London, England - Christmas should only be celebrated in Britain if other religious festivals are marked as well, according to one of the Prime Minister's favourite think tanks.
The Institute of Public Policy Research claims in a controversial report that "even-handedness" means minority cultures and traditions should be publicly recognised as well as events in the Christian calendar.
The organisation has come up with a range of ideas to make Britain more multi-cultural, and claims as many barriers to "national culture" as possible should be dismantled to help immigrants settling into the country Britain should dismantle.
Its report, which is due to be published in the next few weeks, says: "If we are going to continue to mark Christmas - and it would be very hard to expunge it from our national life even if we wanted to - then public organisations should mark other major religious festivals too.
"Even-handedness dictates that we provide public recognition to minority cultures and traditions."
Yesterday the idea that Christmas should be banned was branded as "ludicrous".
Ann Widdecombe, Tory MP for Maidstone and the Weald, said: "They are completely ignoring the fact that there is an established church in this country.
"Christmas is a major Christian festival and this would certainly not be a popular move."
John Midgley, co-founder of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, added: "If they are suggesting that we will be getting more community cohesion if you stop celebrating Christmas in this country then they must be off their political correct heads.
"No-one has any problem with other faiths marking their own festivals so there is no reason why we should remove this hugely important date from our diaries."
Last year it emerged that three out of four employers were not putting up Christmas decorations in the workplace for fear of offending staff of other cultures.
More than half had also outlawed baubles as they were deemed to be a breach of health and safety regulations.