It is becoming more and more common around America to call a Christmas tree in the public square a ‘Holiday Tree’ under the mistaken impression that it is now ‘unconstitutional’ to use the word ‘Christmas.’ However that is really not the case. In reality references to Christmas and even displays on public property are legal as long as the same space is open to representations of all of the other holiday celebrations during this time of the year.

I really do think that it is ridiculous to call a Christmas tree a ‘Holiday Tree’ instead. Everyone knows what it really is and it is part of the cultural celebration of the Christian holiday and not religious at all. In fact some serious Christians do not even have the trees in their own homes for religious reasons, believing that they are vestiges of past pagan holiday celebrations. I do not share their concerns but many Christians around the world do particularly among protestant believers in Latin America.

Here’s an article from Blaze about a school district which tried to censor the use of the word ‘Christmas’ along with the response from a religious rights legal firm:

A conservative legal firm fired off a letter to a New Hampshire public school district after the superintendent decided that the term “Christmas tree” needed to be changed to “holiday tree” on fliers advertising a local tree lighting ceremony.

The Alliance Defending Freedom’s letter to New Hampshire School Administrative Unit 29 in Keene, New Hampshire, explained that the use of “Christmas” — from the firm’s perspective — is not illegal and that a ban on it is patently unconstitutional.

“Calling Christmas trees what they are is not unconstitutional,” wrote attorney Jeremy Tedesco. “But it is unconstitutional to censor private speech simply because it is religious in nature.”

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