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Health & Fitness

Fighting Grinch at 60th Nativity Scenes

Lighthouse kids show young support for an old tradition. The Nativity Scenes have been driven from the Santa Monica bluffs.

Lighthouse students once again graced Nativity Scenes opening ceremonies with cute faces and Christmas carols Sunday afternoon Dec. 15 on the bluffs at Ocean Avenue and Arizona Avenue.

What was unusual this year was the lack of 13 life-sized diorama scenes depicting the announcement and birth of Jesus Christ at their traditional spot in the Palisade Park. Those scenes were being displayed at the Mount Olive Lutheran Church at 1343 Ocean Park Blvd.

After 58 years featured in the park, the City Council cowing before atheists refused to allow them last year, following the argument that use of public property for religious displays was a violation of the separation principle.

It was a sad irony for a city that was once touted as "the City of the Christmas Story." In past decades, the scenes were so celebrated that hundreds of cars would line up Ocean Avenue to view them in long lines.

Last year, event organizers scrambled to find an alternative site, ultimately finding open arms at an industrial park on Ocean Park Blvd.

Sunday's event, witnessed by 100+ people from different churches, was a festive affair. Nativity scenes supporters have shown their refusal to be "grinched out" of Santa Monica.

Contending that Christians are entitled to equal use of park property, Nativity Scenes organizers have filed suit, and their case is currently pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, they said.

Instead of the showcases housing the scenes, there was a large banner depicting each scene held for display.

If the anti-religion crowd hoped to banish faith from the community, ironically they may have only given more impetus to the Nativity Scenes, which were languishing from general disinterest before their saber-rattling strengthened people's resolve to support them.

Students from the Lighthouse Church School and the Lighthouse Christian Academy looked oblivious to the brouhaha swirling around their beloved tradition.

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