Portland hosts ‘tree lighting ceremony’ without mention of Christmas, speakers chant ‘free Palestine’

The event at Pioneer Courthouse Square, officially branded only as “Portland’s 41st Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony,” featured a 75-foot Douglas-fir covered in thousands of LED lights, a visit from Santa Claus, and the usual holiday cheer. Yet neither the city’s advertisements, social-media posts, nor most onstage speakers ever uttered the word “Christmas.”

Instead, the gathering opened with acknowledgments of Native American Heritage Day and quickly pivoted to explicit political messaging. A woman draped in a Palestinian flag took the microphone early in the program and declared, “This is the perfect time to bring this up. There are a lot of genocides going on.”

She then led portions of the crowd in chanting “Free, free, free Palestine” before performing the intertribal “Strong Woman Song” alongside members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and two young children. Another speaker from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs reflected on the complexity of cutting down and transporting the tree, stating, “The tree that we stand beside was once rooted in its own home… trees, rivers, mountains, all living beings are family more than the objects and more than the symbols that they might stand for.”

City and Pioneer Courthouse Square social-media accounts promoted the event simply as the “Tree Lighting Ceremony” or “Portland’s Tree is lit!” A review of past promotions shows organizers stopped using “Christmas tree lighting” in official messaging as far back as 2019.

Conservative commentators and residents were quick to call out what they saw as deliberate secularization and politicization of a family holiday tradition. One viral comment summed up the sentiment of many critics: “In Portland, they’re trying to take the Christmas out of Christmas tree. It’s a Christmas tree, it’s always been a Christmas tree, and it will always be a Christmas tree.”

When contacted by Fox News, Democratic Mayor Keith Wilson’s office defended the event and explicitly used the phrase that critics say was missing all night. “Mayor Wilson was delighted to join Portland’s annual Christmas Tree Lighting alongside Christmas carolers and holiday festivities,” the statement read. “That said, framing it otherwise feels like quite the reach.”