Holyoke’s Tree-Naming Flap Recalls Boston’s Past Tannenbaum Troubles
As opposing factions marshall forces for the annual War on Christmas, we know which side Holyoke City Councilor Daniel B. Bresnahan is on: The Springfield Republican reported last week that the councilor wants the tree outside of Holyoke City Hall to be officially referred to as a Christmas Tree, and nothing else.
His order to Holyoke’s Ordinance Committe asks “that the City of Holyoke adopt an ordinance in recognizing the term Christmas Tree and not Holiday tree for our annual lighting of a tree at City Hall used during the Christmas season, and placed in front of the Holyoke City Hall.’’
Calls from vigilant citizens regarding an event listing on the city website that referred to “The tree at City Hall,’’ lacking any mention of the Christmas holiday, may have sparked Bresnahan’s proposal. Predictably, people have a lotoffeelings about the issue.
Here in Boston, we’re no strangers to debating fairly inconsequential ordinances, and this one in particular is reminiscent of our city’s own struggles with what to call our tree. Back in 2005, as cities all over the nation considered dropping references to the Christian holiday to make celebrations seem more inclusive to other religions, USA Today noted that “perhaps the most heated debate is brewing in Boston.’’
As in the current Holyoke case, a website failed to call Boston’s tree a “Christmas Tree,’’ and people were up in arms about it. O, Tannenbaum, how history repeats itself.
The Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby laid out the series of events in a Nov. 2005 column:
When a commotion erupted over the fact that the 48-foot white spruce installed on the Boston Common — an annual gift from the people of Nova Scotia — is identified on Boston’s official website as a ‘’holiday tree,’’ the city’s commissioner of parks and recreation sided firmly with the critics. ‘’This is a Christmas tree,’’ Antonia Pollak declared. ‘’It’s definitely a Christmas tree.’’
At least that’s what she told the Boston press. According to CBC News, on the other hand, she took a rather different line with the Canadian press: ‘’A lot of people celebrate various religious holidays but also enjoy the lights, and we’re trying to be inclusive.’’
Cue lawsuit threats from the “Friend or Foe’’ Christmas Campaign, which was an actual thing led by televangelist Jerry Falwell and his Liberty Counsel.
From a Nov. 2005 ABC News article:
When the Rev. Jerry Falwell heard about the Boston tree, he and a group of 700 Christian lawyers, affiliated with the conservative civil liberties group Alliance Defense Fund, threatened to sue.
“Anyone who does not acknowledge that this secularization is in progress and that Christmas is under assault is not being honest or is under-informed,’’ Falwell said.
Donnie Hatt, the Nova Scotian logger who chopped down the tree, also weighed in, saying “Boston should just put ‘Return to Sender’ on it because we sent it as a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree,’’ and that, had he known we’d get all PC about it, he would have thrown it through the chipper.
Mayor Menino had the final say. The Boston Globe quoted Menino as saying “I grew up with a Christmas tree, I’m going to stay with a Christmas tree … I don’t need Jerry Falwell or anybody else to tell me it’s a Christmas tree.’’
Nevertheless, Falwell claimed victory in a post that claimed Boston officials caved under pressure from his campaign. “When we show up, by God’s grace, we win,’’ the post read–and it seems Falwell was right, considering the outcomes of similar tree-naming debacles.
That same year, the tree at the U.S. Capitol building was re-established as the “Capitol Christmas Tree’’ after years of being known as the “Holiday Tree,’’ on orders from then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made sure California’s tree was called a “Christmas tree’’ in 2004; Similar decisions were made in Michigan in 2006 and Wisconsin in 2007. And here in Massachusetts, in Chicopee in 2012, the City Council passed a resolution requiring their tree to be called a Christmas tree after a “Holiday Tree Lighting’’ had been advertised. Rhode Island, the outlier, had a “holiday tree’’ for years under Governor Lincoln Chafee—but in a slightly hostile interview he gave to right-leaning outlet CNSNews.com in 2012, it’s evident that his decision wasn’t popular with everyone.
If historical precedent holds, Holyoke will have a Christmas tree again this year. The Ordinance Committee will decide whether or not to pass the order on Tuesday.
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