Nutter hails the holidays, lights the Christmas tree

Mayor Nutter wished a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a Happy Day of Three Kings to Philadelphians at Thursday's City Hall tree-lighting ceremony.

But don't let the inclusive comments give you the wrong impression: The mayor was there to celebrate Christmas.

A slight hint of mystery hung in the frigid air outside City Hall as the mayor stepped up to a stage on Dilworth Plaza before lighting the tree. In announcements promoting the event, the city had called it a "holiday tree."

Late Wednesday, the mayor reversed a decision by the company that runs the yearly Christmas Village market on Dilworth Plaza to take the word Christmas off the giant, electronic sign that marked the entrance to the assortment of holiday shops.

With the word Christmas twinkling again outside City Hall, what would the mayor call the 28-foot Colorado blue spruce he was about to light?

"We're here for the annual lighting of Philadelphia's . . ."

He paused.

"Christmas tree!"

Everything else about the event shouted Christmas, too.

A chorus from the High School of Creative and Performing Arts Choir and Dance Troupe sang "Carol of the Bells," with its repeated "Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas."

There were reminders to shop, or at least buy tickets to Disney on Ice and Parenting 101: The Musical, whose performers sang and danced before the tree-lighting.

Nutter acknowledged that the last few days had been challenging.

"In a big, bustling city like Philadelphia, we all experience moments of joy and discord," he said. "Big cities can get hectic, and the last couple days have proven that."

Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, however, have a long heritage of religious freedom, he said.

"Almost a century before those momentous events, it was in Philadelphia where William Penn established a colony dedicated to a revolutionary principle - that each person must have freedom of conscience, the right to his or her own religious views, and that civil government must not abridge that right in any way," he said.

Later in the evening, Nutter lit a menorah in Rittenhouse Square for Hanukkah.

Many in the crowd of several hundred at the Christmas tree lighting and a companion event at JFK Plaza seemed inclined to throw cares away - or at least concerns over Philadelphia's Christmas controversy.

"Oh, who cares?" Lulu Hoeller said with a smile when asked about the topic. Dressed in a black velvet coat, she was strolling about with her Airedale terrier, Bogart, because he likes to look at lights.

Frank Chalow of Upper Moreland had come into the city with his 4-year-old son, Dara, primarily to see the tree, but he said he was glad to see Christmas back on the sign.

"I'm very Republican and very conservative, and I believe very strongly in freedom of religion, but you can't use your freedom of religion to take away ours," he said.

Mary Ann Seifried and Dennis Crone, who run the Helmut's Original Strudel booth in the village, said the controversy might even have helped business because it had drawn attention to the shops.

Oh, and one more thing: "Write about the strudel," Crone said.