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December's arrival is usually greeted with pleasure - it may be the start of winter, but it also heralds Christmas, the end of the year, and the start of a new year. Thanks to Christmas and the New Year, the latter half of December is usually taken up with shopping and parties.

Christmas remains Britain's main holiday, however Christianity's waning influence means that the traditional belief of Christmas - celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ - is no longer widely held.

The 2001 national census found that 74% considered themselves Christians, however only 7% of these went to church regularly (the Archbishop of York, David Hope recently said: "I'd be a bit hard pushed to say we were a Christian country."). Two-thirds of London's primary schools no longer hold nativity plays or carols - these are deemed "inappropriate" as many pupils are non-Christians.

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