PROVIDENCE—A Brown University poll released Thursday finds that more than three-quarters of Rhode Islanders surveyed prefer to call the 17-foot Colorado blue spruce gracing the rotunda of the State House a “Christmas tree,” rather than a “holiday tree”—the term used by Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
Click here for more photosWith 77 percent of those polled supporting the label of a Christmas tree, only 11 percent agree with the use of the term by the governor, who insists he is only following past practice in referring to the State House tree as a “holiday tree.” An almost equal number of respondents (12 percent) either didn’t care to offer their opinion, or wanted to call it something else.
Following widespread public criticism of the “holiday tree” label, the Diocese of Providence and St. Patrick Parish hosted a Christmas tree lighting that drew more than 350 people in the pouring rain last Tuesday evening. At the event, Bishop Tobin thanked the crowd for standing up to those who propose a secular agenda.
“Enough is enough. You may not take Christmas away from us and our community,” Bishop Tobin said.
David Williams, who along with his wife Karen, recently visited the State House to listen to their daughter Hannah, 10, and her grades four and five choir mates from North Scituate Elementary School sing “We Wish you a Merry Christmas,” and other carols of the season in front of the tree in the rotunda.
Williams strongly disagreed with the governor’s stance on the naming of the tree.
“I am disgusted that he is trying to change the name of a tree to a ‘holiday tree.’ It’s a Christmas tree and it’s the Christmas season. The governor should know better,” he said.
Karen Williams, who, like her husband, is a practicing Presbyterian, feels the controversy created over the governor’s reference to the state’s “holiday tree” detracts from the true intention of the season’s spirit of giving begun by The Three Wise Men 2,000 years ago.
“I think it takes away from who we are,” she said.
Rae-Anne Laprade, another parent of a child who was singing at the State House, believes there is a concerted effort in American society to distance itself from its
religious roots.
“Why can’t people tolerate Christians?” she asked. “Our country is based on the Judeo-Christian foundation.”
The Knights of Columbus Thursday launched a campaign to keep Christ in the forefront of people’s minds as they celebrate Christmas throughout North America.
The Knights’ campaign includes the airing of public service announcements during the Christmas season, as well as a variety of local programming in support of the message that includes signs, billboards, nativity scenes and Christmas cards.
Radio spots encouraging people to “Keep Christ in Christmas in numerous ways — including by providing aid to the less fortunate —will air in English and Spanish.
The Christian Mothers of Milwaukee, subsequently known as the Council of Catholic Women, first initiated an effort known as “Put Christ Back into Christmas.” In the early 1960s, the Knights of Columbus adopted the “Keep Christ in Christmas” program and been promoting it annually ever since.
“In a society where Christmas has often become shorthand for shopping, many who celebrate Christmas can lose sight of it true meaning. Those who celebrate Christmas give gifts to each other because it is the day on which we celebrate the greatest gift: God’s gift of his son to the world,” said Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson. “Christmas is about ‘peace on earth toward people of good will’ and we think that’s a message worth remembering.”
Researchers at the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions and the John Hazen White Public Opinion Laboratory at Brown University surveyed a random sample of 464 Rhode Island voters from Dec. 2 to Dec. 9, 2011. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.
