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Deck the halls
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Although the wars over Christmas may be muted this year, it still takes a decoder ring to understand some of the fine points.
In Fort Collins, Colorado, a taskforce of civic leaders recommended the city decorate with white lights, bare garlands and secular symbols such as snowflakes. It rejected colored lights and ornamented trees as religious. Now the City Council rejected that advice. Colored lights and ornaments will still be allowed on city trees.
Earlier this fall, voters in Berkeley, Michigan rejected a proposal that would have required the city to erect a nativity scene on public land near city hall. That vote ended a controversy between the ACLU and the city that had gone on for several years. The display will now be erected on church rather than public property.
Seattle’s Seatac Airport won’t feature a Santa Claus, Christmas tree, or menorah. It display will include “handcrafted birch trees surrounded by lights in a pseudo-snowbank.” The decorating decision came after a “Holiday Decorations Advisory Committee” determined “that future decorations could include trees, fabrics and garlands so long as there were no religious ties.”
The Philadephia Inquirer reports that in Chester, Pa. members of Atheists Alliance International plan to erect a tree next to the traditional display that includes “a Chamber of Commerce tree - 32 feet high - meant to attract shoppers, as well as a Christian creche and a Jewish menorah.” The atheist tree, aka “the knowledge tree,” will be decorated with book covers: Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not a Muslim, Judaism Beyond God, and The Bible. The Bible? A spokesman said, “The reason we advocate reading the Bible…is because so many people become atheists upon completing the entire reading of it.”
In Cranston, R.I., there won’t be a life-sized nativity, menorah, inflatable snowman, or “15 flamingos in Santa Claus hats representing the Church of the Flamingos” as in past years. Instead the new mayor “opted to merely put up 50,000 white lights and a Christmas tree in the foyer of City Hall.
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Schizo
Colored lights and ornaments will still be allowed on city trees.
Colored lights? Don’t you mean lights of color?
All of these people seem to think that the traditions of Christmas have something to do with the religious aspect. i.e. the birth of Christ. As I posted elsewhere, a tree is a tree is a tree. It has nothing to do with Christmas.
A good thing might come of this. Maybe the Christian community could retreat to the basics and make Christmas a religious holiday.
And the merchants can say, “Happy Holidays” and “Season’s Greetings” as much as they want.
Our town put up new decorations this year on Main St - lighted stars and doves.
Holy days should be a form of communal worship of like believers. All-encompassing public worship is never going to work.
Some displays are gorgeous, some are sappy no matter what is being depicted. To each his own.
I have no problem with the atheist tree other than it seems to be “against” the Christmas tree. And it is unfortunate they had to use books to convey their message. I’m a word person myself, but I enjoy a good artist who can visually communicate a thought with no words. That is the atheist challenge for next year.
If the atheist tree is “against” the nativity scene/Christmas tree, isn’t the same true of the menorah? Don’t Jews and atheists both posit that Jesus Christ is not God and is not the Savior of the world?
You want to equate Jews and Atheists?
Bizarre…
Not at all Night Train. A menorah is a symbol of celebration of who the Jews are, not what Christ is not.
But the book “Why I am not a Christian” and “Why I am not a Muslim” is definitely and “against.”
Well, in most towns and cities, churches occupy prime real estate in high traffic areas. What if each church, temple, etc. erected a display, explaining the religious significance of the holidays? I think it would be a great educational experience and people would go from church to church, etc. viewing the displays. It seems like a sensible solution to all the bickering.
At some point, the only thing people will be allowed to say is “Happy Solstice” or “Happy non-gender specific winter celebration”
Anlir, that sounds like a great idea!
We have a few drive through holiday light displays in our area - they are charging on average $15/car, and IMHO, most of the decorations are corny, being candy canes and penguins and such.. Little if any religous content. But folks flock to them.
Niagara Falls, Canada, puts on a spectacular light display, including many in the Dufferin Island recreational area. Most there are nature themed, the only one that’s religious is Noah’s Ark. There’s one nativity and one menorah among the displays near the Falls. Contributions are voluntary.
But if a group of like-minded churches erected displays, think of how cool that would be! Suburban churches might make maps of a driving tour available; city churches could to walking tours if they were located close enough together.
No one could complain on some “separation of church and state” grounds of such a solution. There are ample amounts of land, viewable from high-traffic areas and roads, for displays with any religious message a group could want.
Constantly amazes me why efforts aren’t focused there, rather than each group pro and con insisting on the right to display their faith using publicly-owned land.
Oh, and for the record, I’d far rather see a religious display or two or three or six thrown in, and heck, even the atheist display, rather than yet another ginger-bread man, in the public displays. What I can’t stand is all the cry-baby bickering by groups on both sides being “offended” by a light display, or “censored” by not getting to advertise their beliefs in our common public spaces.
Do as you will on your own property, and share the public spaces politely, or shuddup about it!
I just love it when our - Holiday Decorations Advisory Committee’s - manage to figure out, in their insane little brains, that trees, garlands, lights of color (thanks Night Train) and fabric can be used in future Holiday decorations so long as do not have religious ties. I’m really OK with that.
Now what can we do for Christmas Holiday decorating again?
What a bunch of nitwits. I have yet to see anyone injured by a Christmas Tree simply by looking at one. But, I too have yet to see anyone injured simply by reading the 10 Commandments either.
Maybe it is just me, but it sure sounds like a very small (and I mean very small) minority of left wing, insane, whack jobs has co opted these issues to their liking while the vast majority of normal folks looks on in disbelief. it it time to stop looking on and take these nitwits out to the courtroom (or woodshed) for some dialogue, debate and lawyerly convincing.
Great post, Llama!
Christmas and Christ’s birth is celebrated whether the atheists, etc., like it or not -
Many people here, decorate the OUTSIDE of their homes with ‘Nativity’ - trees, windows, gates, doors, shrubs, etc.-
I wonder when the ‘NUTS’ are going to try and stop this too? Maybe they will want EQUAL TIME on our property?…..LOL
Glad to see you smile, Victoria!
Outkast, thank you SIR, and you too.
I’ve made a choice this year not to be offended. I will enjoy hearing Christmas music — secular as well as carols. I will smile at everyone I see. I will seek to share joy instead of making note of everything that doesn’t point to the true meaning of Christmas. I have realized my culture has changed from the time of my childhood. I will not choose to whine and mourn those changes. I will instead spend my time enjoying the one time a year I can hear the name of my Lord sung as I shop. I missed a lot of happiness last year as I bemoaned the “Happy Holidays” of the sales clerks. Not this year!
Victoria at 313: I wonder when the ‘NUTS’ are going to try and stop this too? Maybe they will want EQUAL TIME on our property?
See, this is where you go completely off the rails.
There is a great deal of debate over what should and shouldn’t be allowed on government-owned property. I am not aware of anyone who cares what you do on your own property.
And yet, the hysterics keep fretting about it.
Steveg - 17
I was making mention of “private property” - LOL
Chas:
Maybe the Christian community could retreat to the basics and make Christmas a religious holiday.
What a concept.