{"id":30044,"date":"2025-12-04T15:38:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=30044"},"modified":"2025-12-04T15:38:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:38:18","slug":"portland-tree-lighting-ceremony-snubs-the-word-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/12\/portland-tree-lighting-ceremony-snubs-the-word-christmas","title":{"rendered":"Portland Tree Lighting Ceremony Snubs the Word &#8216;Christmas&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_30047\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30047\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/12\/Portland_Tree_Lighting-credit-Dave-Killen-TheOregonian-Instagram.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30047\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/12\/Portland_Tree_Lighting-credit-Dave-Killen-TheOregonian-Instagram.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30047\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dave Killen TheOregonian \/ Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A recent Portland, Oregon tree lighting at Pioneer Courthouse Square ceremony sparked outrage after the city completely removed the word \u201cChristmas\u201d from the event. City council member\u00a0Candace Avalos celebrated the city\u2019s 41<sup>st<\/sup> annual tree-lighting ceremony by singing \u201choliday songs\u201d while the beautifully lit Christmas tree had a sign that referred to it simply as \u201cthe tree.\u201d The word \u201cChristmas\u201d was not mentioned during any of the ceremony, nor was it used in any of the event\u2019s promotional materials online, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/west-coast-city-snubs-christmas-from-tree-lighting-again-while-activists-wave-palestinian-flag-onstage\"><em>Fox News<\/em><\/a>. During a search of the city\u2019s social media accounts, <em>Fox News <\/em>found the last time the ceremony was referred to as a \u201cChristmas Tree Lighting\u201d ceremony was in 2019. \u201cCelebrate the highlight of the Downtown Holiday Season as Santa Claus flips the switch, illuminating more than 9,500 colorful LED lights to shine bright on our City\u2019s 75\u2019 Douglas-fir, generously donated by Stimson Lumber for all to enjoy. SEE YOU TONIGHT, PORTLAND!\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DRnCZZvEglm\/\">the city said of this year\u2019s event<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The event\u2019s kickoff speaker was another woman from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. She thanked the crowd for attending during Native American Heritage Day. \u201cThe tree that we stand beside was once rooted in its own home bringing it here holds a complexity that indigenous people, tribal peoples feel deeply in our teachings, the trees, rivers, mountains, all living beings are family more than the objects and more than the symbols that they might stand for,\u201d said the woman. The event also featured a Muslim women with a Palestinian flag who attempted to have the crowd cheer \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d \u201cThere&#8217;s a full blown genocide happening, live streaming in 4k. This is the perfect time to bring this up. There are a lot of genocides going on,\u201d the woman said. Afterward, she sang the \u201cStrong Woman Song,\u201d saying it \u201cfelt appropriate since we\u2019re representing our matriarchs up here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An hour into the event, city mayor Keith Wilson did bring out Santa Claus. Santa Claus did have some \u201choliday carols\u201d for a sing along, which included traditional songs like \u201cAngels We Have Heard on High.\u201d The lack of \u201cChristmas\u201d in a traditional Christmas celebration was not lost to onlookers, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KarluskaP\/status\/1995130315057074624\">with one social media user writing<\/a>, \u201cThey can\u2019t even say Christmas tree in Portland. They call it \u2018the tree.\u2019\u201d Others responded to the city\u2019s social media accounts with cheeky responses referring to the city\u2019s \u201cChristmas tree.\u201d \u201cCall it what it is. It\u2019s The Christmas tree lighting,\u201d said one user. \u201cWe sing carols and light up the tree! At least, that\u2019s what it used to be stop ruining PDX, and stop allowing other countries flags to be waived at our annual event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent Portland, Oregon tree lighting at Pioneer Courthouse Square ceremony sparked outrage after the city completely removed the word \u201cChristmas\u201d from the event. City council member\u00a0Candace Avalos celebrated the city\u2019s 41st annual tree-lighting ceremony by singing \u201choliday songs\u201d while the beautifully lit Christmas tree had a sign that referred to it simply as \u201cthe&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":30047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Portland Tree Lighting Ceremony Snubs the Word &#039;Christmas&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/12\/portland-tree-lighting-ceremony-snubs-the-word-christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Portland Tree Lighting Ceremony Snubs the Word &#039;Christmas&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent Portland, Oregon tree lighting at Pioneer Courthouse Square ceremony sparked outrage after the city completely removed the word \u201cChristmas\u201d from the event. City council member\u00a0Candace Avalos celebrated the city\u2019s 41st annual tree-lighting ceremony by singing \u201choliday songs\u201d while the beautifully lit Christmas tree had a sign that referred to it simply as \u201cthe&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/12\/portland-tree-lighting-ceremony-snubs-the-word-christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-04T20:38:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/12\/Portland_Tree_Lighting-credit-Dave-Killen-TheOregonian-Instagram.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Portland Tree Lighting Ceremony Snubs the Word 'Christmas'","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/12\/portland-tree-lighting-ceremony-snubs-the-word-christmas","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Portland Tree Lighting Ceremony Snubs the Word 'Christmas'","og_description":"A recent Portland, Oregon tree lighting at Pioneer Courthouse Square ceremony sparked outrage after the city completely removed the word \u201cChristmas\u201d from the event. City council member\u00a0Candace Avalos celebrated the city\u2019s 41st annual tree-lighting ceremony by singing \u201choliday songs\u201d while the beautifully lit Christmas tree had a sign that referred to it simply as \u201cthe&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/12\/portland-tree-lighting-ceremony-snubs-the-word-christmas","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2025-12-04T20:38:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/12\/Portland_Tree_Lighting-credit-Dave-Killen-TheOregonian-Instagram.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/12\/portland-tree-lighting-ceremony-snubs-the-word-christmas","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/12\/portland-tree-lighting-ceremony-snubs-the-word-christmas","name":"Portland Tree Lighting Ceremony Snubs the Word 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