Neocons Battle Liberals Under the 'Holiday' Tree

Americans are waging verbal warfare over whether to call trees "Christmas Trees" or "Holiday Trees." But according to this article from Italy's La Stampa newspaper, the conflict doesn't stop at naming trees – it also extends to who gets to light theirs first.

December 4, 2005

By Maurizio Molinari

Translated By Enrico Del Sero

Original Article (Italian)    

Since the 1990s, the Spruce tree erected in front of the Capital has been called the "Holiday Tree" in deference to those who are not Christian, but nevertheless take part in the year-end festivity. But this time Dennis Hastert, a Republican from Illinois and Speaker of the House, decided to write a letter to Architect [of the Capitol] Alan Hantman, who is responsible for the tree, asking him to "revive the old tradition and call it Christmas Tree."

Hastert's proposal is supported by the thesis that Fox News' John Gibson illustrated in his book "The war on Christmas," which describes a "conspiracy by liberals to put a ban on Christian sacred feasts."

It was just this motivation that led over 1,600 lawyers to volunteer to help Reverend Jerry Falwell's "Liberty Counsel" in its campaign to urge all institutions using "Holiday Trees" to change them into "Christmas Trees."

On the opposite side, Democratic think tanks like John Podesta's (former Chief of Staff to President Clinton) "Center for American Progress" want to defend the "Holiday Tree."  Podesta accused Hastert of triggering an ideological campaign while "neglecting America's poor people, as proved by a recent decision of the House to cut $50 billion from Medicaid, food stamps and student loans while spending tens of billions of dollars on tax cuts for people earning over a $1 million per year."

Salon.com, a stronghold for liberal intellectuals, hosts a strong attack by Michelle Goldberg on Falwell, Gibson and Hastert: "There is no war on Christmas. What there is, rather, is a burgeoning myth of a war on Christmas, assembled out of old reactionary tropes, urban legends, exaggerated anecdotes and increasingly organized hostility to the American Civil Liberties Union." [READ IT] The denomination "Holiday Tree" is mainly due to two things. First, the American public takes part in a series of year-end parties, with on the one hand, many people celebrating Christmas; and second, the year-end period also coincides with Hanukkah, the Jewish feast, and Kwanza, the Afro-American celebration.

The wrestling match between "Holiday Trees" and "Christmas Trees" is widely examined in newspapers and on TV, with popular Fox News' Bill O'Reilly accusing "progressive laypersons of wanting to remove Judeo-Christianity and spirituality out of the public square."

While inaugurating the festive season with all of its decorations, the White House repeatedly used the expression "Christmas Tree," just as did the average, multicultural people of New York when the impressive Spruce tree at the heart of the Rockefeller Center was first lit up. However, it wasn't the name of the tree, but the day of its inauguration that triggered a spat between Washington and New York: the White House wanted to be the first and waited for the traditional date of December 1. But Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of the Big Apple, got leaped ahead by moving up the date of the Rockefeller Center ceremony to November 30.

"Each time they ask us the date we plan to inaugurate the tree, and then they light a tree the day before," complained one of the First Lady's spokespeople.