Christmas tree rant

[sonia]

They're called "Christmas" trees. Not "winter-holiday" trees or "American" trees or "decorated" trees. They are explicitly named after a major Christian festival. They are a heavily Christian symbol. For the most part, non-Christian households do not put up Christmas trees.

People gushing about how warm-n-fuzzy Christmas trees make them feel, say the trees are not Christian, they're secular. You know what else is secular? Menorahs. We lit candles on a Hanukah menorah for 8 days every year growing up, and it had very little to do with religion and definitely nothing to do with a synagogue. Does that make menorahs any less Jewish? Does that mean lots of public spaces and definitely every commercial space should have a giant menorah in it?

I understand that many Christians associate tinsel-strewn tree-corpses with happy family gatherings and receiving lots of loot. I just wish they would keep their religion's symbols in their private homes where they belong.

I loved the Shakesville quote on the topic: "I don't celebrate Christmas, okay? Or, as I like to call it: White Anglo-Saxon Winter Privilege Night." From an episode of New Girl.

This rant brought to you by the Christmas tree in the lobby of the YWCA, which is supposedly no longer a Christian organization and specifically works against oppression. I just love listening to people burble about how much they love the smell of the tree-corpse while riding the elevator to class. It's so much fun to debate whether to silently pass or remind them of my difference by saying something about wishing they didn't put Christmas trees in public spaces.

I haven't yet received a response to the (polite! respectful!) email on this topic I wrote to the anti-oppression program director.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Did they ever respond?

[sonia]

Heh, icon!

They did respond. First they said, "I'm not going to take this on." Which was disappointing, but at least straightforward. And then a year later they were including Christian privilege in their discussions, so maybe some thought occurred over time.

This was that Social Change Class I ranted about at length at the time. When the class was done I wandered away, and never did end up wandering back, partly because of fragrances.