Atheists and Christians, whose nose-to-nose battle last year over holiday displays at Santa Monica’s Palisades Park in Los Angeles County received national attention, won’t get a chance to reprise their clash this year.

A federal judge this week upheld Santa Monica’s ban on all unattended private displays in city parks, effectively ending a 60-year tradition of colorful nativity scenes along the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean

Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr., pronounced it the “first salvo in the War on Christmas this year.”

The park’s nativity tradition began in 1953 with the inauguration of a pageant that kicked off at the park, where eight churches each displayed scenes from the birth of Christ in elaborate dioramas. A website devoted to the annual event, run by the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee, noted that a Jewish synagogue asked to participate in some fashion but was denied.

The nativity scenes and pageant became a major holiday attraction at the park. With financial support from Santa Monica, the scenes increased to 14 by 1958, and by 1960 the city had voted to call itself “The City of the Christmas Story” during December. On opening night, a chorus of children would parade through town in the shape of a cross, singing traditional religious songs.

Proposition 13 in 1978 put a dent in the city’s finances and it began to scale back formal support for the event, but in 1979 nationally-known atheist leader Madelyn Murray O’Hair and the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue the city if it continued to help fund the religious pageant. The city withdrew its participation.

Legal issues continued to swirl around the religious dioramas, even as other celebratory elements slowly disappeared. The city council voted in 2001 to ban displays in the park, including the nativity scene, but reversed itself before the ordinance had any effect.

A couple of years ago, an atheist named Damon Vix applied to put up a booth next to the nativity scenes. Last year he encouraged other groups to do the same. They bombarded the city with applications, and in response Santa Monica decided to hold a lottery to pick who could set up displays.

Atheists won 18 of the 21 available spaces. One of their displays proclaimed “Reason’s Greetings” and another one consisted of a poster showing Father Christmas, Jesus and Satan, with type that read: “37 million Americans know MYTHS when they see them.”

A Jewish group won a spot and put up a Hanukkah menorah. The once-proud nativity tableau of 14 scenes was stuffed into two. Tempers flared, vandals messed up one of the displays and a number of booths were purposely left empty.

In June, the city council voted to enact the ban on displays and was sued by the Nativity Scenes Committee.

U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins refused the committee’s request for a preliminary judgment blocking the ordinance that would have allowed display of the scenes while the case proceeded. Collins said the committee was free to present its religious exhibit on private property. The plaintiff’s attorney vowed to appeal.

–Ken Broder   

To Learn More:

A City Ban Changes the Christmas Scene (by Ian Lovett, New York Times)

Judge Rules against Christians in Santa Monica Nativity Battle (Agence France-Presse)

U.S. Religious Landscape Survey (Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life)

Judge Denies Bid for Park Nativity Displays in Santa Monica (by Gillian Flaccus,

Associated Press)

Santa Monica May Bar Nativity Scenes in Public Areas, Judge Rules (by Martha Groves and Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times)

Judge Denies Bid for Nativity Scene in California Town (by Steve Gorman, Reuters)

Santa Monica Sued for Limiting Christmas Display (by Ken Broder, AllGov California)