Every year without fail there are stories about how councils/shops/charities and even houses are told to remove christmas decorations in the event it will "offend  people of different religions." These events are usually followed up by comments or half baked boycotts that follow the old chestnut "This is a christian country!" or "If they don't like it they should go home." In fact this has been repeated over 300 times since 1998, and many of these stories are simply ones from years ago rehashed.

The latest example comes from the British Red Cross. Although the original story appeared here in 2002, the East Anglia Division of the English Defence league posted it up on their blog (to avoid being responsible for direct linking to them I'm not posting it up) yesterday which has re-ignited this already debunked myth.

Last year the Red Cross also published an article (now updated) on their website which is reproduced below in full.

As the festive season approaches, this story is once again being circulated through social media and on various other websites. We would write something new, but the situation is really no different from last year, except that the story is now clearly dated 2002 on the Daily Mail’s website. To reiterate: this story is now nine years old. Many of our shops and offices are decked out in Christmas decorations, and our online Christmas gift shop is open for business. We have in no way “banned Christmas” nor have we discussed doing so. We apologise for any upset or distress caused to supporters who have come across these allegations, but they are simply not accurate and we have gone to some lengths to ensure the correct information is easily available.

It is true that we are not a political or religious organisation, for the reasons described in the post below relating to the Red Cross’ unique role and neutrality, which help us save lives all over the world. This has been the case since the British Red Cross was established in 1870. But nor are we an atheistic or humanist organisation – people who work and volunteer for us represent all faiths and none and we have always enthusiastically fostered a culture of mutual respect on such matters.

Yesterday, we started getting some comments on our Facebook page from people angry with us for ‘banning Christmas’, which we haven’t, and the story now seems to be spreading on some American websites.

It turns out that these people have stumbled across an article that appeared in the Daily Mail in 2002 and now forms part of the paper’s online archive. Unfortunately, the article isn’t dated on the Mail’s site, which had led some people to believe this was a current news story – although references in it to Sangatte, the Calais refugee camp that closed in 2002, do serve to date it. We denied the gist of the piece strongly at the time.

Christmas is a major UK holiday and time of celebration, which is shared by people of all faiths and those of no faith. Many of our shops and offices are decked out in festive decorations around this time of year – we also sell a range of Christmas cards and gifts in our shops, both high street and online.

It’s true that you won’t find explicitly religious items or displays, relating to any faith, in any of our shops, at Christmas or any other time. But this certainly doesn’t amount to a ban on us celebrating or mentioning Christmas, or any other holiday. And it’s absolutely nothing to do with “offending non-Christians” or to serve any other sort of politically correct agenda.

The point is that the Red Cross is not a political or religious organisation. This neutrality is one of our fundamental principles and governs everything we do in the whole Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. It means that we can reach and help people in need, whoever and wherever they are. Often we provide help in countries that other organisations cannot or will not work in.

We cross front lines in times of war to help conflict victims and visit prisoners of war on both sides. We can only do this life-saving work because we are understood to be a completely neutral, independent organisation. Put simply, our neutrality saves lives.

We can’t let people in need down by compromising our neutrality. That is why we do not align ourselves with any particular political cause or religious creed anywhere in the world. And that’s why we don’t have any items of a religious nature in our shops.

A nativity scene in a shop in Kent might seem like it has nothing to do with our sensitive, precarious work in a war zone in Africa or the Middle East. But in a world where information travels quickly and pervasively – a world where an eight-year-old news story is still raising questions with our supporters – we have to make sure we act consistently across the board with regard to our neutrality.

We wish all our supporters a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

So there you have it. The Red Cross has never or will be the Grinch.

As the next few weeks go on there will be more of these. And we at USoB aim to keep them here and also put the correct version out there. So when Christmas 2012 comes along we'll have the truth here ready, and waiting.