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You can call the Colorado blue spruce standing in Lake Superior Plaza whatever you tiffany jewelry want. Minnesota Power isn’t giving it an official label.

A news release from Minnesota Power announcing that the 50- to 60-foot tree would go up Wednesday referred to it as a holiday tree, and that is what it was called in coverage of the event held at 30 W. Superior St. This sparked a debate in the comments section of duluthnewstribune.com, pitting Team Christmas against Team Holiday.

“Some call it a Christmas tree, some call it a holiday tree,” Minnesota Power communications manager Amy Rutledge said Thursday. “When it’s set up for us, it symbolizes the start of the holiday season. It’s important to focus on the fact that it’s a community tree.”

This is the 25th year that Minnesota Power has put up a tree, which was donated this tiffany necklaces year by a local family. It will be lighted Nov. 20, before the Christmas City of the North Parade, and taken down sometime after New Year’s Day.

Rutledge said there was never an internal discussion about what to call the tree. The news release said “holiday tree,” but a Minnesota Power employee referred to it as a Christmas tree on television.

Rutledge said that no one complained to Minnesota Power about what the tree has been called.

The holiday vs. Christmas debate itself seems to be a sort of holiday tradition. During the 1990s, the decorated tree at the White House was referred to as a “holiday tree.” The one recently shipped from Arizona to the U.S. Capitol has been tagged as a Christmas tree, and has been since 2005.

In 2005, the Rev. Jerry Falwell started the “Friend or Foe” campaign to combat what he said was an attack on Christmas. This included boycotting major retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart that used “holiday” instead of “Christmas” in advertising.

A local Catholic priest’s take: If the tree is on Minnesota Power’s property, then they can call it whatever they want.

“If it were on my land, it would be called a Christmas tree,” said the Rev. William Graham, the rings chairman of the Catholic studies department at the College of St. Scholastica. “I think Minnesota Power, since they own the land, they get to decide. They’ll get no lip from me.”

The News Tribune couldn’t confirm Thursday whether the tree stands on company land or public land, but Lake Superior Plaza is clearly a public space.

Rabbi Amy Bernstein of Temple Israel said it should be called a Christmas tree, but she thinks there are good intentions behind calling it a holiday tree.

“It’s an attempt to be inclusive and respectful of other traditions,” she said.

But since there isn’t a tree associated with Hanukkah, Bernstein added, it doesn’t make any sense.

“It’s a Christmas tree,” she said. “Nobody else has a tree.”

Dave Jensch, the station manager at the Northland’s NewsCenter, said the tree was referred to as a Christmas bangles tree during Wednesday’s 6 p.m. newscast show and a holiday tree at 10 p.m.

Jensch said his station typically uses the term “holiday” but has no plans to lose the “Christmas” in the Christmas City of the North Parade, which it sponsors. A name change — to the “KBJR Christmas Parade” — was experimented with a decade or so ago.

“And people went crazy,” Jensch said, adding because of the link to the Merv Griffin song “Christmas City,” it’s unlikely it will ever change.

Bill van Druten of the Lake Superior Freethinkers has a take that goes beyond whether it’s a holiday tree or a Christmas tree.

“It’s foolish to cut down a living tree for that sort of nonsense,” he said. “We can have a very happy December or holiday without destroying nature.”

Credit: Duluth News Tribune, Minn.