A recent article in a Christmas trade magazine had the following quote by a professional Christmas decorator, whose company designs and installs large scale Christmas displays for hospitals, banks and municipalities. He said “religious themes are pretty much out for public displays, unless paid for and sponsored by private funds” Then he remembered two major shopping centers in southern Florida who displayed the full Christmas Creche within the mall. “I had not seen that in a long time”, he mused.
What an interesting comment and, like a lot of life, there is more to the story. Our website features large outdoor Nativity sets and Creche. Every year we sell more large sets to municipalities and public institutions as well as nursing homes, hospitals, banks, manufacturing companies and yes, shopping centers. The two sets referred to by the decorator were sold by us as a result of missionary work by our customer who convinced the mall management that they were well within their rights to display this Christian religious symbol. We have had customers who purchased Nativity sets to donate to their local municipality only to have the council get cold feet regarding the supreme court ruling and have to be convinced by a constitutional lawyer that they were not breaking the law. Please see the note on our website under “Useful Information” entitled “Your Legal Right to Display a Nativity Scene”