Putting The [Blank] Back In [Blank]mas 4

NPR has the goods on how the National Christmas Tree came to be known as the National Holiday Tree. It's spilled by WaPo reporter Petula Dvorak, who's been covering what's come to be known as "the Capitol Holiday Tree story," i.e., speaker Dennis Hastert's move to officially drop "holiday tree" for "Christmas tree."

NPR's Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan gets right to the point:

Now presumably at one point what used to be the Christmas tree was renamed the Holiday Tree.

And Dvorak spills the goods:

It was. I think it was in the early '90s. There wasn't an official act or declaration, but at the time, the senior landscaper for the architect of the Capitol, Paul Pincus, was--he was the landscaper at the time, and whenever he was asked what tree he liked best, he always said, `I'm Jewish and this is a Holiday Tree.' So I think he kind of took it upon himself to name it the Holiday Tree. And that name stuck until this year, obviously.

That's it. One man decided to impose his sensitivity on a nation, an incredible act of intolerance and selfishness that went unchallenged for a decade.

Did Pincus ask himself what effect his action would have on a nation of Christians for whom Christmas is one of their three most holy days?

Did he ask himself what he'd make of it if a Christian national landscapter arbitrarily decided, "I'm a Christian (or a Muslim), and this is a National Candelabra, not a National Menorah?"

Conan is thunderstruck and confused -- not about Pincus, but about the reaction to Pincus.

And why is there a controversy?

Ms. DVORAK: There's a controversy because I think the speaker is asserting himself a little bit in calling it a religious holiday by calling it a Christmas tree. He said through his spokesman to me--he said that for years he'd been lighting the tree and didn't realize that it was officially called the Holiday Tree. In fact, I looked at his speeches and every year he called it a Christmas tree and just decided to make it official this year.

I don't know about you, but I don't feel I've been asserting myself at all when I call Christmas a religious holiday. I don't sweat or have rapid breathing or anything. I'm no more asserted than bin Laden would be after calling Ramadan a religious holiday or a wicca would be after calling Halloween a pagan holiday.

Oh, wait. That "excerting." Well, you get the point.

How did WaPo, the newspaper that finds itself housed in the capital come to hire a reporter who is so confused about the nation her newspaper covers? How, indeed, did they find a newsroom full of such people?

Dvorak goes on later to call the movement to reclaim Christmas "a backlash against inclusiveness," which simply turns the situation on its head.

For years, these Secularists stood by as bigoted anti-Christian activist groups gradually stripped away our special joy of the season, not raising a concern about what effect this might have on us and on our children. As they grew up, I've seen my three incredible daughters be confused and questioning as something they take so naturally at home, their faith, is called to ridicule by many in the media.

Now we're trying to return to a status quo that has served our nation well and we are the bigots, we are lashing back at those who would be inclusive through the forced exclusion of our culture.

You can listen to the full interview here.