[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 23]
[House]
[Pages 31684-31685]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 OH, CHRISTMAS TREE, OH, CHRISTMAS TREE

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, A Tree, A Tree, but don't call it a Christmas 
Tree. Let me explain.

[[Page 31685]]

  Since forever, Christmas trees have been called Christmas trees. 
Everyone in the world knows what a Christmas tree is and the traditions 
that accompany them.
  It is almost that time of year for most homes throughout the fruited 
plain to have some type of tree in them. Even Charlie Brown has a 
Christmas tree. But Lowe's Home Improvement stores that sell trees 
won't call them Christmas trees, but now they call them ``family 
trees'' so as not, I suspect, to offend non-Christians. Of course, it 
is okay in our culture to offend Christians because they are just 
supposed to turn the other cheek. However, calling them family trees 
may offend single individuals who don't have families. So should the 
trees be called family-individual trees?
  Where is this nonsense of political correctness going to end? Lowe's 
should change its policy. This is the same silliness that caused some 
retailers last year to refuse to put up signs saying ``Merry 
Christmas,'' but instead said ``Happy Holidays.''
  It is tradition at the Poe house on Thanksgiving that we buy and 
decorate a Christmas tree. But we won't buy one at Lowe's because, you 
see, they don't sell Christmas trees.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________