It's STILL a Christmas Tree and the First Daughters DO Get Christmas Presants

I hate to upset my 'Conservative Right' (read Republican/Tea Party) friends, but the White House Christmas Trees are STILL Christmas trees, and there has never been, and still aren't, any plans to change the names.  There is a video showing this year's White House Christmas Tree arriving on a horse-drawn carriage complete with a carriage driver wearing a top hat.  Note it is from USA today.  The video was shown on all three major networks and, believe it or not, Faux News. 

The First Lady and Daughters are seen receiving the White House Christmas Tree in this picture that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor and at least 305 other newspapers.  The sign on the side of the carriage clearly states White House Christmas Tree, 2011.

Courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor

If you are interested, you can check the facts at Snopes.com and at Factcheck.org

The President and the First Lady wished All American citizens a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in his weekly address to the nation on December 25th, 2010.

The misunderstanding seem to come from the Bush era, when Mrs. Bush began sending out ornaments to States and various other organizations and asking them to decorate the ornaments and return them to Washington to be put on the CAPITOL Christmas Tree.  In 2007, the accompanying information packet  to the organizations clearly states, and I quote:  "Ornaments with religious themes are not acceptable." In 2008, the criteria stated ♦  "Ornaments cannot reflect a religious or political theme."

The criteria has since been changed, and religious themes are acceptable.  But, PLEASE NOTE, this criteria was in place during the BUSH administration, not the OBAMA administration.

The Grinch does not steal Christmas at the White House.  The same people who spread the above misinformation  also bring you the misinformation that the First Daughters do not receive Christmas presents.  They quote a seven page interview of the President and Mrs. Obama in People Magazine in 2008.  What the President actually said was that he leaves the gift giving to Santa.  First Daughter Malia is quoted as saying, "I know there is a Santa because there’s no way you’d buy me all that stuff.” In US Magazine, Mrs. Obama is quoted as saying she gives better Christmas presents than the President.

Then you hear that the President said we were not a Christian country.  What he actually said is that we are no longer ONLY a Christian country, and whether you like it or not, that is true.  We are a country of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and a multitude of other religions.

Our Founding Fathers had experienced the effects of government interference in religious practice and thought it important enough to make it the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Thomas Jefferson thought his greatest achievement was not the Constitution of the United States, The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Jefferson and many of the other great men of his time did not think of themselves as Christians, but rather as Deists, and believed in "the laws of Nature and of Nature's God…." I will probably blog about that at a later date, but if you research the writings of the time it becomes evident.

Finally, it does not matter what religion a President professes. He doesn't have to have a religion. He is guaranteed the right to think and believe what he chooses under the Constitution of the United States of America. Just like for any other American, it is unconstitutional to make adherence to any specific religion a condition for the job.

And THAT is Miss Pitty Pat's truth for the day.