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“It was an honest mistake.”

That’s what Shore Road Garden Council Vice President Linda Allegretti told The Brooklyn Paper this week, explaining how she found herself in the center of a neighborhood — and, indeed, worldwide — controversy last year after she used the term “holiday tree” to describe a dark green, ornament-covered spruce that most Americans call a “Christmas tree.”

The tree has since been renamed to reflect its more-common Christian monicker — just in time for a lighting Tuesday night at 90th St. and Shore Road that featured hundreds of residents as well as local elected officials, the student chorus from Xaverian High School, and Santa Claus (not his real name).

At the lighting, Allegretti explained what happened last year.

“I thought that since the tree was going to be on display on a public street, we couldn’t associate it with a religion,” she said.

When people noticed the secularized name, all hell broke loose. Even state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge), a longtime friend who helped Allegretti form the Shore Road Garden Council, publicly railed against her decision to take the “Christ” out of “Christmas tree.”

“No one told me I could have called it a Christmas tree until after the story broke and it was too late,” Allegretti added. “So, knowing that now, we called it a ‘Christmas tree’ this year.”

Still, Allegretti’s fear of infringing upon the First Amendment may only have been matched by her desire for inclusiveness in an ever-changing, demographically diverse neighborhood.

While breathing a sigh of relief that the tree could in fact be associated with Christmas after all, Allegretti was quick to stress that she’s not just Catholic in the religious sense of the word.

“There are so many new groups in Bay Ridge,” said Allegretti, “including Russian Jews, Vietnamese, Muslims, and we want everyone to feel welcome and enjoy the spirit of the season.”

Indeed, not even a local rabbi had a problem with calling the tree by its given Christian name.

“Personally, I don’t mind it being called a Christmas tree, because that is what it is,” said Rabbi Micah Kelber of the Bay Ridge Jewish Center.

As they say in church, l’chaim!

©2007 Community Newspaper Group