1. The Rev Dr Paul Chamberlain appears to have had a rush of blood to the head when he was asked recently to give a talk to his local primary school about the birth of Jesus, according to this piece from The Times Vicar’s Santa sermon ‘ruins Christmas’ for sobbing school pupils https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/vicar-apologises-telling-children-santa-not-real-6js2w7v70 (Let me know if you can’t access the article and I’ll send you a PDF.)

2. Still on the Santa theme, one pro and one con from The Conversation on telling kids the truth about Christmas:

The case for lying to kids about Santa – from a philosopher by Tom Whyman from Liverpool University https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-lying-to-kids-about-santa-from-a-philosopher-245484

Our culture expects parents, basically, to lie to our children that their presents were left by a jolly fat man who flies in a sleigh pulled by reindeer through the sky. And so of course one might ask, is this OK? We all surely want our children to grow up to be honest people. Shouldn’t we set a good example, as far as possible, by telling them the truth?

Why you shouldn’t lie to your children about Father Christmas, according to philosophers by Joseph Millum from St Andrew’s University https://theconversation.com/why-you-shouldnt-lie-to-your-children-about-father-christmas-according-to-philosophers-245070

For many children, the winter holidays centre on a lie. They’re told that every Christmas Eve, a jolly, elderly man visits all the children in the world. He pops down the chimney, leaves gifts (at least for well-behaved children) and then disappears unseen. Meanwhile, parents everywhere raise their children to be honest and fret if they start telling lies.

3. Nothing at all to do with Santa, Next Generation UK 2024 is a comprehensive report from the British Council on the aspirations, challenges, and global outlook of 3,084 young people aged 18-30 from the four UK nations: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Also includes four short videos that would work well as the basis of a class discussion with older pupils https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-insight/next-generation-uk-2024 PDF below.

Similar reports from a number of other countries round the world, including most recently Bangladesh, Iraq, Sudan, Albania, Pakistan and Indonesia, can be found here https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-and-insight-terms/research-series

4. A piece in The Times of India by my erstwhile colleague (and cricket & whisky aficionado), Debanjan Chakrabarti, The freedom of multilingualism https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/the-freedom-of-multilingualism/

India’s Constitution recognises this multilingualism and celebrates it through various official measures. We have two official languages, Hindi and English, and 22 languages feature in the eighth schedule of the Constitution, up from only 14 in 1950. Fifteen languages and their scripts feature on the Indian currency note. Recently, Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali were conferred the status of classical languages. These steps underscore the importance languages play in India as markers of identity and how critical they are to human dignity, rights and self-esteem. The landmark National Education Policy 2020 has now put mother tongue based multilingual education at the heart of India’s school, college and university system.

5. And, finally, The Color of Memory, an illustrated essay by Grace Linden for The Public Domain Review about Albert Kahn’s ‘Archives of the Planet’, more than 72,000 autochrome (early colour) photos from the first half of the twentieth century https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/albert-kahns-archives-of-the-planet/

Free to read, but The Public Domain Review is fundraising at present, just in case you have some cash to spare …