The holiday season has begun, and every year it is called into question whether or not one should be politically correct with their holiday greetings or stick with the old “Merry Christmas!” For Longwood University, this can be a rather heated debate. Every year around this time, the lighting of the annual holiday tree takes place, but not too long ago, it wasn’t a holiday tree. It was a Christmas tree.
There are a lot of people who think that it should still be referred to as a Christmas tree, which makes sense. It was a tradition that many people cared about, but it was a misnamed tradition.
During the holiday season, after Thanksgiving, there are a number of holidays that are celebrated in the U.S. including but not limited to Kwanza, Hanukkah and the winter solstice. Over time, the racial and religious demographic of the U.S. is becoming more and more diverse, which leads to individual communities becoming more diverse as well. With more and more diversity within our community, we need to make changes to make other feel welcome as well.
Obviously, it makes sense within a Christian household to refer to the tree as a Christmas tree, but in an environment like Longwood with a variety of students all with different beliefs, having the tradition of lighting a Christmas tree seems to ignore all other faiths. Renaming it the Holiday Tree was a way of keeping the tradition while becoming more inclusive to students who don’t celebrate Christmas.
At the same time, changing the name was not meant to disregard those with a Christian background. To the contrary, the very fact that we’ve kept the tree is a hat’s off to those who celebrate Christmas because that’s where the original tradition came from. We’re just trying to acknowledge others as well.
Also, the celebration of our winter holidays with a tree is not solely a Christian tradition and never has been. In fact, this tradition started when German pagans worshipped an evergreen tree. Egyptians, ancient Chinese and Hebrews also worshipped evergreen trees because they believed it symbolized eternal life. It wasn’t until the renaissance when Christians began to use the evergreen trees during their holiday celebrations.
During conversations with other people, if you know someone is Christian, it is perfectly acceptable to wish them a “merry Christmas.” Conversely, if you know they aren’t Christian, it is more considerate to wish them a “happy holidays.” However, when it comes down to Longwood’s Holiday Tree, we have to take into account everyone on campus’ belief systems and not attempt to impose our own upon them. The name will stay the Holiday Tree, not with the intention of upsetting anyone, but so that everyone on campus feels welcome in celebrating, not just certain students.
