Dad Weighs In on National Christmas Tree Lighting

All of you out there still worrying that President Barack Obama is a secret Muslim, rest easy: despite online rumors that the National Christmas Tree displayed on the ellipse in front of the White House would be called (gasp!) the National Holiday Tree this year, it just isn't true. The National Christmas Tree will be lit in a dazzling display Thursday night, while the first family, singers Sheryl Crow and Ray LaMontagne, rapper Common and, of course, a national television audience, look on in awe.

Though the tree's name may be safe from any griping about political correctness (it has been referred to as the National Christmas Tree since its debut during President Calvin Coolidge's administration, and its first lighting in 1923 used 2,500 electric bulbs), a recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows that while the majority of people polled (72 percent) prefer to wish a "Merry Christmas" this time of year, 22 percent choose that old secular favorite, "Happy holidays," instead.


In an attempt to sort out what's what on the issue, and to figure out what festive greeting I should be using this year, I did what all great leaders do. I consulted an interfaith team of advisers -- who just so happen to be my blood relations and drinking buddies.

My friend Jeanne, 23, is a graduate of Wellesley College, attends graduate school at Boston University and grew up near New Orleans. She told me that she and her family celebrate Christmas, but she prefers to say "Happy holidays."

"I try to be culturally sensitive," she said. "I don't want to offend anyone, and I'd feel uncomfortable saying merry Christmas to someone I didn't know."

Her Louisiana upbringing was very Catholic, and the religious aspect was an important part of the holiday season.

"It was a big part of my upbringing, where now it's more about time off and time with family, rather than a time of Christmas as a Christian experience," she said.

One check firmly ticked in the "Happy holidays" box, I next turned to my friend Jason, 23, for his opinion. Jason is Jewish, graduated from Boston University and grew up in New York.

"I don't like the phrase 'Happy holidays,''' he said. "It sucks. It just feels like that's the politically correct way to say it and it feels forced and awkward. Speaking for the Chosen People here, I gotta be honest with you."

Jason said he had no problem with Obama having a Christmas tree. "If he celebrates Christmas, just call it a Christmas tree. We're not fooling anyone here," he said, though he did have some serious concerns about the myth that Hanukkah presented eight nights full of loot.

"In my family, it kinda peters out right around night three," he said.

Updated winter greeting tally: one for "Happy holidays," one for telling it like it is. There was only one person who could cast the tie-breaking vote in this debate: my dad.

My dad, Bryan, told me when I was young that he was older than dirt. I stand by my believe that dirt is currently slightly younger than 48 years old. My dad is active as an elder at his Presbyterian church, though he isn't the typical straight-laced figure many imagine elders to be.

When asked whether he favored politically correct, all-inclusive winter greetings or the traditional nod to Christmas, he said, "I can't make a statement about political correctness without swearing. It's all a bunch of [expletive removed]. Sometimes a Christmas tree is just a Christmas tree."

My father, great sage that he is, said that the holiday decorations at the White House should reflect whatever religion the president and his family practice, because trying to please all religious groups would result in disaster, with an aluminum Festivus pole stuck right in the middle of it all.

"It's one thing to be sensitive to other beliefs," he said, "but it's a whole other thing to be ridiculously correct. Somebody will always figure out a reason that you're incorrect in your correctness."

Besides all those wise words about the dangers of political correctness, what is Daddy Dearest's chosen holiday greeting?

"I say 'Merry Christmas,' because that's what I celebrate," he said.

Though there were only three members on my Holiday Greeting Advisory Panel, leaving the results of my study unclear, I am confident recommending that you use the greeting of your choice, secular or not, in these last few weeks before December 25 arrives. Convene a panel of your own while you're at it -- if we can't gather with family and friends this time of year for some good-natured fun, we've really lost the spirit of the season.