Mary Ann Spoto
Writer
Star Ledger of NJ


In Re: “Holiday tree farms get the ax”

Dear Ms. Spoto,

You write an article in Saturday’s edition of the Star Ledger titled “Holiday Tree Farms Get the Ax”.
What exactly is a “Holiday” Tree as I can’t seem to find the definition of it anywhere? I am much more familiar with the historically accurate term “Christmas Tree” and I believe you are as well as in the body of your article you go on to use the proper name Christmas Tree.
I do find some creation of the “holiday tree” in the mid-1990s but there is no history before that. The modern Christmas Tree dates back over 1,300 years[1] by comparison. The obvious concomitance of a Christmas Tree and Christmas Day is not one easily broken by fads of the day. Until the critics of proper noun “Christmas Tree” are able to change the name of Christmas Day to some other bland term, like simply “holiday”, the Christmas Tree will outlive these efforts.
While it may seem politically correct for some reason to try a new trend in changing the name of a Christmas Tree – you are fighting a centuries old tradition and one can only hope that the pro-“holiday tree” crowd will give up their ax and focus on celebrating Christmas Day –and all of its associated traditions as people have been doing for centuries.

Regards,

Kevin Kelly
10 East 40th St.
New York NY 10016-2144

[1] It’s no surprise that the famous Christmas carol, “Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree” was translated from the German original because it was in Germany that the idea of a Christmas tree was born. It happened back in the early 700s, when St. Boniface, an English monk and missionary, was preaching a sermon on the December 25th Nativity to some Germanic Druids. In order to quell the Druids’ idolatry of the oak tree, St. Boniface cut down a huge one. As it came crashing down, it crushed every bush in its path, except for one small fir sapling. Although this was purely a coincidence, St. Boniface cleverly decided to capitalize on it – he declared it a miracle that this one single sapling hadn’t been killed, and concluded, “Let this be called the tree of the Christ Child.”
-“History of Christmas”, Gareth Marples, 2004