HOUSTON -- At least one mother of a northwest Harris County elementary student was not looking forward to attending a school Christmas performance after learning Christmas had been removed from the lyrics of a song, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.

Officials with the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District were not aware of the changes made to the traditional Christmas song, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," until KPRC Local 2 called Tuesday inquiring about the lyric changes.

District officials said Moore Elementary School's music director did not write the song, but chose a jazzy adaptation of the popular English Christmas carol, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," to reflect the multicultural and multiethnic performance.

The new song, titled "We Wish You A Swinging Holiday," does not mention Christmas at all.

"I thought it was horrible. I was stunned. I could not believe that they took a song like that and changed it," said the student's mother, Karen Morlock.

A spokeswoman for the district said the Christmas performance is not meant to be religious.

However, Morlock and her daughter Hayley said they don't understand why the music director chose an altered version of the song.

"I wouldn't mind singing 'Merry Christmas.' but whenever she changed it, it was like, 'Why did you do that? It's 'Christmas' not 'holiday,'" Hayley Morlock told KPRC Local 2.

Morlock said she is not upset enough to pull her daughter out of the program scheduled for Monday, but said the music director had other options.

"Do all the religions instead of just taking away the Christian part of it," Morlock said.

St. Elizebeth Anne Seton Catholic School choir director Tammy Steffen told KPRC Local 2 that singing traditional Christmas songs was not encouraged when she taught in public schools.

"There's more an emphasis in the public school to take Christ out of the center of Christmas," Steffan said.

There are countless secular holiday songs to choose from like "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," but the district's spokeswoman told KPRC Local 2 that the class concerts are age appropriate and those songs were too young for 5th-graders.