Editor’s note: Saturday’s story about Coun. Ben Isitt’s thoughts on Christmas decorations (“City looks to reduce Christmas decorations, broaden diversity,”) brought swift response from Times Colonist readers. By noon on Monday, we had received more than 80 letters to the editor — all of them disagreeing with Isitt’s suggestion to remove Christmas decorations from city property.
Here is a selection of the letters.
Isitt does not speak for all on Christmas
As Canada’s first Jewish ambassador to Israel, I’d like to make it clear that Victoria Coun. Ben Isitt does not speak in my name in suggesting that the sequoia in Centennial Square not be turned into a Christmas tree at this time of the year.
Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating.
Norman Spector
Victoria
A bright plant in the dark of winter
Euphorbia pulcherrima or poinsettia, named after a U.S. ambassador to Mexico in the 1800s, is not really a symbol of Christianity. It is just a nice, bright plant that comes out at the darkest time of the year.
Get over your outrage, Ben Isitt, and realize that the winter solstice has been celebrated a great deal longer than Christianity and is a celebration of human warmth and hope during the shortest days.
Wendy Wardle
Cadboro Bay
Understand values of ordinary citizens
Coun. Ben Isitt (and perhaps the rest of council) should give their heads a good shake and focus on running the city (fixing potholes, staffing the police department properly, etc.) rather than trying to instil in the citizenry a sense of false politically correct inclusiveness.
Isitt needs to get out of that academic bubble where many of his views seem to have been formed and develop a better understanding of the values held dear by the typical citizen.
Remove Christmas lights and call it the “Holiday Tree”? No damn way!
Jamie Kyles
Victoria
Is there a Grinch in city hall?
I sit composing this letter in the lobby lounge of my apartment building in Taipei, Taiwan, admiring the recent Christmas decorations that festoon the walls.
And this is not the only artifact of the Christmas spirit. At a mall, a few miles away, the entire front plaza has been redecorated into Christmas Land, an annual festive celebration of lights, concerts and holiday cheer.
All of this is in a secular, ethnic-Chinese nation.
While the origin story of Christmas might lie in the Christian tale of the birth of Christ, there’s a lot to like about the holiday aside from the religious aspects: the lights, the festivities, the food. People are free to pick and choose what they like about holidays, and might simply enjoy the fact that many around them will be in a joyful mood.
Coun. Ben Isitt should remember that although he might want to push his own dreary version of secularism on the city, many in Victoria simply enjoy the spirit of the season and appreciate the tradition of decoration.
Merry Christmas!
Sam Reynolds
Mill Bay
Lights, decorations lift spirits
Shame on the Times Colonist for having almost a full front-page article on Coun. Ben Isitt’s personal view on Christmas decorations. Christmas lights in particular and Christmas decorations give people young and old, rich and poor hope. They lift spirits. We all might decorate or not decorate our homes this Christmas. It’s our choice. I think I will go out now and buy another poinsettia.
J.A. Wood
Victoria
Spirit of Christmas raises quality of life
Re: “ ’Tis the season for Christmas outrages,” column, Dec. 9.
Once again, Jack Knox has hit the nail on the head. One can only hope that Coun. Ben Isitt has taken seriously what Knox has, perhaps inadvertently, directed right at him and those who think like him. It took me 10 minutes to get through Sunday’s column because I couldn’t stop laughing, even though I’m sure all those on the other side of this issue don’t find it amusing.
The economic activity alone justifies the city supporting anything that attracts people to the downtown core, and the social impact is immeasurable. You don’t have to be Christian to know that the “spirit of Christmas,” not the spirit of just another day off work, raises the quality of everyone’s life for a few short weeks every year. I can only say, as do the kids, Mr. Isitt: “Get a life.”
And perhaps Isitt might reflect on how much money the city could save if he were to resign and leave Centennial Square with one fewer unnecessary politician while retaining a beautifully decorated tree. If you don’t like poinsettias, perhaps you could give it to somebody who does but can’t afford one.
Jack Trueman
Brentwood Bay
Keep the brightness in our lives
I am not affiliated with any faith, but I do enjoy the downtown “winter” lights at this dark time of year. Lower Johnson Street is particularly lovely with the white lights on all of the buildings. Let’s keep the trend toward stars and other non-denominational lights and not remove all of the brightness from our lives.
Alanna Wrean
Victoria
Be open to love regardless of faith
Coun. Ben Isitt is offended that someone left a poinsettia on his desk. Shame on the office decorators and holiday-season enthusiasts! Didn’t they get the memo about the offensiveness of such overtly Christian symbols? Haven’t they heard about the separation of church and state?
A poinsettia on your desk, a decorated tree in your local town square — these are important community symbols. Your reaction to them takes the measure of the kind of person you are. Will they be an occasion for thanks, an exchange of goodwill and friendship?
Or will they be an occasion for resentment, indignation and accusation?
The historical success of Christianity is evident everywhere, most obviously in the fact that the decorated Christmas tree — an innovation of the first consumer society, Victorian England — adorns commercial centres (which everybody visits) rather than churches (which very few visit). This secular symbol of communal festivity — itself a blend of Christian and pagan elements — could hardly be more inclusive.
Isitt therefore misses the point about the poinsettia on his desk twice over. In the first place, it is a sign of secularization, not of the intrusion of church into the state (for vivid examples of the latter, visit Iran or Saudi Arabia). Second, and more importantly, it is a symbol of love, openness to which requires no particular faith. Reacting with resentment unhappily misses the point.
Richard van Oort
Victoria
Embrace traditional celebrations
Why does broadening diversity equate to reducing Christmas decorations? In Indonesia, the largest predominantly Muslim country in the world and where I worked for four years, brightly lit Christmas trees decorate city streets and stores, and Christmas carols play in the background.
Rather than diluting Christmas and ignoring the true reason for the season here, city council should embrace our traditional celebrations and consider how to celebrate other cultural elements during the year. If not, then what else could be on the chopping block: the Santa Claus parade, Victoria Day parade, Remembrance Day ceremonies, etc.?
Susan M. Woods
Victoria
Holidays meaningful for many Canadians
Coun. Ben Isitt’s suggestion that we can broaden diversity by doing away with Christian and pre-Christian seasonal decorative symbols on public property is blatantly contradictory.
The Yuletide is the one of the most celebrated and significant festivals of the year, and we have two statutory December holidays that underscore the reality that these spiritually based traditions are meaningful for the great majority of Canadians.
People of other backgrounds might not wish to have such decorations in their homes, but surely their own traditions are rich enough to allow them to enjoy and even partake in their compatriots’ festivities, at least when out in the community. Should major holidays of other traditions coincide with the season, by all means, include a few proportionally modest decorative gestures to acknowledge that. The more spirit the better.
I do have one reservation. As a traditionalist, I would prefer not to see decorations go up before the first day of advent or taken down before Epiphany. But otherwise, this Jewess says: Hands off our public-space festive trees, holly, poinsettias, stars, angels, lights, etc., and bring on the mistletoe.
Bat-Ami Hensen
Victoria
Inclusivity means respect for everyone
So, Coun. Ben Isitt’s sensibilities have been ruffled by the fact that someone tried to brighten his day by placing a poinsettia — “a symbol of the Christian faith” — on his desk.
Could someone please explain to me how rejecting a symbol of another faith — any other faith — promotes inclusivity? I thought “inclusivity” applied to everyone, no matter what their faith. Am I wrong?
Isitt might do well to remember that many of our neighbours from different cultures fled their home countries due to persecution of their own faiths, and for the hope that they all would be respected here in Canada.
What kind of example are you setting, Coun. Isitt? Practise what you preach. Inclusivity means respect for everyone, including the Christian faith.
Kathleen Worth
Victoria
Consult the pagans on winter images
It seems that Coun. Ben Isitt needs a bit of a history lesson before he states that the sequoia by Victoria City Hall should not have lights, as the Christmas tree is a symbol of Christianity.
Neither evergreens nor holly were originally a symbol of Christianity, but rather part of the winter solstice celebrations of the pagans who inhabited pre-Christian Europe and probably other parts of the world, as well. Evergreen boughs, holly and mistletoe were seen as symbols that celebrated new growth and fertility and also helped to ward off evil spirits.
While they have been adopted by western civilization and in that context can be linked to Christianity, they are not solely Christian symbols. What Coun. Sharmarke Dubow stated: “Rather than offending many immigrants, Christmas lights can be an interesting aspect of a new culture,” is a much more positive message being sent out by an elected official.
If Isitt is so committed to his ruffled sensibilities, he had better make sure to include pagan representation when it comes to consultation about how public money is spent.
Stephen Reichardt
Colwood
