Yule Trees are pagan anyway, and yes, they’re trees, and really more a symbol of winter, ritual deforestation Capitalistmas than Christmas. Christians just appropriated the symbol and jammed it into their story and their modern imagery for it, as with so many other things.
I remember decades ago school teachers saying we could paint our classroom windows… but we couldn’t include religious symbols, including trees… I think we couldn’t paint presents or maybe even snowmen either. Enthusiasm went from “yay” to “blah” immediately. I did understand the reasoning they gave us, though which I think is sort of the same here, in a more adult and more dysfunctional context, which is essentially subtle peer pressure can make others feel left out because so many people are all mindlessly doing their thing… but ya the PC whirlwind and counter-whirlwinds are nuts these days.
I love trees, and Xma$ trees. The only things that bother me about the Xma$ trees are:
* Growing so many young trees and then killing them and tossing them fairly wastefully, in most cases. I’d like to see more uncut decorated trees that survive the ritual, and better use of the wood from the cut ones.
* They’re partly a symbol for me of the state of American culture and spirituality, which I find pretty dire.
But no, I think it’s dumb for a store to remove a tree due to a complaint. There are issues, but a tree in a store doesn’t seem likely to be on-point.