Thanks, Lepus, that's the one. I guess it's just too subtle for some people.

When my daughter's public elementary school eliminated the school Christmas tree, I thought it would have been nice to instead give equal time and space to every religion represented in the school, including atheists. It certainly would have been more educational. I have just been recruited to do a presentation at my son's after-school program on pagan Yule celebrations. It's going to be very short and simple, since it is for a group of developmentally disabled kids, many with speech problems. I guess what I will emphasise is the similarities to other winter solstice customs--almost every culture and religion has them, and they usually involve light and fire. I'm actually not sure how I got fingered as the class pagan, since I was brought up Christian and my kids are Jewish, but they're not far off the mark--I participate in a lot of different religious practices, none of which include drinking blood or cursing people.

As for Harry Potter, any good spell-casting pagan would know that the magic performed in the books is fantasy--it violates the laws of nature, and you really can't do that. You can't turn someone into a frog. Actual magic is pretty much the same thing as prayer--just another format. And the generally accepted rule is that whatever you put out will come back to you threefold, so you'd better only put out good.