It's Christmas: Mount Sinai tree lighting
Revelers gather around the tree for the Mount Sinai Heritage Trust annual tree lighting at Heritage Park in Mount Sinai. (Dec. 4, 2011) Credit: John Dunn
So this is Christmas.
Before a crowd of about 450 Christmas carolers, members of the Mount Sinai Heritage Trust announced that the group's annual tree lighting event will be renamed from Holiday Tree Lighting to Christmas Tree Lighting starting next year.
The name of the event became a source of controversy in the North Shore community this fall, where some residents complained that the word "holiday" contributed to the secularization of Christmas, and one community member started the name-change effort.
Moments before Santa Claus lit the tree, Lori Baldassare, the trust's vice president, announced that the name change would take effect in 2012. The trust circulated surveys and more than 80 percent of the 325 people who responded were in favor of the name change.
Baldassare's announcement sparked cheers from the crowd, which then broke into a chorus of "Jingle Bells" at her request.
"We celebrate Christmas, and the tree is a symbol of Christmas," said Mount Sinai resident Danielle Napolitano after the 25-foot tree was lit. "It represents Christmas."
Tom Carbone, president of the Heritage Trust, a four-member nonprofit foundation that took over the event in 2007, said the controversy was overshadowed by the joy of lighting the tree. The Mount Sinai Civic Association began the tree-lighting event in 1996.
"For us it's always been such a fun event; the controversy is secondary," Carbone said. "That's what it's all about -- a neighborhood community event."
The lighting was held in Heritage Park, next to the trust's Heritage Center building. The foundation hosted a community forum last week about the naming issue that attracted about 200 people.
Everyone who spoke at that event, including resident Candace Gonzalez Donin, who organized the name-change effort, spoke in favor of renaming the event with "Christmas" in the title.
Moments before Sunday's tree lighting, resident Yolanda Hollander said the event would be fun regardless of its name.
"This is a great event to bring the community together, whether it's called holiday or Christmas tree lighting," she said.
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Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
