PHOENIX -- On Friday, officials cleared up a controversy surrounding ornaments Arizona school children are making to be displayed on the National Christmas Tree.
Surrounded by decorations and glitter, first grader Mica Clayton generously slathered green paint on a styrofoam cactus.
"I like to make the cactuses and paint," she said.
Mica is one of thousands of Arizona school children making decorations for the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C.
Five thousand Arizona children have been working for weeks to create symbols of Arizona, to hang on an 85-foot blue spruce which will be harvested near Springerville.
"It means a lot to me just knowing it's going to be there in Washington," said Meshea Shaner, a 6th grader at Pioneer Elementary School in Gilbert.
The decorations have to be made from recyclable materials, and art teachers like Patty Leonard have spent weeks gathering the materials and making sure they withstand the elements.
"These projects were put in my freezer and in the sprinklers before we could go ahead with them," Leonard says.
But the project has not been without controversy. There was information that no religious or political ornaments would be allowed on the tree.
But according to USDA forest service spokesman Jim Payne, it came from old information posted on the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree website and has since been removed.
Payne said the only restrictions on the ornaments is that they have to be weatherproof and meet size requirements.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a legal group representing religious groups, wrote a letter protesting the decision, and threatened to file a lawsuit by October 4 if it isn't overturned.
A Gilbert family protested the decision, wanting to submit decorations which say "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Birthday Jesus."
