|
SANTA MONICA — The life-sized Nativity scenes in Santa Monica have to be scaled back this year after losing the much of the display areas to atheist groups.
For 57 years, churches from Santa Monica have joined together to create various scenes surrounding the birth of Jesus in Santa Monica’s Palisades Park. People could walk or drive along Ocean Avenue and view the scenes illustrating Christ’s birth.
In 1960, the City Council voted to call Santa Monica the “City of the Christmas Story” in December.
This year the displays will show a different story.
The churches have had little competition to reserve their 14 display spaces for the holiday. However this year, due to an unusual number of space requests from outside the city, a lottery was used to award the spaces.
The Nativity Scenes, which normally have 14 displays, are being confined to two. The Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee said that the space would allow for three of the fourteen scenes to be displayed. The majority of the displays this year have an anti-religious theme.
Atheist Raymond McNealy, of Burbank, won nine spots. He told KTLA that he is outraged that a church organization is demanding exclusive rights on public property.
Even thought this year’s display will be considerably smaller than in recent years, Hunter Jameson, of the Nativity Scene Committee said in a letter to supporters, “We rejoice, though, that this 50-year-plus tradition will continue to have a presence in Palisades Park this year.”
"Christmas is still in our hearts. Christmas is still here," Jameson told KTLA. "We're just praying and working that next year there will be the full 14 booths here as there have been in the past."
According to the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee, which oversees the annual display, no city funds are provided. The organization is a nonprofit organization.
For information on the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes go to www.santamonicanativityscenes.org
|
