Criticism from a civil rights advocacy group about how Wreaths Across America conducts its annual laying of evergreen wreaths on deceased service members’ graves each December led Republican Congressional Representatives Doug Lamborn of Colorado and Bob Good of Virginia to send an appeal Thursday to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough.

The letter signed by 45 colleagues requests that the VA, which oversees 155 cemeteries under the National Cemetery Administration, “continue granting access to Arlington National Cemetery and similar sites across the country so that volunteers can lay wreaths at gravesites in honor of our nation’s fallen heroes.”

“I am disgusted that individuals are taking the war on Christmas to new levels by comparing wreaths to gang signs and attempting to stop this long-standing tradition. We must continue to accommodate volunteers as they honor and respect our fallen soldiers by laying Christmas wreaths,” said Lamborn, who represents Colorado’s 5th Congressional District and is known for his advocacy for military funding and support.

Wreaths on veterans’ gravesites sparks protest

Volunteers will place 2 million wreaths on headstones at more than 3,100 cemeteries across the nation on Saturday, according to Wreaths Across America spokeswoman Amber Caron.

All but nine national cemeteries are participating, she said, with the U.S. Senate designating Dec. 18 as “Wreaths Across America Day” for 2021. 

But the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a New Mexico-based organization that represents military separate of church and state cases, wants the VA or local cemeteries to obtain permission from families before setting wreaths on gravesites.

Otherwise, the practice constitutes “desecration,” said Mikey Weinstein, founder and president.

Weinstein, who is Jewish, considers the wreath as a symbol of the Christian observance of the birth of Jesus, celebrated as Christmas.

Caron told The Gazette in an article that published Dec. 4 they are not Christmas wreaths but veterans’ wreaths, designed to fulfill the organization’s mission to remember all the fallen, honor those that serve in the military and their families, and teach the next generation the value of freedom.

Caron said volunteers for years have been instructed to not place wreaths on headstones that have the Jewish Star of David sign. It is not Jewish custom to leave live flowers or greenery on graves.

In response to a complaint Weinstein recently sent to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs about the event, a senior member of McDonough’s staff “assured us Wreaths Across America will only put wreaths on Christian gravesites and leave graves alone with the Star of David,” Weinstein said.

As has been the case, families’ requests to the VA or cemeteries directly to opt out of wreath laying will be followed, the staff member said.

Weinstein isn’t happy about the response.

“That’s completely inadequate,” he said. “We’re very disappointed in the Biden administration; the burden should not be on the families to opt out. Wreaths Across America should have to opt in. It should be up to them to see who wants the wreaths on the grave.”

Lamborn and Cook write in their appeal to the VA: “Sadly, as Wreaths Across America Day approaches this year, an anti-Christian organization is attacking this recognition, calling it unconstitutional, a disgrace, and an atrocity, to honor our fallen soldiers in this way.”

Says Weinstein: “The VA has approved 74 faiths for their symbols and icons on headstones, but the only ones that get a blanket exemption are Jews,” Weinstein said. “We have Native Americans, Buddhists, Islamic, Shinto, Dao, atheists, agnostics, humanists, secularists and everybody else.”

Wreaths Across America began informally at Arlington National Cemetery in December 1992, when a family who owns a wreath-making business in Maine donated their leftover stock to the Army-run cemetery in Virginia.

The organization gained nonprofit status in 2007, and the practice spread nationwide. The Senate first recognized Wreaths Across America Day in 2008.

Whether the VA would step in and prevent national cemeteries from participating is unknown. Lamborn spokeswoman Cassandra Sebastian said his office has not heard whether that would happen.

And whether the VA will respond to the letter Congressional leaders sent Thursday also is uncertain.

“We sometimes get a response,” Sebastian said. “That’s hard to say.”