Xmas trees head to Missouri Governor’s Mansion

Monday, November 26, 2012

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — It’s about to look a lot like Christmas at the Missouri Governor’s Mansion.

The Christmas trees that will adorn the outside, the grand staircase, the parlor and library will arrive Monday.

The outside tree is a natural growth, 25-foot Eastern Red Cedar.

Inside, an Eastern White Pine from Tannenbaum Tree Farm in Armstrong will be placed in the grand staircase. It will be decorated in classic gold and burgundy.

Four eight-foot Eastern White Pines from Pea Ridge Nursery, near Hermann, will be placed in the library and parlor. The parlor trees will feature bluebird decorations, while dogwood decorations will adorn the library trees. The bluebird is Missouri’s state bird, and the dogwood is the state tree.

Tours of the Christmas trees are planned for Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

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JCLifer 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Don't you mean "holiday trees"???

asb 5 months, 3 weeks ago

You are right. A government tree really should be called a Holiday Tree. Mine is a Solstice tree, celebrating the pre-Christian European aspects of the season. Most peoples' are called Christmas Trees out of habit, even though there's really not much Christian about their history beyond the star on top.Then there's the tacky name of Xmass trees as used by the NT, like Christ's name can be reduced to an X just to save ink or time.

dokeus6 5 months, 3 weeks ago

It is hard to believe the NewsTribune. One of the most conservative papers in the state with a hard lined christian based readership would even consider removing christ from christmas and using a X is ludicrous. Who ever did this should be fired!!

JCLifer 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Obviously they didn't have room for six more characters in the Title space...

xhepera 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Except you're wrong. The use of the "X" as an abbreviation or symbol for "Christ" is of rather ancient origin. "Removing Christ?" I think not. Do some research before flying off the handle and calling for people's heads. Sheesh!

asb 5 months, 3 weeks ago

You are correct, X is an ancient symbol with Christian uses. And, it might even been the reason churches allow its use. But we all know it's use, and 95% of Christians' understanding, is as a cool abbreviation. Thanks for the heads up and reminder.

tonto_goldberg 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Sarcasm is difficult to carry out in print.

dokeus6 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Surprised you were the only one who caught it.

xhepera 5 months, 3 weeks ago

asb, I can't comment on the NT's reasons for using the term but its use has valid and legitimate historical antecedents, even within the Church.

connor 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Well Said xhepera. It does indeed and has been used as you state. Good catch!!!

John 5 months, 3 weeks ago

An "X", as you all are calling it, is from the Greek alphabet. The NT was written in Greek. Chi is used as the Greek letter for Christ. Perhaps you could spend some time researching instead of arguing. Ever heard of "Chi Rho"? No? Look it up. You all argue over the dangdest stuff.

tonto_goldberg 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Everyone needs a hobby.

eileen10 5 months, 3 weeks ago

I don't agree. Taking the word "Christmas" out of Christmas tree is like people wanting to take the word "God" out of in God we trust. I'ts a tradition and it should stay a tradition. Far to many people are trying and in many cases have succeeded in stopping things that pertain to God and/or Christian ideals. A Christmas tree is merely a symbol of Christ's birth. So are decorations and presents. But the main focus is the birth of Jesus and we celebrate His birth with tradition.

asb 5 months, 3 weeks ago

A Christmas tree is not a symbol of Christ's birth, was not in the bible, preceded Christs birth by millenia, and has only had mangers at the base and a Christian star on top since the European systhesis in the middle ages. It is a north Eruopean tradition, well adapted to Christianity. If you're Christian, fine, it's a Christian symbol. But it's much more, and older than Christ.

xhepera 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Quite right, asb. The prophet Jeremiah railed against the practice : Jeremiah 10:2-4: "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." (King James Version).

Several early Church Fathers spoke out against the practice as being connected to Pagan faiths and not suitable for commemorating the birth of Christ. There are fundamentalist sects of Christianity that reject it to this day for those same reasons.

eileen10 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Symbol: Something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention or accidental resemblance. A visible sign of something invisible. From the dictionary. Holy jumped up hannah. It's a tree. It can be real or artificial. It's a tradition. I'm a Christian. I like having a Christmas tree. I like buying presents. I read from the Bible the story of Christs birth to everyone that's gathered. I keep it simple. I love tradition. Any tradition. It's not complicated. It's something to enjoy with friends and family. We all know what we're celebrating and it's not just one day out of the year. It's no different than Easter or Thanksgiving, a childs birthday or the 4th of July but they are celebrated for different reasons. That's the way it's done in my family. What you do is up to you.

tonto_goldberg 5 months, 3 weeks ago

For the benefit of the one or two that don't already know this, that X stands for the Greek letter chi which was in the form of an X. Chi is the first letter of "Christ", in Greek, and Greek was the language of educated people of that day.

Sequoia 5 months, 3 weeks ago

If anything has taken "Christ" out of Christimas, it is the consumer economy. From what I can tell, Christmas is about big companies using nostalgia and shallow sentimentality to manipulate people into buying cheap junk from China.

Santa Claus, as we know it, is not a "tradition." It is a character invented by Macy's department stores to hype up kids into begging for all that cheap junk.

Slap a red bow on the latest My-Phone, play some jingle bells on the commercial and we get all misty-eyed about "tradition." Try not to remember the suicides at Apple factories in China, deadly fires at garment factories in Bangladesh, illegal mines for cadmium in South Africa, and the toxic trash piles where we throw out the phone we bought just last year.

If you want to put the Christ back in Christmas, buy nothing. Make a gift or a meal for your loved ones. Do something nice for them. Go visit an elderly person. Leave all those pointless electronic gadgets on the shelf, and spend some time in quiet reflection. Then you'll find the Christ in Christmas.

In the Sequoia family, we don't cut down trees.

GrumpyGus 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Absolutely agree, but would go a step further. All of the ills you point to jump straight from the problems with secular humanism. Unfortunately we now live in a country where you can only display secular humanism during the holiday season otherwise you aren't being inclusive, or you are being intolerant, or the ACLU will stick a probe up your backside. Well, we can't have it both ways. Either we embrace the ills of secular humanism and all be miserable, or we embrace religious tolerance and allow some outward display of the true meaning of the second most important Christian holiday.

Sequoia 5 months, 3 weeks ago

No, they jump straight from the problems of a consumer-based economy. The ACLU isn't out there trying to get people to buy My-Phones with a bunch of Hallmark-card fake sentiment. Putting up a tree with a plastic baby Jesus underneath it ain't the "true meaning" of Christmas. Deep reflection is.

And, as was pointed out elsewhere on here, you can do whatever you want on your private property. No "secular humanist" (whatever that is) or the ACLU has ever stuck anything anywhere for you putting up a Christmas tree, Gus. I think you're blowing things out of proportion.

Quit whining. You're not a victim.

connor 5 months, 3 weeks ago

The ACLU has attacked and won court decisions to remove crosses from private property that can be viewed from public land. They also lost a few and lefties then went so far as to remove the objects themselves covertly and illegally.

Sequoia 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Do you have a cite for that? (Like a real cite, with facts I can double-check, not some screed in Townhall.)

Not saying you're wrong, necessarily, but you don't have a very good track record, do you?

Don't get mad bro. Just give me a cite once in a while.

Thanks, bro.

MO4LIFE 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Santa Claus was not created by macy's He is Based on a real man that gave things to the poor people named Saint Nicholas. Look it up sometime. Now the actual Name Santa Claus might have been created by Macy's not 100% sure about that.

Sequoia 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Santa is based on a Dutch tradition, but the fat man in a red suit with a beard who brings toys to kids is a marketing gimmick dude. Sorry to crush your childhood, but "Santa" as we known him in modern culture is just an advertisement to get kids to beg for cheap junk. We get all misty-eyed an emotional over an ad campaign.

JCsleeper 5 months, 3 weeks ago

What ? There is no Santa Claus? Phooey! Guess there won't be a new sled or a firetruck under the tree this year.

connor 5 months, 3 weeks ago

He isn't Santa. According to Jamie Foxx the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is their Lord and Savior.

eileen10 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Santa lives at the North Pole along with the elves and reindeer and of course Mrs. Claus. That's my story and I'm stickin to it.

Littleinvestor 5 months, 3 weeks ago

We always cut a junk tree (cedar), for Christmas. They smell good but we only keep them in the house a couple of days because they dry out fast. And what you do on your own property, including commercial property, is your business and not the ACLU's. It is what is done on public property, property owned by all of us, that gets the court action. So go ahead and put up a Christmas tree in your home or business. Or whatever religious symbol you prefer as there are lots of religions in the U.S.

eileen10 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Very true. I'm from Minnesota and we cut pine trees. Good smelling but more than once I had a pine needle stuck in my toe. No biggie. I'd yank it out and cross it off as a given.

asb 5 months, 3 weeks ago

We've used Cedars often. They're open and show all the ornaments real well. But, smell good? For years we blamed the cat for what the tree smells like after a couple of weeks. Bad Kitty!

eileen10 5 months, 3 weeks ago

LOL!! That's funny!!

Littleinvestor 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Apparently we make fish (can't say the right fish name here apparently) beds out of them before they get smelly because of the fire danger from a dried out cedar tree. We do have a neighbor that likes her tree up the day after Thanksgiving and has been known to switch out the early tree with a new, less dry one midway through December. Too much work there. We are considering an artificial one.

eileen10 5 months, 3 weeks ago

I bought an artificial tree last year after Christmas when they have the prices slashed. That's also when I buy wrapping paper, Christmas cards etc. because it saves a lot of money.

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