Council Woman Resigns Over Christmas Tree Lighting, Then Later Changes Mind

More from the War On Christmas trenches: a New Jersey Councilwoman has resigned from her post after her city voted to call their tree lighting ceremony a “Christmas tree lighting”. 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.

Minutes Thursday night, following the Roselle Park council approved the change, Charlene Storey walked out of the assembly.

Roselle Park Mayor Carl Hokanson praised Storey for her work on the council. 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 takes effect January 7. “I don’t mean to offend anybody in any way, shape or form, but it is a Christmas tree”, says Mayor Hokanson, “It’s not a holiday tree, it’s not a pear tree – it’s a Christmas tree, and this is the season”. Storey rescinded her resignation and returned to work with plans to lead a new committee on diversity, CBS New York reports. According to the Associated Press, she has officially rescinded her resignation. Last month, Starbucks put out a plain, red cup for the holiday season, and discontinued the usual seasonal artwork on its cups, which in previous years included a reindeer and tree ornaments.

“Had the name of this event never been changed to use a non-religious term, had it stayed with “Christmas” instead of being changed to ‘Holiday, ‘ I could have accepted it as a cultural term”, said Storey, who identifies as a Humanist and “non-believer”.

Changing the name back to include “Christmas”, at least according to Storey, removes non-Christians from the celebration.

This is how the Grinch quit city council.

Hokansan said he had no intentions of being exclusionary, but that “a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree”.