PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Carolers singing “O Christmas Tree” crashed Rhode Island’s statehouse tree lighting on Tuesday after Gov. Lincoln Chafee unwrapped a holiday hubbub by calling the 17-foot spruce a “holiday” tree.
Chafee insisted his word choice was inclusive and in keeping with Rhode Island’s founding as a sanctuary for religious diversity. But his semantics incensed some lawmakers, the Roman Catholic Church and thousands of people who called his office to complain that the independent governor was trying to secularize Christmas.
“He’s trying to put our religion down,” said Ken Schiano of Cranston, who came to the tree lighting after hearing about the controversy. “It’s a Christmas tree. It always has been and it always will be, no matter what that buffoon says it is.”
Chafee did not address the several hundred people who filled the statehouse to watch the tree lighting. Afterward, he said he was surprised by the heated reaction to his word choice. Chafee argues that he is simply honoring Rhode Island’s origins as a sanctuary for religious diversity.
Religious dissident Roger Williams founded Rhode Island in 1636 as a haven for tolerance, where government and religion would forever be kept separate. Chafee’s immediate predecessor also referred to statehouse trees as “holiday” trees.
“If it’s in my house, it’s a Christmas tree, but when I’m representing all of Rhode Island, I have to be respectful of everyone,” Chafee said after the tree lighting. “Now we can get back to next year’s budget . . . with pleasure.”
Red carols, blue carols
After Chafee lit the “holiday” tree, a few dozen carolers interrupted a performance by a children’s chorus to sing “O Christmas Tree.” The dispute also prompted the Providence diocese to schedule a competing Christmas tree lighting a block from the statehouse. A Republican state lawmaker erected a tree in a statehouse hallway to give Rhode Island residents an alternative to the official state “holiday” tree.
After the flap made national news, Chafee’s office received 3,500 calls of protest, with all but 700 coming from out of state. According to a tally by Chafee’s spokeswoman, his office received only 92 calls supporting his choice of words.
Rhode Island has one of the largest percentages of Catholic residents in the country. Timothy Reilly, chancellor of the Providence diocese, said that Chafee’s desire to be inclusive is laudable but that he chose the wrong way to do it. He said he hopes the controversy will prompt Christians to contemplate the holiday’s true meaning.
The controversy highlights a very old tension between the holiday’s Christian roots, its links to pre-Christian celebrations and the many now-familiar traditions that are relatively new, according to Stephen Nissenbaum, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the author of “The Battle for Christmas.”
Christmas past was unsettled
Nissenbaum said early Christians wouldn’t recognize the modern holiday, with its reindeer, Santa Claus, ’round-the-clock shopping and poinsettias.
The Puritan leaders of 17th-century Massachusetts actually outlawed the celebration of Christmas for several years because they didn’t like the boisterous celebration of what they saw as a minor holiday.
“I don’t think Christmas has ever been a settled tradition,” Nissenbaum said. “We always look back to the days when Christmas was pure and simple, and it never was.”
