Philadelphia has a German Christmas Village, which sells trees and no doubt wursts of various kinds—Pennsylvania has a large German flavor, dating from before the American Revolution. And they had a sign saying Christmas Market, so you knew where you were, and what the market was for. Now they don't. The picture shows workmen removing the name.

Let's call it the German 'Holiday' Village

By CATHERINE LUCEY Philadelphia Daily News

It's that season again, which means that for the third year in a row, the German Christmas Village has set up a cozy collection of wooden booths and tree vendors in Dilworth Plaza on the west side of City Hall.

But a few shoppers noticed something amiss yesterday on the tall metal archways signaling the entrances to the shops. The archways had just one word on top - "Village."

Sounds festive, eh?

It turns out that the letters spelling "Christmas" were removed yesterday afternoon from the archways on the north and west sides of the plaza, at the request of Managing Director Richard Negrin. They will be replaced with the word "Holiday."

City spokesman Mark McDonald said Negrin asked for the change after the city received complaints from workers and residents.

"As a city of great diversity, one shouldn't be surprised that there's a difference of views when it comes to symbols and words," McDonald said.

Thomas Bauer, of the German American Marketing Inc., which runs the Village, said he was happy to change the sign. He said the brochures and the posters would keep the Christmas Village title.[More]

Here's a profile of Richard Negrin, [Message him on Twitter] Deputy Mayor of Administration & Coordination, Managing Director of the City of Philadelphia, who has banned Christmas in response to an unknown number of complaints:

"He has served as a member of the Board of Directors for a number of community based organizations including Congreso de Latinos Unidos, where he served as Chair of the Governance Committee. He is a former President of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania (HBA) and has served on the Board of the HBA’s Legal Education Fund. Negrin has also been active in the Hispanic National Bar Association.

Negrin is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Law. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Wagner College, where he was a consensus football all-American and served as captain of the 1987 National Championship football team. After college, Negrin played briefly in the National Football League for the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets."