Christmas Trees Return To Bergen Mall Following Social Media Uproar: Report

The owner of several North Jersey malls has replaced its minimalist futuristic holiday settings, including the one at the Shops at Riverside Square in Hackensack, following a barrage of criticism on social media, NBC New York reported.

The “Glacier Experience” displays, which featured Santa Claus and an enchanted glacier where children could play games in an artificial snow bank, did not contain Christmas trees, the report states.

The lack of Christmas trees prompted the social media backlash.

A Facebook group called “Boycott Simon Malls” sprang up over the weekend, urging customers to boycott malls owned by the company until the holiday displays featured a traditional set-up. More than 7,300 people have joined the group as of Tuesday afternoon.

A bus driver for the Parsippany Public School District voiced his opinion about display at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall on social media.

Frank Atkins claimed to be offended as a Christian, used the words “towel head,” a derogatory term often used to offend someone of Middle Eastern descent or someone who wears a turban.

Atkins’s statement, in full:

“This mall used to be so great. Disney. Warner bros. Sharper image. McDonald’s. Sam goody. Fye. Kb. I know a lot of those stores went out. But Rockaway for some reason thinks it’s short hills. Yet resides next to Wharton and Dover. It’s turned into a snooty women’s purse mall. It sucks. And now they go politically correct and refuse to have Christmas decorations up so as to not offend the towel heads. WHAT ABOUT OFFENDING US THE CHRISTIANS! My kid will never visit Santa there and I work for the Parsippany school district. I am sending the word out to all our schools and all the others to boycott your mall!”

Atikins apologized Tuesday for the post.

“I was angry and I said something I shouldn’t,” Atkins, told Parsippany Patch Tuesday. “I wasn’t mad at any particular person or group, but mad at the mall and what they were doing. What I said was wrong, and I apologize for that.”

Simon Malls issued an apology regarding the displays over the weekend, The Huffington Post reported.

“It was a mistake,” Simon Malls president David Contis told the Charlotte Observer.