In his editorial "Decking the Dining Halls" (December 13), Ethan M. Tucker '97, chair of the Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel, asks, "Is a tree the best way to share Christmas with other students?" I say no.

Tucker seems to think that the Christmas tree itself has religious import for Christians. Today, the so-called Christmas Tree is Christian in name only. It really symbolizes belief in a jolly overweight man who lives at the North Pole and brings gifts to a billion people in a 24-hour period with flying reindeer and elves. It has to do with shopping and 20 percent off sales and flashing lights. It has nothing to do with Jesus, or with what lies at the heart of Christianity and Christmas. They say you can't take the Christ out of X-mas, but we have. The tree is a part of this parallel and secular holiday which, coincidentally, also goes by the name "Christmas."

I personally think of a Christmas tree as pretty darn secular. But if it can't be separated from its original Christian context, then let's get rid of it rather than turn dinner into a house-funded showcase of religious pluralism, as Tucker argues we must do out of fairness to all faiths. I gave house dues for microwaves, beer and dances--not a gallery of world religions. --Daniel K. Hamalainen '98