Children in Edinburgh may get a far shorter Christmas break in 2016 and 2017, according to the council's plan for school holidays.
But Edinburgh Council dismissed claims it was planning to slash the length of the Christmas holidays permanently.
Provisional holiday dates, seen by BBC Scotland, suggest youngsters will still get a break of about two and a half weeks next year,
But in 2016 and 2017, the holiday may be a week shorter than that.
A consultation on proposed holiday dates runs until the end of this month.
Similar pattern
Under the proposals, the last day of term in 2015 would be Friday 18 December and children would return to school on Wednesday 6 January - two and a half weeks in total.
But in session 2016-17 the holiday would run from Friday 23 December to Wednesday 4 January - about a week and a half.
Then in 2017-18 the holiday dates would be Friday 22 December to Thursday 4 January.
The council said how holidays were set depended on the day Christmas falls on, the date of Easter and local holidays.
Newspaper reports had suggested the council was planning to purposefully shorten the Christmas holiday and increase the length of the summer holiday to compensate.
School holidays are set locally by each council but often follow a similar pattern across Scotland.
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