samsmart
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2009
- Messages
- 10,315
- Reaction score
- 6,470
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Other
To me they're not interchangeable. Christmas Tree is the whole presents under on Dec 25th tree. A holiday tree is a tradition in which a tree is maintained either all year or part of the year and decorated for different holidays.
I didn't use to note a difference until I knew someone who had a holiday tree up - and did decorate it for every . . . single . . . holiday.
A Holiday tree is becoming more apropos as a term as more Jewish families use a "Hanukkah Bush" to celebrate their winter holiday - a practice which is causing some tension among those who are the most religiously conservative among the Jews.
The thing is holidays, as are many things, are fluid, and easily changed.
After all, Black Friday gets more news coverage now than the Thanksgiving that precedes it. 100 years from now, we'll probably celebrate Black Friday instead of Thanksgiving, and the tradition will be that families will eat a big meal on the Thursday before so they can wait in long lines at malls and stores in order to get the big sales that stores provide on Black Friday, which is what that holiday will solely be about.
So if holidays are so mutable, then I think making them inclusive is much better to our diverse society that trying to keep them exclusive.