2 Religious Groups Competing For Holiday Displays In Santa Monica
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — There is a poster likening Jesus to Santa Claus in the space where for most of the past 57 years only life-size depictions of Jesus' birth stood every Christmas.
"37 million Americans know myths when they see them...what myths do you see?" the sign reads.
Upset that the Christian displays lost their 14 spaces at Palisades Park this year, the Santa Monica Nativity Committee is asking city officials to the necessary steps to assure the 14 Nativity scenes are allowed on Ocean Avenue in 2012 and forever after.
For the first time, the city held a lottery this year to determine assignments at the park after it received an unusually high number of requests from people outside the committee for holiday displays to be set-up the same time in roughly the same place.
"We needed a system that was equitable that did not address content," City Director of Community & Cultural Services Barbara Stinchfield told CBS2's Suzie Suh.
The committee drew only three spots for its Nativities, instead of the usual 14, while Joe Naranja, of Christmas Spirit, and Raymond McNeely, unaffiliated, got up to 18 parcels. Many of those parcels are currently vacant grass.
The organizer of the Nativity Scenes has plans to circulate a petition to get more of these spaces next year.
