School headteacher asks students not to send out Christmas cards to save the environment, parents slam him for ruining the 'holiday spirit'
A school headteacher has been slammed by parents for "rank hypocrisy" after he banned pupils from sending out Christmas cards this year to help the environment. Jonathan Mason, the head of the Belton Lane Primary School in Grantham, Lincolnshire, announced the move in a letter sent out to 275 parents where he also explained he had gotten the idea from some of his students, according to the Daily Mail.
"I have been approached by a number of children recently who are concerned about the impact of sending Christmas cards on the environment," he wrote in the highly-controversial letter. "Throughout the world, we send enough Christmas cards that if we placed them alongside each other, they'd cover the world's circumference 500 times. The manufacture of Christmas cards is contributing to our ever-growing carbon emissions."
"So in order to be an environmentally friendly in school, we will not be having a post box for Christmas cards from this year onwards," he continued. "Instead, can we encourage you to save money and the environment by not sending cards to all of the children in the class individually, but instead if you want to send a card please send one card to the whole class."
Parents, however, were not pleased with the ban, stating that it was ruining the "Christmas spirit" and pointing out that the Christmas cards sent out every year were recyclable and not as harmful to the environment as he presented it to be.
"Telling people to stop sending cards in a letter sent out to hundreds of kids stinks of rank hypocrisy," one parent said. "I hope parents boycott these Grinch-like plans and keep this tradition alive by sending lots of cards to their little pals."
"They are mostly recyclable anyway," the parent continued. "I agree that environmental issues are important but I don't see recyclable Christmas cards as a massive contributor to these problem."
"Why should children have the joy of taken out of Christmas?" another parent questioned. "Why can't all these cards be recycled anyway? And I buy a lot of Christmas cards for charity. Where is all the Christmas spirit in this?"
"It's great to see them come out of school with their cards and a smile on their faces. It's a Christmas tradition they have had for a long time and now they are taking it away. I know we have to protect the environment, but these are a few Christmas cards once a year and to be told about this on a piece of paper seems contradictory."
Mason has not yet responded to the furor surrounding his announcement.