Christmas trees are pagan or secular at best. They're morons to have wasted time on this Rabbi's misplaced complaint.
"Christmas trees are pagan or secular at best."
Not really true.
Once a tradition takes on a religious significance, it doesn't really matter where it came from. Rather, it matters what value people ascribe to that symbol at the moment.
I seriously doubt you place much religious significance in the pelican, but in medieval times, it was seen as a sign of the sacrifice of Christ, to have bled from its breast to feed its young.
Sacred? Absolutely. A reflection of the divine (if not a manifestation of the essence) in the natural world.
Religious today? Not really.