"Holiday tree"

[ag]

I, actually, put the tree up for the New Year. The only reason I have to put it up before Christmas is that otherwise one cannot get one. Which, BTW, is a pity: besides the atheist Jews like myself there are the Russian - and some other - Orthodox Christians, Armenians, etc., who celebrate Christmas after Jan. 1 - and Russians traditionally have it up till, at least, Jan. 14 (Jan. 1 on the Julian calendar), so the later one gets it, the less bad it looks by mid Jan. I often don't even get to decorate it till after Christmas, though. I do not mind calling it a Christmas Tree in English - except that it, most definitely, is not one in my house.

[ag]

I'm not fond of changing names just for the sake of changing names. Christmas has already become a secular celebration in all but name in all western countries, so why can't we just keep calling it Christmas?

Believe it or not, even in Western countries many do not celebrate Christmas (I do not, nor do a majority of my relatives and many other people I know). Others celebrate it in January. People do not do it from spite: but it would seem to me extremely unnatural to treat it as anything but a quiet day in the office (though, I should say, I love flying red eye on Christmas eve - cheap). That it seems to you that it is a neutral secular holiday, does not mean it os so for others.