SPECIAL COMMENTARY

Who’s Afraid of Merry Christmas?

by Dennis Reeves Cooper

When you put up your tree this year, and decorate it and put presents under it, what are you going to call it? “Holiday Tree,” perhaps? Or maybe, simply, your “House Tree?” It’s a Christmas Tree, of course, and that’s what most people call it.

So why, then, are Key West city officials calling the big tree that they’re putting up in Bayview Park the “Key West City Tree?” And why are they calling the annual Christmas Parade the “Holiday Parade?”

Are these same politically correct officials also going to ban city employees from putting up Christmas decorations in their offices or order them not to call out “Merry Christmas!” when they pass each other in the hallways at city hall? A press release we received last week from the city announced that the lighting of the “City Tree” will take place this coming Monday, December 1, at 6pm. And, according to the release, “Santa is flying in from the North Pole for the event.”

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve believed in Santa Claus, but I do seem to recall that Santa flew around on Christmas Eve bringing presents to good little boys and girls. And he put them under the, gasp, Christmas Tree— not some cockamamie Holiday Tree or City Tree!

Students from Key West High School will provide music for the tree lighting. We have to wonder, however: Have they been ordered not to perform any Christmas songs?

We are also told that the city’s “Holiday Parade” will roll down Duval Street on the evening of Saturday, December 6. And how much do you want to bet that the last float in that parade will be carrying Santa Claus, who is— hello!— a symbol of Christmas!

And, of course, the city’s “Holiday Festival” is the following afternoon, Sunday, December 7, in Bayview Park. Will we also have to pretend that this doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas either?

Here’s our message to our city fathers and mothers: Either decide if the city government is going to celebrate Christmas or not. But if you make the decision that the holiday will be celebrated— like closing city offices on December 25 and putting up a tree and hosting a parade, have the courage to call it what it is: Christmas!

Return to Main Page

Comments

[fly]

MERRY CHRISTMAS, LET'S HAVE A CHRISTMAS PARADE. IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS.