Talk about Christmas trees or other externals is really pretty parochial, since they're only a western phenomenon, and only present outside of that context by the fact of the impact of western culture on other types of Christians (and non-Christians; when I lived in Oregon while I was going to college there, the second largest foreign-born student population were Saudis, and these people
loved Christmas; it was obviously not a
religious holiday for them, of course, but an excuse to exchange gifts and meet with friends, just like it is for the majority of westerners).
It's just like the Malankara Orthodox from India and their army of Santas and Christmas caroling (something we don't do in the Coptic Orthodox Church): it obviously betrays a Western/European influence -- which you might expect if you know anything about India's colonial history under the Portuguese and the British -- but it doesn't really touch their liturgical
worship any. Can you really convict these people of anything beyond undoubtedly having more fun than you? (And one of them wearing a terrifying Santa mask, yes
)
Meanwhile,
in their Nativity liturgies...
Not a Santa hat to be found, nor a Christmas tree.
This is right to do, of course, and I would take the fact that they can make such distinctions as these (what is for the liturgy and what is not) ought to be instructive to those who are looking from the outside, as any of us in this thread are. And I would like to extend the same courtesy to any others who am
not in communion with, too, like when the Antiochian Orthodox Arabs flex their pop music muscles for Christmas:
If I were to say "This type of music isn't in keeping with the Antiochian Orthodox tradition!" (cf. "Christmas trees aren't an integral part of the Christian faith!"), I would fully expect any Antiochian Orthodox person to answer "Yes, I know."
That doesn't mean that they can't have it (clearly) and still be faithful to Christ and their Church.
We shouldn't confuse "These people have a Christmas tree" with "These people have succumbed to paganism" just because the pagans also had trees, since the context and meaning is totally different. It is up to the Church to draw the line appropriately, and it is not infrequently the case that criticism in matters such as these reveals a fundamental lack of trust in the Church to do so properly, which is unfaithful to Christ's words that the gates of hell shall not be victorious against His Church. Christ really said that, without adding "unless you have a Christmas tree."