When Trump forbid a Christmas tree — and other forgotten stories from the ‘war on Christmas’

December 26, 2017 by admin
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President Trump pretends to track Santa for Christmas. (Getty Images)

It’s Christmas, and President Trump is celebrating by repeatedly typing “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” — and by taking credit for having “led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase.”

Ah, the proverbial “war on Christmas,” in which the holiday is under attack — with even the “Merry Christmas” greeting frowned upon — and the faithful fight to defend it. And first among them: Trump.

But is Trump really the hero here? Or was he always more of a bystander — or worse?

It depends on how many Christmases we look at.

Christmas, 1981: No trees allowed

In the 1980s, his political rise still decades away, Trump bought an old apartment building across the street from Central Park in New York that he hoped to tear down and rebuild as a high-rent tower.

When the longtime residents wouldn’t move out voluntarily, the New York Times wrote, Trump hired a management company that essentially ran the building into the ground.

And while Trump threatened to house homeless people in the building, the management company used creative tactics that included covering windows in tin — and forbidding Christmas decorations in the lobby

It was probably the least of residents’ concerns, but Trump allowed no Christmas tree in 1981, the Times wrote. Nor the next year.

[Trump vowed to end the ‘war on Christmas.’ Here’s how the White House is decorated this season.]

Christmas, 1983: “Nowhere to go for the holidays.”

After two years of what New York Magazine called a “cold war” between Trump’s tenants and his managers, the Central Park building was a mess of hostility and broken appliances.

A tenant representative finally wrote to Trump’s management company in 1983, asking for permission to at least put up a Christmas tree. Many of the residents “are very old and have nowhere to go,” she wrote, the magazine reported. “This will be their only chance to share in the holiday spirit.”

The company wrote back that in light of the tenants’ complaints, it was “quite difficult for Management to feel that a relaxed ‘holiday season spirit’ relationship exists at the building.”

Moreover, a Christmas tree might raise religious-liberty concerns.

But the company offered to allow the tree with some conditions — the company would be held “blameless in any claims related to the Christmas tree,” and all decorations had to comply with government regulations.

Here the accounts of Christmas 1983 somewhat diverge. New York Magazine wrote that the tenant leader signed the contract, and “the Christmas tree went up, [and] the holiday spirit was saved.”

But the Times wrote that maintenance workers misunderstood the Christmas negotiations and put up a contract-less tree without permission, and that Trump’s manager “fumed but could do nothing.”

Christmas, 1999 — The Trump Tower Millennium Holiday Tree

“The Trump Tower Millennium Holiday Tree” — as described in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and news releases — was a 45-foot perforated metal, gold-coated, fiber-optic lighted treelike structure unveiled at Trump Tower a month before the turn of the century.

No pictures of the Millennium Holiday Tree can be found, and some references describe it as a traditional Christmas tree, which Trump Tower is now known for.

It’s important to note that this was several years before the “war on Christmas” joined the cultural lexicon — when Bill O’Reilly aired an exposé in 2004 on how the generic word “holiday” was supplanting traditional “Christmas” language.

It would be even longer before Trump demonstrated any real concern about the distinction.

Christmas 2009-2013 (as told by Trump)

From Donald Trump: Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year. Let’s think like champions in 2010!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2009

Wishing everyone a very Happy Holiday season!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2010

My new book #TimeToGetTough is the best present of the holiday season. A great gift for anyone who cares about this country.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2011

Via @examinercom: “The Miss Universe contestants glow with elegance during the Trump Holiday Party” http://t.co/tpKJKCQh

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2012

Young Entrepreneurs – the Holiday season is here but that is no excuse not to stay on top of your business prospects. Focus!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2013

The Obama Christmases

While Trump continued wishing “happy holidays” for years, his first use of the word “Christmas” on Twitter appears to have been in 2011 — shortly after he expressed interest in running for president.

Trump suggested buying his new book as a Christmas present that December, and a few days later he complained that President Barack Obama had “issued a statement for Kwanza [sic] but failed to issue one for Christmas.”

As the Associated Press noted, this was a false assertion. Obama had, like presidents before him, acknowledged the African heritage festival of Kwanzaa. But he has also wished Americans “Merry Christmas” — as he did every year during his presidency.

It is true that Obama changed the annual White House Christmas card to a more generic holiday card. But he publicly celebrated Christmas so frequently that people made video montages.

These would occasionally be shown to Trump in the 2015-2016 election, when he truly became a Christmas warrior.

Christmas, present

Shortly after announcing his candidacy for president in 2015, Trump went to the Values Voter Summit, hoisted a Bible and said: “I believe in God. I believe in the Bible. I’m Christian. I love people.”

As The Washington Post wrote at the time, he had had some trouble convincing conservative Christian voters of this. So he elaborated in his speech:

“I love Christmas,” he said. “You go to stores now, and it doesn’t say Christmas. It says ‘Happy holidays.’ All over! I say, where’s Christmas? I tell my wife, ‘Don’t go to those stores.’ I want to see Christmas! Other people can have their holidays, but Christmas is Christmas. I want to see ‘Merry Christmas.’ Remember the expression ‘Merry Christmas?’ You don’t see it. You’re going to see it if I’m elected.”

And sure enough, as president, Trump turned the holiday card back into a Christmas card. He retold the story of baby Jesus at the National Christmas Tree Lighting this year. His 11-year-old son appears in a red scarf in the White House’s official illustrated Christmas tour book, and you can buy an official “Merry Christmas” Trump hat for $45.

Trump says “Christmas” all the time now.

More reading:

In a pro-Trump town, they never stopped saying ‘Merry Christmas’

Trump praises Bible and Christmas, but gets boos for insulting Rubio

Trump vowed to end the ‘war on Christmas.’ Here’s how the White House is decorated this season.

Hate saying ‘Merry Christmas’ now? Everyone has Trump on the brain.

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After Christmas Day whiteout, Mainers come out to play and plow

December 26, 2017 by admin
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The biggest Christmas snowstorm in 15 years slammed into Maine Monday morning, bringing whiteout conditions and up to a foot of snow to much of the state.

The National Weather Service in Gray called off a blizzard alert for southern and western Maine around 1 p.m. Monday as the winter storm pushed into the eastern half of the state. A blizzard warning remained in effect for midcoast Maine and the weather service warned that blowing and drifting snow could impair driving in other parts of Maine.

During the height of the storm, the weather service reported snow falling at 2 to 4 inches per hour in some places, making travel “very dangerous to impossible.” Speed limits on the Maine Turnpike were reduced to 45 mph morning, and the turnpike authority reported one slide-off between Saco and Scarborough around 8 a.m.

Jonathan Graffius of Portland and his daughter Lucy, 7, had the sledding hill at Payson Park all to themselves on Christmas afternoon. John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Maine State Police received about 50 reports of cars off the road at various times Monday, according to a dispatcher at the police barracks in Gray. Poor visibility appeared to be the primary cause of many of the crashes, he added.

The weather service cautioned that winds as high as 50 mph, coupled with tree branches already weighted down with ice from Saturday’s storm, were likely to cause power outages and that turned out to be the case, with more than 2,000 Central Maine Power customers without electricity as of 12:30 p.m.

Bowdoinham, in Sagadahoc County, was the hardest hit. Almost 1,000 customers there – more than half the customers in the town – lost power. In Falmouth, almost 870 customers reported outages, but power to most of them was restored by 1:30 p.m., according to the company.

Portland native Mack Fisher got in some ski jumping at Payson Park while home for the holiday from Venice Beach, California, Monday. Staff photo by John Ewing

Although no flights from the Portland Jetport were canceled, some departures were delayed by up to 2 hours.

Some towns announced parking bans in advance of the storm. Falmouth prohibited street parking until 10 p.m. Monday and Scarborough placed a ban until 11:30 p.m. There was no parking ban in Portland, but in an alert the city asked people to park off-street and use city parking ban lots, since garages were not open. Portland expects a parking ban on Tuesday for cleanup, according to the alert.

A Portland city plow clears snow from Stevens Avenue Monday. Staff photo by John Ewing

The storm was expected to bring about 10 inches of snow across most of southern Maine, Pohl said. That would make it the biggest Christmas day storm since 2002, when Portland got 12.5 inches of snow and Gray got 14 inches.

“We probably won’t break that, but it will be interesting,” Pohl said.

Some parts of southern Maine had already received more than 10 inches of snow by noon. Weather observers reported unofficial accumulations of 13 inches in New Gloucester and 10.5 inches in Gray, according to the weather service.