New Jersey town official resigns over ‘Christmas’ tree lighting ceremony

The council of Roselle Park, a borough of Union County, New Jersey, voted on a seemingly innocuous matter on 3 December: the renaming of its annual “Tree Lighting” to “Christmas Tree Lighting”.

Storey said changing the annual event’s name from “A Tree Lighting” to “A Christmas Tree Lighting” favors Christianity and excludes non-Christians, according to the AP.

At the middle of it was Councilwoman-at-Large Charlene Storey, who walked out of the meeting shortly after the vote & proceeded to submit a resignation letter to the municipal clerk’s workplace, in accordance to NJ.com. After Roselle Park changed the name of its “The Tree Lighting” to ‘The Christmas Tree Lighting, ‘ Councilwoman At-Large Charlene Storey quit, saying the move endorsed one religion over others. Storey, who grew up Catholic but now refers to herself as a non-believer, thinks that placing religion on the tree-lighting ceremony is not in the best interest of the city.

Her resignation will take effect on January 7.

According to Mayor Carl Hokanson, she’ll now head a new committee on diversity.

Thursday’s vote overturned a 1990s vote in which the city changed the event’s name from Annual Christmas Tree Lighting to Annual Holiday Tree Lighting.

“It’s been the holiday tree for 20 years”, Storey said.

The first family led the countdown as they flipped the switch to light up the tree at the Ellipse in President’s Park.

Storey claimed that changing the name of the event “clearly disrespects them all and hijacks the tree lighting for one religion”. He said everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but added that each town can use whatever title it wants to use for the ceremony.

“It’s not a street, it’s not a building, it’s a Christmas tree”, Hokanson added.

“I can’t believe that people are going this insane over this”, he said.