Peace on Earth and goodwill toward all: a daily philosophy or a marketing slogan designed to make us feel good about our greed?

Let’s face it a majority of Americans slap the slogan on cards to feel like we’re down with Michael Landon on the Highway to Heaven. Aside from “A Very Pac-Man Christmas,” the modern incantation Christmas is a bastardization of the ideas the holiday was originally supposed to stand for.

In Toronto, in an act of political correctness gone mad, it was decided that the town could no longer call the big pine tree with sparkly lights put up in December, a “Christmas Tree”, but now it would be called a “Holiday Tree”. It was also widely reported that Anita Bromberg of the Jewish group B’nai Brith Canada said “To take a generic term, slap it on a symbol that really only has significance to one religion, and then say we’re being multicultural does not really fit,” said. “Whatever you call it, it’s still a Christmas tree.”

I disagree. A “Holiday Tree” is a much more accurate term. The biggest bastardization of beliefs in the holiday season is the “Christmas Tree” itself. Many Pagan cultures cut down evergreen trees in December, moved them into the buildings and decorated them. This was in observation of the winter solstice — the time of the year that had the shortest daylight hours, and longest night of the year, falling on or near December 25. Not having evergreen trees, the ancient Egyptians considered the palm tree to symbolize resurrection. They decorated their homes with its branches during the winter solstice. The ancient Druids tied fruit and attached candles to evergreen tree branches, in honor of their god Woden, the deity after which Wednesday was named.

However the first decorating of an evergreen tree began with the Greeks and their worship of the god Adonia, who according to lore was brought back to life by the serpent Aessulapius after having been killed. All these practices predated Christianity. Simply put, Pagans, Egyptians, Druids and Greeks had “Christmas Trees” to honor a specific idea in their belief system. Christianity on the other hand adopted it because it looks purdy!

Now brand me a heretic for making outrageous claims like the “Christmas Tree” isn’t Christian, but some fundamentalist Christian groups agree and oppose “Christmas Trees” for their members. This includes the Jehovah’s Witnesses and, until recently, the Worldwide Church of God (mainly due to a literal translation of Jeremiah 10:2-4; look it up)

While these beliefs may seem consistent of the Dark Ages, the fact is that the “Christmas Tree” didn’t become popular among the general population until about 1850.

So in reality, the “Christmas Tree” is a non-Christian icon. Holiday Tree is a much better description, but somehow I doubt the big wigs in Toronto had that in mind. They were trying to include other major religions that have no reason to be included.

In all fairness, Hanukkah also has been bastardized. A majority of Christian America’s knowledge of the holiday comes from Adam Sandler songs and a Rugrats special. If Jewish America knew as much about Christmas as Christian America knows about Hanukkah, Christmas would be known as “That mystical time of the year, when the ghost of Jesus rises from the grave to feed on the flesh of the living, so we all sing Christmas carols to lull him back to sleep” to quote “Family Guy” Peter Griffin.

To stretch a metaphor, to Jews, Hanukah is a slightly more important holiday than to Christians the importance of Jesus’ half birthday. Yes, there are “eight crazy nights” of presents, but that’s also a somewhat western invention, again by political correctness. In case your wondering, oversimplified, the Jewish Religion is Christianity minus all that Jesus stuff.

So call it a Christmas tree, a Hanukkah Bush or a Druid Shrub. If you say it symbolizes “peace on Earth” and “goodwill toward all” then Holiday Tree works just fine for me. Stick it in city hall or in your home, doesn’t matter to me, but honestly if you’re getting your panties in a bunch about it, I got some suggestions of where you should stick it.