Satanic Temple's Holiday Tree at Wisconsin Christmas Festival Sparks Outrage: 'It's Absurd'

A small town in Wisconsin is facing heavy backlash after its annual Christmas tree festival included a tree that depicted Satanic ornaments and another that included trans flags.

The Festival of Trees at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin will display 66 Christmas trees until December 31.

But a few of the trees featured this year are sparking the public's outrage. 

One tree displayed red lighting and beads, pentagrams, and various ornaments, with one reading, "Hail Santa," an apparent play off the phrase, "Hail Satan," Fox Digital reported.

"It's impossible to overstate how offensive this is to Christians. It would be, in quite a literal sense, the same thing as waving a Hamas flag inside of a synagogue," Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures."

***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters and download the CBN News app to ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.*** 

"It's just absolutely crazy that we would allow this to happen," he said.

Another tree known as the "Gender Diversity" tree included pink and blue colored trans flags, and ornaments with sayings such as, "Protect Trans Kids."

"Outrageous! National Railroad Museum features a Satanic worship tree," Matt Batzel, executive director of the conservative grassroots organization American Majority, wrote in a post on X, including photos of the Satanic display.

Museum CEO Jacqueline Frank told NBC 26 that although local residents have expressed concerns over the display, all of the trees are within the guidelines of the museum. They do not promote hate, violence, or drug use. 
 
"We believe that everybody should be included regardless of their religious group, regardless of any business or organization that they're a part of. So we don't discriminate, since we're not a religious group ourselves, we're going to allow anyone who wants to take place to take part," Frank said.

One local pastor told Fox News he questioned the museum over its decision to include the controversial tree at a Christmas event with children. 

"It seemed a little bizarre to me that someone, based on that, would think it was appropriate to have a Satanic Temple Christmas tree — or tree, I should say. I won't dignify it by calling it a Christmas tree," Luke Farwell in De Pere, Wisconsin, said.

He added, "What I think Christians need to do more is exercise their ability to allow these venues to have the freedom — such as the National Railroad Museum — to host different ideologies and different groups that have different viewpoints, but recognize that Christians find these things to be offensive or definitely targeting them in terms of belittling their faith or how they celebrate the holidays."

Meanwhile, Gallagher called the entire event "absurd" and said conservatives are "just trying to defend basic traditions — or defend our children in the midst of these basic traditions — from the encroachment of woke ideology, or offensive upside-down cultural propaganda."

"I thought that northeast Wisconsin was at least immune to something that you might see in New York or California, but we need to be vigilant as parents," he said.