Town official quits over ‘Christmas’ being added to tree lighting ceremony

The name of the event was previously changed from “Christmas” to “Annual” in the mid-1990’s following a court case surrounding a Jersey City holiday display that contained multiple religious symbols on municipal grounds.

The following statement was released by both Mayor Carl Hokanson and Councilwoman-At-Large Charlene Storey.

There is controversy in New Jersey over the word “Christmas” – city councilwoman Charlene Storey resigned just minutes after a vote that changed the town’s tree lighting to a “Christmas” tree lighting.

Hokansan said he had no intentions of being exclusionary, but that “a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree”. Changing the name back to include “Christmas”, at least according to Storey, removes non-Christians from the celebration. The ceremony will be called a Christmas tree lighting on December 11th, and this point forward, but Councilwoman Storey says this needs to be a topic of conversation, a discussion she will have with the committee moving forward.

“There are also many other philosophies and religions outside of Christianity”, she wrote.

Asked about future plans, Storey told the Roselle Park News she hopes to find new wasy to serve the community.

Storey claimed that changing the name of the event “clearly disrespects them all and hijacks the tree lighting for one religion”. “There were bigger things to be worrying about right now and this was something that could wait”.

This is how the Grinch quit city council.

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Yes, Christmas is a cultural holiday as well as a religious one.

Storey said: “The new committee will help the borough identify and better deal with diversity and all of its issues, and hopefully head off such disagreements”.

“You can represent people in different ways and, in some ways, you are free to speak more openly as a resident than you are as an elected official.”