.

"The Government must take a stand instead of running scared from the political correctness lobby and ensure that our young people are taught properly about the life and message of Jesus.”

From Telegraph

When people find out I’m an atheist, the question often comes up about what I do during the Christmas holidays. There is an assumption that atheists don’t ‘do Christmas,’ so they are surprised when I say how much I love it.

firstrock1503 I don’t acknowledge “Christmas” it is a joke and one of the most harmful to both the economy and the environment.

likeclefairy As my mom has become more religious, it’s more of a religious thing with her. As for my dad, it’s just Giftmas. I celebrate it twice. :)

eyecancerohgod My family is completely atheist, but we celebrate christmas/yule-tide merrily. This year, we’re going to Austria for skiing.

lessakay I have dinner with my family. That’s it

atheos I celebrate christmas to make my wife happy, she loves chrismas, the fun, presents, family, decorations, but just that, no christ or other bs

sageoflogic I personally would celebrate Solstice but I have to celebrate Christmas with the family.

intollerante http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCNvZqpa-7Q That pretty much summarizes why I love Christmas.

wontbeheardbutimustscream Three of my brother will be with my dad, my older brother and me will be at my mums. Probably drink port and watch Buffy. Heap of fun :-)

migratoryeagle I am forced to sit through a two hour mass while secretly hiding my camouflaged earbuds under my hair.

antichristlove i don’t celebrate christmas. christams is lame. i celebrate jól

sunmono My entire family is atheist/agnostic and we celebrate Christmas. In a Christmas tree, presents, dinner with the extended family way. :)

This song was meant to air on the Jonathan Ross Show tomorrow night (23rd December 2011), but at the last minute ITV cut it. Here's my whiney blog about it (originally published at www.timminchin.com):  I really like Jonathan Ross. I think he's a funny, interesting, kind person, and an excellent interviewer. I also really like his wife... But let's not get back into that. Jonathan and his wonderful producer, Suzi, have been incredibly supportive of me and so when they asked me to write a song for their pre-Christmas show, I didn't hesitate. It was the worst possible time to be writing a new song -- I've been overworked and ill, was on tour, and was really feeling the stress. But I wasn't going to say no... it's Jonathan Ross! And my fellow guests were to be Tom Cruise, the divine actors from Downton Abbey, and the ace In-Betweeners boys. So I got to writing. Being Christmas, I thought it would be fun to do a song about Jesus, but being TV, I knew it would have to be gentle. The idea was to compare him to Woody Allen (short, Jewish, philosophical, a bit hesitant), and expand into redefining his other alleged attributes using modern, popular-culture terminology. It's not a particularly original idea, I admit, but it's quite cute. It's certainly not very contentious, but even so, compliance people and producers and lawyers all checked my lyrics long before the cameras rolled. As always with these bespoke writing jobs, I was really stressed for about 3 days, and almost chucked it in the bin 5 times, and freaked out that it wasn't funny and all that boring shit that people like me go through when we're lucky enough to have with a big audience with high expectations. And if I'm honest, it ain't a world-changing bit of comedy. Regardless... On Tuesday night last week, we taped the show. I met Tom (he's nice and quite laid-back off camera, and not very short) and the divine Downton ladies (swoon) and the lovely In-Betweeners chaps (yay) and I did my song and everyone laughed and Tom said it was great and when it was done I ran off set onto the back of a waiting motorbike, got from South Bank to the Hammersmith Apollo in 13 minutes, walked into the building, straight on to stage to sing White Wine in the Sun with Professor Brian Cox. Rock n roll. Subsequently, Suzi and her team edited the show and everybody was happy. Suzi felt it had a nice balance of big-ticket celeb action, local talent, and a nice bit of that cheeky, iconoclastic spirit for which Jonathan is known and widely loved. And then someone got nervous and sent the tape to ITV's director of television, Peter Fincham. And Peter Fincham demanded that I be cut from the show. He did this because he's scared of the ranty, shit-stirring, right-wing press, and of the small minority of Brits who believe they have a right to go through life protected from anything that challenges them in any way.  Yesterday I wrote a big rant about comedy and risk and conservatism; about the fact that my joke has no victim; about sacredness (oh God, not again!) and about the importance of laughing at dumb but pervasive ideas. But I trashed it because it's boring and takes it all too seriously. It's hardly the end of the world. But I have to admit I'm really fucking disappointed. It's 2011. The appropriate reaction to people who think Jesus is a supernatural being is mild embarrassment, sighing tolerance and patient education. And anger when they're being bigots.  Oh, and satire. There's always satire. Anywaaaaaaaaaay... the fun news is that I already had the footage of the song when they cut it. Yay. And so you can decide for yourself how offensive it is! Yippee. I hope you enjoy my silly, harmless, accurate song of praise, "Woody Allen Jesus". And I hope you all have wonderful Christmases.

Comedy superstar (and rationalist) Tim Minchin was supposed to be on The Jonathan Ross Show this week. He'd even written a brand new song for it, as he explains on his blog:

"Being Christmas, I thought it would be fun to do a song about Jesus, but being TV, I knew it would have to be gentle. The idea was to compare him to Woody Allen (short, Jewish, philosophical, a bit hesitant), and expand into redefining his other alleged attributes using modern, popular-culture terminology."

The recording went ahead as planned last Tuesday, everyone involved enjoyed it, and Tim even managed to finish in time to shoot off to the Hammersmith Apollo to join Brian Cox on stage at Robin Ince's Uncaged Monkeys show. But when the show airs tomorrow night, Tim will be nowhere to be seen:

"Subsequently, Suzi [the show's producer] and her team edited the show and everybody was happy. Suzi felt it had a nice balance of big-ticket celeb action, local talent, and a nice bit of that cheeky, iconoclastic spirit for which Jonathan is known and widely loved. And then someone got nervous and sent the tape to ITV’s director of television, Peter Fincham. And Peter Fincham demanded that I be cut from the show. He did this because he’s scared of the ranty, shit-stirring, right-wing press, and of the small minority of Brits who believe they have a right to go through life protected from anything that challenges them in any way."

Fortunately, Tim already had the footage, and he's uploaded it to YouTube for people to judge for themselves. If you ask us, it's hard to imagine how the edifice of Christianity could have remained standing had the sensitive ears of Christian ITV viewers not been spared this gently blasphemous comedy number.

This month, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) introduced H. Res. 489, “Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected for use by those who celebrate Christmas.” Personally I was unaware that Christmas was in a position in need of protection, but of course it is that time of year when the Religious Right launches an endless stream of rhetoric on the “War on Christmas.”

The resolution, currently with 55 total cosponsors, states that the House “(1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas; (2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and (3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions by those who celebrate Christmas.” At Americans United, we of course agree with these statements taken on their own as well. We strongly advocate for free speech by all individuals and respect the rights of religious people throughout the country. These rights, especially of those practicing popular and majority religions however, are clearly under no threat and claims to the contrary are just blatantly untrue. When the White House is filled with Christmas trees, parades and pageants are taking place across the nation, and the U.S. Senate engages in Secret Santa exchanges, who can fairly say Christmas is being repressed?

We all know that the point of the bill, in reality, is once again to publicly assert the piety of these members and falsely claim that church-state separation is anti-religious. To the contrary, the separation of church and state ensures we can all celebrate any religious holidays important to us, and we don’t need the help of the government to do so.

The government (or in this case the House of Representatives) asserting the importance of Christmas would clearly be endorsing these particular religious beliefs above others. The realthreats to religious freedom at this time of year are in fact often coming from the very people claiming to be victims of “anti-Christmas” sentiment.

Just like the “Reaffirming ‘In God We Trust’” resolution passed last month, this bill is political pandering at its worst and quite simply, a waste of time. Congress should focus on regaining the respect of the American people by dealing with real issues, not by showing off their faith.

A sign reading “Have a safe holiday season,” donated by American Atheists and sponsored by Travis M*A*S*H (an atheist group), can now be seen at the Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California: (see above.)

Staff Sergeant Dan Rawlings had to fight to get that sign up there, despite there already being a Nativity Scene and a Jewish Menorah on the premises. And a day hadn’t even gone by before someone tampered with the setup, moving the light illuminating the atheist message so that it lit up the sign next to it.

(Because, apparently, telling people to have a safe holiday season is blasphemous…)

One other interesting point: California Church IMPACT, “the legislative advocacy arm of the California Council of Churches,” is mad about the displays. Not at the atheists, but at military officials.

Why? Because they’re placing the Nativity Scene alongside displays from non-Christian faiths:

The Nativity is a key symbol for the Christian community. Submerged into a putative “secular holiday display” and surrounded it with generic, not religious, icons, means that the Nativity has become no more valuable than Rudolph as part of Christmas.

…

We do not wish to relinquish the Nativity as something meaningful to us as a specifically religious symbol. It is not décor, it is not a designer motif, it is not a greeting card image, and it should not become a political football. It is important to a lot of us as a critical part of our faith.

Paraphrased: Why are you not giving us more privilege? Don’t you know that we’reChristians, dammit?!