APEX, N.C. – School officials in Wake County, North Carolina canceled plans for school choirs to perform at the annual Apex Christmas Nativity Celebration after threat of a lawsuit from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

FFRF staff attorney Patrick Elliott told The News & Observer a parent contacted the group last year to complain about school choirs participating in the nativity event, and FFRF lawyers followed up with district officials this year when school choirs were again slated to perform.

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The website for the Apex Christmas Nativity Celebration describes the event as a “celebration of the birth and ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

“Public schools are a place for all students regardless of religious belief or non-belief,” Elliott said. “To have public schools involved in a Christian event celebrating the birth of Jesus is a problem.”

The event was scheduled for December 8, 9, and 10 with performances from community groups and local artists throughout the three days. But in a Nov. 17 email, Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore informed event organizers school choirs are now banned from performing.

“Your event has been a positive experience for our students in past years, and we are grateful for the invitation,” Moore wrote. “After continued review of this invitation under applicable legal standards, we regret to inform you that Wake County Public School students will no longer be participating in this year’s celebration.

“The principals of the invited schools have been informed and are copied n this email.”

Wake schools spokesman Tim Simmons told The News & Observer that FFRF forwarded district officials a 2014 video of the nativity event posted on YouTube that swayed their decision.

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“The advice of (district attorney) Tharrington Smith is that it put the district in the position of potentially endorsing a religious viewpoint,” Simmons said.

The YouTube video features church official Steve Bodhaine discussing the positive influence the event has in the community.

The school choirs “bring hundreds of parents and grandparents and friends who come to listen to them sing,” Bodhaine said. “And when the singing is done, these wonderful people linger.

“They walk around and they see the hundreds of nativities from all over the world and they begin to feel something sacred in their hearts,” he said. “This for us is the opportunity to share the wonder and love of the Savior.”

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Wisconsin-based FFRF, told the news site she’s glad the district severed ties with the Christmas celebration.

“It’s great that officials finally realized the dubiousness of school attendance at such an obviously religious ceremony,” Gaylor said. “It was unacceptable that public school choirs were performing at this function.”

Bodhaine – who oversees nine Mormon congregations in Wake County – told Fox News the FFRF is the first to complain about the annual nativity event.

“There has never been a single incident or concern in the past 13 years,” he said. “In fact, these schools often look forward to this because it’s such a beautiful venue to perform.”

“No one was particularly happy with the outcome of this,” Simmons told The News & Observer. “Some schools had been participating for several years.”