‘Christmas tree’ or ‘holiday tree’? Name causing a controversy in Roselle Park

A New Jersey councilwoman resigned from her post a day after her fellow lawmakers voted to call the city’s holiday tree lighting a Christmas tree lighting.

The Roselle Park Council voted 4 to 2 to change the name of their “Tree Lighting Ceremony” to “Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony”.

According to N.J.com, Mayor Hokanson, whom Storey praised as a promising leader for Roselle Park, remarked only that, “Everybody’s entitled to his beliefs”.

“Over the weekend, Storey changed her mind, cancelling her resignation and agreeing to lead a new committee on diversity”.

The Christmas tree lighting is scheduled to take place on Friday evening, December 11 at the gazebo if weather is permitting.

Storey has lived in Roselle Park for 26 years and served on the borough council for the past two. They came to the conclusion that she will continue her work with the council, but a committee will discuss the decision further. Changing the ceremony, she said, “turned it from a non-religious event to a religious one”.

Hokanson said he reached out to Storey after she left the meeting and today the pair got together in his office and made peace. Roselle Park mayor Carl A. Hokanson told Eyewitness News that he wanted to bring the word “Christmas” back into the equation.

“This isn’t some ‘silly P.C.-thing, ‘” Storey said.

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

Members of Crosby, Stills & Nash, perform on stage throughout the National Christmas Tree Lighting formal occasion at the Ellipse in Washington on Thurs., Dec. three, 2015.

Still, the mayor said he valued Storey’s involvement on the council. 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.