The Patriot Post® · School District Bans the Word 'Christmas' From Flyer

The school superintendent in Marlborough, New Hampshire, issued a Yuletide edict to the local American Legion post: You can’t call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree.

John Fletcher, the commander of the local American Legion post, said he was banned from using the word “Christmas” to promote the town’s upcoming Christmas tree lighting.

The event is sponsored by the American Legion and the Monadnock Lions Club.

“He wanted to change it to say ‘holiday tree lighting’ instead,” Mr. Fletcher told FOX25 in Boston.

Needless to say, Supt. Robert Malay’s decision went over about as well as replacing Santa’s milk and cookies with tofu and a shot of wheatgrass.

“It’s not a holiday tree, it’s a Christmas tree,” said Mr. Fletcher.

For years the American Legion commander, who also portrays Santa Claus, had been allowed to post flyers in the public school to promote the annual Christmas event.

But this year, Mr. Fletcher said the superintendent called to tell him he would need to “revise” the flyer and remove the word “Christmas.”

“I was very upset, I really was,” he told the television station.

He was so upset he wrote a letter to the Sentinel Source, the newspaper of record in that neck of the woods.

“As commander of the American Legion it offends me,” he wrote. “I respect all rights; always have. But do not take away our rights because you may offend someone else.”

Still, Mr. Fletcher followed the superintendent’s directive — well, sort of.

Armed with a bottle of white-out, he and his wife blotted out the offending word — Christmas. However, he did not include the word “holiday.”

“In this case, this political correctness has just gone too far,” he said. “It’s just getting out of hand.”

I called Superintendent Malay to find out why the word “Christmas” needed to be deleted, but he did not return my message.

Folks I chatted with at the local school are pretty upset at how Mr. Fletcher was treated. They say the superintendent really ruffled some feathers.

No doubt.

If they can’t call Christmas, Christmas, I wonder what the school district will call Ramadan or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa?