Christmas Village

It began when word got to Managing Director Rich Negrin that some city workers and residents were offended by the giant "Christmas Village" sign erected on Dilworth Plaza's northwest corner. After all, there are a few Jewish and Muslim vendors among the nearly 50 wooden booths that make up Philadelphia's version of the traditional German Christmas village, which officially opened here Thursday. There was also a story that reached Negrin about a little Jewish girl walking with her father who asked, according to Negrin: "Dad, don't we get a village?"

The Christmas Village, an outdoor marketplace erected each November in Dilworth Plaza at City Hall, will set up at Love Park this year. Currently, Occupy Philadelphia is encamped at Dilworth Plaza. The Christmas Village, however, had already planned to move. The plaza on the west side of City Hall is scheduled to undergo renovations starting in November. It's not clear yet what will happen with Occupy Philadelphia when it does. The Christmas Village was the subject of national controversy last year when an organizer of the traditional German-style market took down the word "Christmas" from the light-festooned archways leading into the village.

The Christmas Village, an outdoor marketplace that has been erected in November in Dilworth Plaza, will set up at JFK Plaza this year. Though Occupy Philadelphia is encamped at Dilworth Plaza, that's not the reason for the move. The plaza on the west side of City Hall is scheduled to undergo renovations starting in November. It's not clear what will happen to Occupy Philadelphia when it does. The Christmas Village was the subject of national controversy last year when an organizer of the traditional German-style market took down the word Christmas from the light-festooned archways leading into the village.

MR. NEGRIN, I want to thank you for making Philadelphia a disgrace on every national news media outlet this morning, and also for reaffirming our city's image as the sixth-largest joke in the nation. It's people like you who actually foster discrimination against the majority by the tyranny of the minority. In this age of political correctness, elected and bureaucratic appointed officials show their gutless appeasement of a segment of society. You foster a society of complainers when you grovel to the haters of freedom.

CHRISTMAS is back at City Hall. (But don't tell the tree.) After two days of controversy that grew to national proportions, Mayor Nutter announced last night that the word "Christmas" will be restored to the 15-foot-tall arch that welcomed visitors to a German-style Christmas market outside City Hall. The word, spelled out in tiny white lights, had been removed Monday afternoon after city Managing Director Richard Negrin said he had responded to complaints from an unspecified number of city employees and visitors.

I WAS tempted to begin by using the phrase "It takes a village. " Better, I decided, would be "Village idiots. " Every year at this time there are PC battles across the nation over how and where to recognize the holidays. This year, the most ridiculous of them all was at City Hall. How else to explain the city's decision to replace "Christmas" with "Holiday" on the sign marking the entrance to what is obviously a Christmas village, and then to remove the sign altogether - before the mayor finally changed his mind?

There is a place where Christmas fantasies come true, a Winter Wonderland lit by cherry-colored Christmas lights and the beaming faces of children who have come to peek into Santa's Workshop. No, it's not the North Pole, but the corner of North and Fourth Avenues in Pitman, where Frank Hagerty Jr. has transformed his house - as well as that of his mother's - into one large Christmas castle. "I try to make it like a Christmas village for the kids," said Hagerty, 30, who opens the display to visitors every evening between 5:30 and 9. Mike Matuzsan, a neighbor who plays Santa Claus, braves the bitter weather to greet the children who come to Hagerty's corner.

EVEN AFTER the mayor backtracked yesterday, it's hard to imagine a dumber move than trying to take the "Christmas" out of the Christmas Village market at Dilworth Plaza - at least once it was already there. Anyone who knows about the cable-TV/talk- radio crusade against an alleged secular-Jewish-Muslim-atheist "War on Christmas" could have told Managing Director Richard Negrin that the picture of workers removing the word "Christmas" from the sign was guaranteed to go viral. And so it did, stirring up an unnecessary controversy wrapped up in lots of misunderstanding and divisiveness.

THE MOST famous editorial of all time, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," maybe wouldn't be published today. Too much "Santa," not "inclusive" enough. If some people don't like Santa, he has to go. The editorial was published in the Sept. 21, 1897, New York Sun, in response to a letter from 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon, who asked if there was a Santa Claus. The answer then was "yes. " Today, maybe not. Monday, the entrance arches to the "Christmas Village" on Dilworth Plaza were transformed to the (Nothing)

Anyone who missed Mayor Nutter's appearance on NBC's Meet the Press last Sunday might want to check it out online, given the wild and weird week he went on to have in the city of brotherly imbroglios. "None of us walk on water," Nutter told host David Gregory, speaking ostensibly about President Obama, but clearly reflecting on his own stumbles. "There is a harsh reality to this economy that people are in pain, people are upset, people are angry, they are frustrated. . . . So managing expectations is certainly a big part of the job. " Days later, Nutter suffered the political equivalent of getting tangled in the cords while hanging holiday lights.

HOLIDAY A VICTORIAN LAP There's still time to see the beautifully illuminated Victorian homes of Cape May. Board a trolley at Washington Mall for a 30-minute ride through the town's historic district Monday through Thursday. Guides talk about Victorian holiday traditions and lead Christmas sing-alongs. Visit today or next Friday and take a two-hour trolley ride that includes a living history program and refreshments. Holiday lights tour, Monday through Thursday, leaving from the Washington Mall, $10; Spirit of Christmas Tour, Physick Estate, 1048 Washington St., Cape May, today and Dec. 30, $18 adults, $13 children.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Everywhere you go, people are bludgeoning one another with verbal stockings full of coal. Yes, the War on Christmas is back, complete with comedy from Jon Stewart, outrage from Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly, and complaints from believers and atheists alike. In Pitman, a national group has criticized a "Keep Christ in Christmas" banner over a street. In Western Pennsylvania, a mayor has barred the same group's "there are no gods" banner from his town's Nativity scene.

Antiques/Art/Crafts Annual Gingerbread House Competition & Display Over 100 creations are displayed throughout the season in the Village Gazebo. Peddler's Village, Rtes. 202 & 263, Lahaska; 215-794-4000. To 1/7. Christmas Village European food, sweets & drinks, international holiday gifts, ornaments, jewelry & high quality arts & crafts. LOVE Park, John F. Kennedy Blvd. www.philachristmas.com . To 12/24. Crafty Balboa Holiday Works by 50 artists & crafters.

Shoppers perusing the curiosity and gift shops in downtown Pitman might miss the sign hanging overhead that reads, "Keep Christ in Christmas. " But the white plastic banner has caught the attention of a national group advocating the separation of church and state, which maintains that by allowing the sign on public property, the borough is promoting Christmas and Christianity and thus violating the Constitution. The use of the term Christmas can be controversial when it comes to public life.

As the 5 p.m. deadline for Occupy Philly to vacate Dilworth Plaza came and went, several hundred remaining protesters were organizing a sit-in and politely asking those who were not part of the movement to stay outside the immediate area. A police presence was not readily discernible, and by 6:30 p.m., no action had been taken. On Friday, city officials gave protesters an eviction notice, ordering them to move by 5 p.m. Sunday. Police seemed to be taking an extremely restrained approach, with Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan saying in early evening that police have no plans to evict anyone.

Occupy Philadelphia protesters must take down their tents and may no longer sleep on city property, Philadelphia officials said Monday, but the city will consider letting the group set up a more limited protest at a new location. The city said it would not evict the protesters, encamped at Dilworth Plaza, before Thanksgiving. The group will get 48 hours' notice before any eviction, and no date has been set, Philadelphia officials said. Occupy Philly was invited to apply for a permit to protest from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Thomas Paine Plaza, across the street.

The Christmas Village, an outdoor marketplace that has been erected in November in Dilworth Plaza, will set up at JFK Plaza this year. Though Occupy Philadelphia is encamped at Dilworth Plaza, that's not the reason for the move. The plaza on the west side of City Hall is scheduled to undergo renovations starting in November. It's not clear what will happen to Occupy Philadelphia when it does. The Christmas Village was the subject of national controversy last year when an organizer of the traditional German-style market took down the word Christmas from the light-festooned archways leading into the village.

The Christmas Village, an outdoor marketplace erected each November in Dilworth Plaza at City Hall, will set up at Love Park this year. Currently, Occupy Philadelphia is encamped at Dilworth Plaza. The Christmas Village, however, had already planned to move. The plaza on the west side of City Hall is scheduled to undergo renovations starting in November. It's not clear yet what will happen with Occupy Philadelphia when it does. The Christmas Village was the subject of national controversy last year when an organizer of the traditional German-style market took down the word "Christmas" from the light-festooned archways leading into the village.