A 'Holiday Tree' Brings Out the Critics in Kentucky

Governor Calls Tree on Ky Capitol Lawn a "Holiday" Tree Instead of Christmas Tree, He Caused a Firestorm

Frankfort, Kentucky - The giant evergreen tree that will be on the lawn of the Kentucky Capitol this year won't be called a "Christmas tree". According to a news report released by the Associated Press on October 28, the Governor created a hotbed of controversy when he labeled the tree as a "holiday tree". It leaves some questioning what exactly does a "holiday tree" even mean?

According to Tom Casey a resident of Utica, Kentucky, "The governor can call the tree anything he wishes. But for those of us who believe in a 'Christmas tree' as an important part of the holiday, and are not afraid to make our true beliefs known, it is a Christmas tree!"

It is especially brought out the Christian organizations forward denouncing the Governor's choice of words by calling it a holiday tree. The Governor's office has attempted to answer the critics and quiet down the protests regarding the tree by stating that the tree was meant to be all inclusive of the holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah. But, the holiday tree controversy is not going away.

The trend began about four years ago when places such as Chicago, Reno, and Prairie Village, Kansas began calling their Christmas trees by their new politically correct name of holiday trees. In 2005, there was a heated debate in Boston, when a tree that was donated by a Nova Scotia logger and was labeled a holiday tree by the city's Parks and Recreation Department. The man who donated the tree said he would rather have fed it through a wood chipper than call it that (USA Today).

The debate actually started years before Boston's incident and has been around for awhile, it became especially heated when the Capitol Christmas tree in Washington, D.C. became the "Holiday Tree". At that time Rev. Jerry Falwell gathered a small number of Christian groups together and started a national debate about the tree's name (The Patriot Ledger).