The War on Christmas (and Common Sense) Continues. Hillsboro schools—where “inclusion” apparently means excluding the most celebrated holiday in the United States. Yes, you heard that right. In a country where Christmas is synonymous with joy, family, and generosity, the powers that be decided the best way to foster inclusivity was to shove Christmas out the door.
Let’s break this down. At the Hillsboro bus barn (that’s the break room for the hardworking folks who get kids to school every day), someone dared to put up a Christmas tree. A Christmas tree! Not a nativity scene, not a preacher in the corner, just a tree—a cheerful symbol of the season that even non-Christians tend to enjoy. But Carol Hatfield, the district’s “Transportation Czar,” wasn’t having it. In a memo that reads more like a bad TED Talk, she decreed: “No tree.”
Hatfield, with her self-assigned role as the arbiter of all things constitutional, insisted workers should focus on “other cultural celebrations” like Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Now, don’t get me wrong, celebrating diverse traditions is fine. But singling out the one holiday observed by the majority of Americans as off-limits reeks of something else entirely. And just to rub salt in the wound, she accused her workers of being motivated by “unconscious bias and privilege.” Ah yes, the true crime here isn’t banning a tree—it’s the gall of regular folks daring to celebrate Christmas!
A Washington state school district has banned Christmas trees to be more inclusive.
My good friend Lars Larson, the nationally-syndicated talk radio host, first reported that the Hillsboro School District had banished Christmas trees.
When bus drivers got word of the ban they…
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) December 12, 2024
Parents, if this is what they’re feeding bus drivers, imagine the ideological buffet waiting for your kids in the classroom.
But wait—there’s more! This obsession with censoring anything remotely Christian doesn’t stop in Washington State. A homeowners association (HOA) in Texas decided it was time to wage its own little war on religion.
One of their residents put up a yard sign reading “Pray for America” and a banner declaring, “Jesus is Our Only Hope.” Innocuous, right? Not for this HOA. They sent her a violation notice demanding she take them down. When she complied with size regulations and resubmitted a smaller version, the HOA played its next card: labeling the signs as “political” to dodge the real issue—the religious content.
After pressing for clarification, the truth came out: religious signs were not allowed, even though all sorts of nonreligious signs were. HOA rules gave the Architectural Review Committee the authority to approve exceptions, but surprise, surprise, they decided to flex that power only to block Christian messages.
A Texas homeowner was ordered to “remove all ‘Jesus’ signs” from her property. The woman was told by her homeowner’s association that religious yard signs are not permitted. Only non-religious signs are allowed.
The woman had a sign in her front yard that read, “Pray for… pic.twitter.com/eXEsbqtGNE
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) December 10, 2024
Fortunately, this story ends differently. When the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) stepped in, the HOA folded faster than a cheap lawn chair. Their blatant discrimination violated the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits religious bias in housing regulations. After receiving a sternly worded letter, they quickly reversed their decision and granted our client the right to display her signs.
So, what’s the lesson here? Whether it’s government bureaucrats banning trees or HOAs nitpicking yard signs, there’s a troubling pattern of singling out Christianity under the guise of “inclusion” or “neutrality.” The only thing neutral about these situations is their total disregard for fairness.
It’s high time we call this nonsense what it is: a double standard aimed at erasing Christian traditions while elevating others. Americans shouldn’t have to fight this hard to celebrate their faith in their own communities. Yet here we are, holding the line—tree by tree, sign by sign, against the relentless march of exclusion disguised as inclusion.
