New Jersey councilwoman QUITS over calling holiday tree a Christmas tree

“I like Christmas trees and the pleased spirit in that usually pervades this season”, Charlene Storey, the councilwoman-at-large in Roselle Park, additionally clarified in a press release when she formally announced her resignation Friday.

“It’s not a street, it’s not a building, it’s a Christmas tree”, Hokanson said. Storey broke the news to Eyewitness News that she is in fact rescinding that letter of resignation.

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. She submitted a resignation letter, saying the borough’s decision to change the ceremony’s name from a “tree lighting” to a “Christmas tree lighting” favors one religion and “cuts non-Christians out of the loop”.

The second highest-ranking council member and the town’s only woman to serve as an elected official, Storey explained her decision in a statement.

“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”.

When she handed in her resignation, Storey said she regretted her decision but called the issue a matter of principle.

A move that proved to be too much for city council member Charlene Storey, who promptly resigned.

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

“So I find it hard to accept that to them, a “Christmas” tree is a secular tree”, she wrote.

Storey said the Thursday night vote came as a complete surprise: Mayor Carl Hokanson mentioned the proposed change in passing a few days earlier, but the resolution was not on the meeting’s agenda.