Stay tuned next week, when the Orange County Superior courthouse decides to play football with puppies and holds a feast of kitten meat.

The removal of a Christmas tree from the Orange County Superior courthouse Monday has prompted a petition among court employees to have the tree — connected to a gift drive for poor children — put back.

The six-foot artificial tree, which was adorned with tags seeking toy donations to ‘Operation Santa Claus,’ was removed Monday after a member of the public complained about the tree being in the courthouse, court spokeswoman Gwen Vieau said.

“It’s a public building and we have to serve the diversity of our community,” she said.

The tree had been put up in the courthouse every holiday season for about 20 years, said Orange County Sheriff’s Special Officer Cynthia Guerrero, who runs the courthouse’s ‘Operation Santa Claus’ effort. She was ordered to take down the tree.

First of all, Christmas trees are so disconnected from religion these days that I can’t see how the presence of one seems to endorse the same religious values our legal system was built upon. I know Jewish families who get a tree for the house every year, and indeed we all know about the Hanukkah bush. It’s a tree, not a recreation of the birth of Christ.

Second, the tree was dedicated to buying gifts for poor children. We’re so intent on removing any possible symbol of any religion from our government that we’re willing to let poor children wake up to no presents on Christmas morning? Because one member of the public complained? One member of the public complaining can change a decades-old tradition?

If that’s the case, I’d like to formally lodge a complaint against massive deficits.