Christmas trees OK, not Jewish menorahs

July 13, 2006

Despite the calendar saying it’s mid-July with temperatures soaring and few people thinking of the winter holidays, a Colorado city believes Christmas trees are fine on city property, but not Jewish menorahs or other “religious symbols.”

After discussion about the issue at this week’s city council meeting, it appears Fort Collins officials will continue with its status quo of Christmas trees, white lights, and wreaths on city property from Thanksgiving to January.

Ft. Collins Councilman David Roy

“I don’t think we have the wisdom or the moral imperative to decide” what religious symbols to include, Councilman David Roy said, according to the Coloradoan newspaper.

Fort Collins had been taking public input on the holiday-display issue on its website, which sought comments on:

Holiday display vs. a display to celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity;
Impacts of expanding the city’s display to include privately sponsored displays; and
Potential limitations (content, size, number) on allowable displays: trees, reindeer, menorah, Santa, nativity scene, snowman, candy canes, angels, wreaths, Muslim crescent and star, etc.

The whole issue began last December when the city and its Downtown Development Authority rejected a request from the Jewish group Chabad of Northern Colorado, which sought to display a menorah on city land for eight days.

“It’s disappointing to me that for all the hoopla of how we believe in acceptance of other people’s conditions, that they do that,” Chabad president Larry Cohen told the Coloradoan.

Fort Collins does not have a policy in writing concerning holiday displays, and Mayor Doug Hutchinson had been promoting one that would have permitted religious symbols that received the city’s blessing.

“We’ve just taken a step backward,” Hutchinson said, noting it would take “courage” for the city to be “inclusive, (but) not totally inclusive.”

While menorahs are not allowed in Fort Collins, religious-liberty attorneys in December contacted a Wisconsin school district that consistently forbids Christian Christmas carols from being sung in music programs but finds nothing wrong with Hanukkah songs.

As WorldNetDaily has reported over the past several years, the celebration of Christmas in America has become a battleground, with the public display of religious themes coming under fire and becoming banned in numerous regions.

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