A recent survey has suggested that only one in five schools are planning to hold a traditional Christmas nativity play this year.

According to the Sunday Telegraph a number of schools are replacing traditional productions with a more secular version or with reinterpretations of Christmas stories. In many cases schools have decided to do nothing at all.

The survey's findings add to existing concerns among Christians of a campaign by secularists and the politically correct to push Christianity out of the public square for fear of offending the sensibilities of people who are either non-Christian or have no faith.

Last year, the Christian Muslim Forum sent out a letter to local councils in which it stressed that Christmas did not cause offence to minority faiths while banning it would offend most of the population.

The letter was a reaction to an alleged attempt by Birmingham City Council to re-name the festive celebrations 'Winterval' and allegations that Luton was trying to re-fashion Christmas as a winter Harry Potter festival by changing the name of its lights to 'Luminos'.

"There seems to be a secularising agenda which fails to understand the concerns of religious communities," the Christian Muslim Forum wrote.

"The approach of some is to exclude mention of any specific religious event or celebration in order to avoid offending anyone. The usual result of such a policy ends up offending most of the population."

The group added that any attempt to replace Christmas with secular alternatives would only make more trouble for Muslims.

"Any repetition of public bodies and local authorities renaming Christmas, so as not to offend other faith communities, will tend, as in the past, to backfire badly on the Muslim community in particular," the letter stated.

'Sadly we have seen it is they who get the blame - and for something they are not saying."

Last year, an 74 per cent of employers banned Christmas decorations in their work places.