Who else decorates pine trees this time of year?

Last updated on: December 3, 2010 at 7:46 am by Dave Griffey

Who else decorates pine trees this time of year? 2010-12-03T07:46:00-04:00 Dave Griffey

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Could someone please tell me if anyone else decorates evergreen trees to celebrate a holiday this time of year? If not, then what in the world is a ‘Holiday Tree’? Think about it. I know there are other holidays at this time of year. Hanukkah for one. The made for order Kwanzaa. Possibly some others. But who else decorates evergreen trees? Even those wisenheimers who may want to play fast and loose with history by declaring the Christmas tree to be pagan in origin can only point to the use of the evergreen. But it’s not as if the ancient European pagans decorated them. If a neo-pagan or Druid wannabe wants to use a Yule Log, or drape their homes with mistletoe or holly, that’s fine. If they want to use the phrase ‘Holiday Holly’, go for it. Since in that case one could argue another religious tradition uses holly just as Christian do, at least there would be a reason. But who else can claim decorating an evergreen tree with lights and tinsel as their own? If there is some other tradition, I’ll gladly concede the point. But if not, isn’t it just intellectual dishonesty to call Christmas trees ‘Holiday Trees’?

Of course, that’s my biggest problem with PC censorship made to order. It is the art of demanding we call a chair a spade because it might offend ‘someone’. When I was growing up, we were told that such enforced intellectual dishonesty was a mark of a totalitarian state. That was what the Commies did. They would demand people lie about the truth just because. A free society, of course, called a spade a spade, or a Christmas tree a Christmas tree. That was one way you could spot enlightened, free nations versus those wallowing in the pits of authoritarian oppression.

For those who might try to thread a technical needle by insisting that some folks who celebrate Christmas aren’t necessarily Christian, that still doesn’t cut it. As an agnostic, I loved Christmas. But it was Christmas, and I understood the religious implications. To be told I would have to call it a ‘Winter Holdiay’, or a ‘Holiday Tree’ would have smacked of the very same truth denying that we used to accuse the USSR of, or even that some accused our own country of indulging in back before it achieved 1960s enlightenment. So intellectual dishonesty? No big deal after all? Or were those old Boomer liberals back in the day right to warn us of the dangers it poses to free societies?

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