Just how secularized have public schools become compared to years past?

I’ve been out of high school for 12 years, so a lot of things have changed since I’ve been in school. The addition of metal detectors in most local high schools, for example.

I was always in choir, and we had our annual Christmas concert, which included lots of traditional Christmas songs, singing about Jesus and Mary and Joseph and whatnot. We usually included a handful of Hanukkah songs, because I went to a predominantly Jewish school… but, that was pretty run of the mill, every year.

I just got back from my kids’ choir concert at their new school, and I was blown away by how non-Christmas it was. They started off with 3 songs about patriotism and America, then they went to “Christmas” songs, but all of the lyrics had been changed to school and winter themed stuff, and lots of references to winter break. It was really cute and the kids seemed to love it… but I was caught off guard. This is probably the first time I’ve ever witnessed a public school holiday presentation with absolutely no references to religion.

Is this the norm now?