The White House undermines the Christmas crusade — again

November 29, 2005

Considering the right’s unyielding obsession with the non-existent “war on Christmas,” it’s worth noting that the Christmas season began at the White House yesterday, but Laura Bush wasn’t on-message.

“Well, all things bright and beautiful is the theme this year. I think it will be really bright and beautiful with this fabulous tree. But thank you all very much. Happy holidays.” (emphasis added)

This follows last year’s obviously anti-Christian assault by the president himself, who, just five days before Christmas, told the White House press corps, “I wish everybody — truly wish everybody a happy holidays.”

The First Family clearly hasn’t gotten the memo. As far as conservative activists are concerned, Christians are supposed to boycott enterprises that dare to wish people “happy holidays” when they should be saying “Merry Christmas.” Indeed, according to some activists, Bush’s victory in the last presidential election was supposed to free Christians from worrying about non-Christians’ feelings in the first place.

And yet the Bushes refuse to stick to the script. Will James Dobson take this lying down?

At least the right can take solace in the decisions being made at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has told federal officials that the lighted, decorated tree on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol — known in recent years as the “Holiday Tree” — should be renamed the “Capitol Christmas Tree,” as it was called until the late 1990s. The Capitol’s senior landscape architect confirmed the name switch yesterday for The Washington Times. […]

“The speaker believes a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree, and it is as simple as that,” said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for the Illinois Republican.

Boycott the White House!

Well, I’m already doing that. Hmm.

  • I was amused to flip by Fox News a few nights ago and hear the host and his guest (don’t know who’s who on that channel) wish each other Happy Holidays. Guess they didn’t get the memo from O’Reilly.

  • Furthermore, as much as I hate to agree with Hastert, I agree that a Christmas tree should be called a Christmas tree. No other religion is really going to believe that tree is somehow partially meant to observe and/or celebrate their non-Christian religion.

    That would be like putting up a menorah and calling it the “Holiday Candle Holder” in order to include everyone and not be offensive to Gentiles.

  • Since the Christmas tree concept was borrowed from pre-Christian European tribal traditions, shouldn’t we call it a “Winter Solstice Tree”?

  • Biff,

    Yes, we should. And we should call the Easter Bunny the Spring Fertility Rite Bunny. I can just see the hallmark cards now….

  • This must be one really long “war on Christmas”. I remember seeing/saying Happy Holidays along with Merry Christmas when I was a kid 40 years ago.

    It was meant as a way to include Christmas and New Years as one greeting. I didn’t realize I was fighting a war!

  • I agree with Don, and Hastert, to an extent. There’s no point in pretending that a Christmas tree isn’t a Christmas tree. Doing so is just a convenient way to sidestep the discussion we need to have about whether the U.S. Capitol should have a Christmas tree outside of it at all. Although I fully expect my side to lose that debate should it occur, sticking our collective heads in the sand with this “Holiday Tree” nonsense does no one any good.

  • I have absolutely no problem with a christmas tree. As long as for largely celebrated non-christian holidays there are nods made to our citizens who celebrate those holidays. A menorah (holiday candle holder, perhaps?), fanoos (holiday lantern?), and other symbols of non-Christian celebrations should also be displayed at the appropriate times, especially if the times overlap.

    On another note:

    Whether procreation or crucifix,
    We hope that you aren’t feeling funny.
    ‘Cause ‘hangin’ low’ or on big thick sticks
    You will enjoy our holiday bunny.

    Happy Spring Fertility Rites and Easter.

  • This should be a rallying point, in the Rovian sense. We should all call into Rush and O’Reilly’s shows and DEMAND they denounce the President and the First Lady for their secularism.

    DEMAND!

  • Why not just say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays together. That would solve the problem … *S*

  • All the symbols of Christmas celebration are taken from pagan European traditions.

    Jesus wasn’t even born in December. They (the early Christian Church) just moved the celebration to the Winter Solstice to usurp the traditional pagan rites.

    After all, it’s one thing to take away peoples gods, it’s another to take away their party.

  • Can’t a president call the tree at his residence whatever he wants? I wouldn’t fault Lieberman for not having a tree at all, or, horrors, celebrating Jewish holidays.

    If I was president, I’d call it the Santa’s Day Secular Spruce.

  • Personally, I favor the old Roman “saturnalia” – a week of drunken carousing in preparation for the emptiness of what we call January and February when literally nothing happened. The Romans originally had no name for that period. The year began in March (the month of Mars, when the wars of conquest could begin anew). That’s why we call this November (in Latin, the ninth month), and next month December (the tenth month).

    By the way, when Laura Bush “presented” the holiday tree at the White House, she announced that this year’s “theme” (didn’t know Xma$ had a changing theme) is “All Creatures Great and Small” – the title of an old Methodist hymn, lyrics by Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895). Most of the lyrics sound almost Franciscan or even pantheistic:

    All things bright and beautiful,
    All creatures great and small,
    All things wise and wonderful,
    The Lord God made them all.

    Each little flower that opens,
    Each little bird that sings,
    He made their glowing colours,
    He made their tiny wings.

    It goes on with more verses like this – the mountains, winters, trees, water, etc. – and ends in a tribute to “God Almighty, / Who has made all things well.” You can read the whole thing here.

    What is usually left out is the third verse (second, if you count the first as a chorus):

    The rich man in his castle,
    The poor man at his gate,
    God made them, high or lowly,
    And ordered their estate.

    Nice. Division into rich and poor is just as much a part of God’s will as the flower that opens and the bird that sings. God’s in his Heaven and all’s well with the earth. It’s a shame Jesus didn’t know this. He could’ve saved himself a great deal of trouble.

  • I couldn’t believe my eyes yesterday when I saw
    Laura Bush and all those people at The White House
    on Monday and the White House “holiday” tree..
    From the way these people were dressed all in black
    I thought someone had died..For gosh sakes we
    know this is a Christmas tree. Do we really
    think people will mind if Mrs. Laura Bush and
    her friends had on just a little bit of Christmas
    red or green that day. This is suppose
    to be a fun time. I think the White
    House is going way overboard with this PC stuff.

  • Changing the name from “Christmas Tree” to “Holiday Tree”? Must have been some sort of pernicious Democratic plot… except, wasn’t it the Republicans who were in charge of the Capitol in the late 1990s when the name was changed to “holiday tree”?

    A look at the Capitol’s website shows that in 1998, the Capitol was graced with a Christmas tree, while in 1999 it was a holiday tree.

    What changed in the Capitol’s leadership between 1998 and 1999? If I recall correctly, isn’t that when Speaker Gingrich was replaced by Speaker Hastert?

    I think we have met the secular humanist, and he is Hastert.

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