The most outrageous offender of this year’s Christmas and Hanukkah season, and Becket’s 2023 Ebenezer Award winner, is California Governor Gavin Newsom, who canceled the state’s annual in-person Christmas tree lighting and skipped the menorah lighting traditionally attended by the governor. As if to combine the two slights, the governor said he was canceling the live Christmas tree lighting over fears that anti-Israel protestors would cause disruption.

Becket’s 2022 Ebenezer Award winner is King County, Washington, for banning holiday decorations in employee video backgrounds. In a memo sent last month, the county’s Department of Human Resources told employees that they should not display nativity sets, menorahs and other religious holiday displays because they could be offensive to their colleagues.  

The most outrageous offender of this year’s Christmas and Hanukah season and Becket’s 2021 Ebenezer Award winner is the Brookings, Oregon City Council for restricting church efforts to feed the homeless. An ordinance passed in late October by the council has severely restricted area ministries like St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church from feeding the city’s rapidly growing homeless population.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), a noted anti-Christmas activist group, found a way to steal presents from children. FFRF intimidated a Kansas school district into canceling its annual charity drive that sends Christmas gifts and necessities to underprivileged children abroad. The reason: the drive was sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian international disaster relief organization – and FFRF can’t abide the thought of a religious organization helping school children spread Christmas cheer.

The Dunwoody City Council voted unanimously to bar religious symbols and displays in common areas of city-owned buildings. The curmudgeonly city council originally proposed a list of acceptable and unacceptable symbols. But after (rightly) coming under fire for prohibiting the menorah, the city council scrapped the list for a more blanketly discriminatory ban. 

Durham town leaders denied the local Chabad’s request to display a menorah next to the town Christmas tree because it wasn’t “secular” or “inclusive” enough for the annual “holiday” tree lighting in a local park.

Christmas trees, menorahs, and the colors red, green, silver, and blue have been deemed inappropriate for college campuses this holiday season, at least according to an official at the University of Minnesota. Only general decorations and party themes such as “winter celebration” were allowed at the University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) “Respecting Religious Diversity” event this month.

In an almost unbelievable act of Christmas time stinginess, this holiday season the American Humanist Association went to court in Colorado in an effort to stop public school children from volunteering for a program that sends care packages to children in need.

The Department of Veteran Affairs bans employees at its Salem, Virginia facility from saying “Merry Christmas” to veterans.

The City of Sioux Falls threatened to repaint and censor snowplows with artwork celebrating the religious nature of Christmas.

Wisconsin’s Department of Administration apparently doesn’t know that it is constitutionally permissible for the government to have a tasteful Christmas display.

Governor Chaffee was embarrassed when a flash mob showed up to the lighting of his Holiday Tree and defiantly sang “O Christmas Tree.”  To avoid a repeat this year, he announced the lighting ceremony only 30 minutes before it happened.

Despite Benjamin Franklin’s command, as founder of the Post Office, to “always live jollily; for a good conscience is a continual Christmas,” the carolers have fallen victim to the ridiculous policy that you are not allowed to sing Christmas carols on government property.

This year’s Ebenezer went to Philadelphia Deputy Mayor, Richard Negrin, for forcing the “Christmas Village” to take “Christmas” off its traditional entry archway and replace it with the word “Holiday”.

This court house had a holiday display consisting of a Loch Ness Monster, a woodpecker and a fire truck, and showed no symbol of any known holiday being celebrated anywhere in the world this December.

Wilson Bradshaw won this year for first canceling all holiday festivities and decoration at FGCU. He later reversed his decision after getting much unwanted national attention and criticism.

This year, the Ebenezer went to Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, for protesting a church-sponsored shoe giveaway.

Mayor Daley removed the film The Nativity Story from the Christmas festival. He later announced that he was reversing a previous decision announced by his office, and scenes from the film would be allowed to play at the festival

Mr. Pashkin filed a federal lawsuit against the Town of Huntington’s neutral, harmless holiday display, which consists of a Christmas tree, menorah, crèche, and Peace on Earth sign.

This school “banned” a stage production of A Christmas Carol because the school feared it would violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

The school system’s policy allows the display of Jewish menorahs and the Muslim star and crescent, but not a Christian nativity scene.

They tried to shut down “Mothers, Inc.,” a Christian-based charity run by Brenda McCormick that distributes Christmas and Thanksgiving turkeys and other food, as well as household items, clothing and toys to the poor and needy.

In 2001, a council decided to replace the “peace tree,” or the Christmas tree, with a “peace banner” and to remove Santa from their tree lighting ceremony.

This city manager of Eugene, Oregon, issued a five-page, single-spaced memo banning Christmas trees from any “public space” in the city.