This is very difficult for me to talk about sensibly because I’m side by side with folks like the Family Research Council and other crazy wingnuts. But I’m gonna say it and get it over with: They’re right; this secularized Christmas stuff has gone too far.
The other night on the news I saw Christine Gregoire, our gov, talking about how the tree they had in the lobby of the Capitol building is a HOLIDAY tree, but the trees in her office and her home are Christmas trees. Okay, all right, I appreciate your inclusive sentiments. But check this out, Madame Governor. A tree is a symbol of Christmas. Not of Chanukah, not of Kwanza. I couldn’t find a Hindu holiday at this time of year, nor an Islamic one. New Year? No tree. It’s a Christmas tree. You know it. I know it. Stop lying to me.
A guy named Martin Luther, only the founder of Lutheranism, a Christian faith, is credited with bringing the tree in to the home. Sure, there’s a back story tying the tree to pagan festivals, to solstice rituals, but for a good 400 years now, Christians have been decorating trees as symbols of Christmas. Of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Does it get more Christian than that?
Until the trees are decorated with Kwanzaa colored Chanukia (the technically correct name for the Chanukah menorah) and dreidls, it’s a Christmas tree. It’s inclusive only in that there’s nothing presenting people of all faiths from looking at and enjoying Christmas trees.
I confess I LIKE Christmas trees. A lot. I buy Christmas ornaments every year as gifts. I want to come to your tree decorating party, ooh and ah at your ornaments. I will bring cookies and a bottle of something festive. I will even sit and patiently untangle your strings of lights. I am pro-Christmas tree.
What I don’t like is this fast tracking the holiday to supposed secularism. My holiday at this time of year is not, as one well meaning but ill-educated Austrian friend called it, `’Jewish Christmas.`’ Kwanzaa is not |”African American Christmas.” Christmas was, when I last checked, about the birth of Jesus. The Christmas tree is a symbol of Christmas. Christmas is a holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus. Jesus is the whole reason for Christianity. It’s a Christmas tree. Get it?
I’m trying to define what it bugs me so much about this “holiday” tree business. Lord knows, I don’t want more religion in my government. It might be that this mislabeling of the tree as a “holiday” tree allows this distinctly Christian symbol of a distinctly Christian holiday to insinuate itself it to places it doesn’t really belong. Or it might just be that I have a pretty low tolerance for nonsense.
The Christian right and I disagree with what the actions should be around this lack of truth in advertising. They think that the Christian principals on which (they say) our nation was founded deserve greater recognition and inclusion in our government. (Christian principals like what? Love your neighbor? Don’t be mean? Care for the poor? Judge not? Hello? I don’t trust that this is what they have in mind.). I do agree with them on one thing, however. It’s a Christmas tree. Call it that. It’s a symbol of Christmas, a holiday that celebrates the birth of Christ. If you wouldn’t put a creche there, if you wouldn’t put a big old crucifix there, if you wouldn’t put the baby Jesus there, maybe you should think twice about putting a Christmas tree there.
Also, in case you’re wondering, there’s a decent read about what Chanukah is here.
I’m a bit behind in the news, so I didn’t realize part of the movement was to start calling them “holiday trees.” I thought some of this started with retailers deciding to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” to their customers. Now THAT I support, since it at least acknowledges that some might be celebrating something other than Christian Christmas this time of year. To be honest, I’ve never associated a Christmas tree with religion (and I was in nun prison…okay, parochial school…for 8 years). 🙂 For me, it’s always been connected to the whole Santa-down-the-chimney, fill-our-stockings thing. I just love having a tree with lights inside the house…I could care less what they call it, I guess. 🙂
I guess that’s where we differ. I DO care what it’s called. Like I said, I’m PRO-tree, I love them. They smell good, they’re pretty, I love the lights.
But it’s a Christmas tree, plain and simple, because it’s not a symbol of any tradition but Christmas.
What did you have down there in the islands? A palm? A banana? Those evergreens just don’t GROW there, do they?
The Martin Luther thing is a legend. But Christmas trees are a German tradition, another example of a pagan symbol co-opted by Christians. American and British use dates only to the 1840s when Queen Victoria (of German descent) popularized them. There are devout Christians who won’t have one in their home and who are uncomfortable with Christmas itself, as it elevates a feast day over the sabbath.