Christmas derailed on Thomas the Tank Engine

Christmas has disappeared from a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD and been replaced by “winter holidays”.

Christmas trees have also been usurped on Little Engines Big Days Out by ‘trees with decorations’.

On the DVD narrator Michael Angelis tells viewers: “You’ll always see a tree with decorations during the winter holidays”.

Eradicate

John Midgley, of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, cautioned: “This is another example of the attempt to write Christmas out of something which is so popular with families.

“Let’s hope the makers of the DVD think hard about this.

“It’s our experience that people from other religions do not want to eradicate Christmas from holidays or write it out of our everyday language.

“We feel it is vital not to do this especially when the audience is children.”

Wipe out

The Revd Mark Johnstone, convenor of the Mission and Discipleship Council of the Church of Scotland, said: “There is a great Christian tradition in Scotland and Christmas is important as it celebrates the birth of Christ.”

And a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church commented: “It would be a great shame if political correctness were to wipe out the true meaning of Christmas for children, even to the extent of interfering in classic children’s stories.”

Thomas the Tank Engine was created by the Revd Wilbert V Awdry who first told the stories to his son Christopher.

Christmas

Hit Entertainment now owns Thomas the Tank Engine. A spokeswoman said: “The DVD is not a seasonal release and thus its content spanned more than just Christmas.

“When we do have seasonal specific releases, our focus is very much on the particular event being celebrated.”

The company said it had previously released Christmas Express and planned to follow that up with Merry Christmas Thomas.

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