In 1938, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia waged what became known as his “War on Christmas”—an effort to keep mostly immigrant vendors off the streets by forcing them to obtain licenses.
So few were issued that trees vanished, causing an uproar. That’s when the City Council enacted an exception allowing vendors free access to sidewalks once a year to sell Christmas trees, so long as adjoining store owners give their consent and the operation doesn’t block pedestrians. The city later changed the text of the law to apply to coniferous trees, rather than Christmas trees, to avoid the appearance of giving special treatment to one religious group. …
And they wonder why Trump is winning