"Christmas Tree" Cut Down; Five Arrested (SAE, Oregon State)
 

The tradition continues, unfortunately.

This happened to be the first such incident I've seen or heard about this season.

Police arrested five Oregon State students who had cut down a blue spruce that they said they intended to use as a Christmas tree at Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

See:
http://www.ktvl.com/articles/members...re-police.html

The article, dated Nov. 29, 2011, is from the KTVL site, and its headline is “Police: Fraternity members stole Christmas tree.”

A similar article's at

http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/loc...cc4c03286.html

Neither Matthew's Magi nor Luke's shepherds were reported to have stolen stuff, as far as I can remember. Just sayin'.