Opinion: "Missing the Forest for the Christmas Tree"

December 2, 2005

Source: TomPaine.com

http://www.tompaine.com/print/missing_the_forest_for_the_xmas_tree.php

On December 2, 2005 TomPaine.com ran an opinion piece by Alexandra Walker, a writer for TomPaine.common sense, a progressive website. "Gasp. I’m finding myself agreeing with conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby. And Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. From Boston to Capitol Hill , conservatives are a-flutter about whether evergreen trees erected in public spaces should be called 'holiday trees' or 'Christmas trees.' They are adamant that these fixtures of the season be declared 'Christmas trees.' And I agree. Where [I] part company is the conservatives’ insistence that calling a decorated evergreen a 'holiday tree' is somehow anti-Christian. On the contrary. It unwittingly promotes the dominance of Christianity because it denies the reality that other religious and cultural groups also have holidays in December and these evergreen trees strewn with ornaments do not represent them. The well-meaning but misguided efforts by public officials to call an evergreen tree a 'holiday tree' are tantamount to declaring Christmas the nation’s official winter religious celebration—which is what right-wing Christians want. We all know the evergreen tree is associated with Christmas... The real debate we should be having is whether Christmas trees belong in public at all, not whether they should be called Christmas trees or holiday trees. Dancing around the issue by playing with the name of the tree is plain disrespectful to Americans of other religions, and to those who don’t believe in any religion at all."