A couple years ago a stand-off between a menorah and a christmas tree resulted in eerie scenes of winter wonderland at Sea-Tac. This year, via the Seattle LiveJournal community [#], comes word of the latest pairing in winter icons. It seems that the baby Jesus has company this year at the State Capitol. The Freedom From Religion folks have sent a little sign to Olympia to sit along side the nativity scene. [times] My own perspective is that the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s are so drenched with holiday music, overwhelming advertisements, and inescapable decorations that it doesn’t seem too grinchly to suggest that an airport or government building free of “spirit” or “anti-spirit” could be more of a refuge than an insult. Your mileage my vary.

While we’re on the topic of holiday insults, it turns out that the Bush family doesn’t want to spend their last days in the White House being taunted by their tree. Seattlest brings us the story [#] of local artist Deborah Lawrence whose McDermott-loving, Bush-hating ornament nearly made it onto the official tree before someone took a look at the fine collage print. [komo]