Wauwatosa. The gift that keeps giving to conservative journalists.
Despite international mockery, the City of Wauwatosa has gone ahead and lit up City Hall in green and BLUE lights for Christmas to avoid offending people.
Yes, it’s for real. After seeing a tweet by the page @wokeatosa on the topic, we had a Wauwatosa resident check it out for us to confirm the information, and it’s true. Wauwatosa City Hall is lit up with green and blue lights.
The front of City Hall remains light-free. However, it’s the back of City Hall’s government building, the one city workers use to enter the building, that now shines green and blue for Christmas.
This follows the suggestion in an email Deputy City Administrator Melissa Weiss sent to city workers, imploring them to adopt inclusive and neutral Christmas colors such as green and blue. In that email, she suggested they avoid using red and green Christmas colors.
She asked that departments “refrain from using religious decorations or solely associated with Christmas (such as red and green colors) when decorating public spaces within city buildings.” Instead, she suggested city employees decorate public spaces with snowflakes, “snow people” and “other non-religious symbols associated with winter.” She also suggested “lights and greenery” without “specific religious connotations.”
Finally, she urged city workers to create displays showing the northern lights (aurora borealis), incorporating “colors like blue, green and purple instead.”
It appears the latter is what Wauwatosa went ahead and did.
The front of City Hall remains light-free. However, it’s the back of City Hall’s government building, the one city workers use to enter the building, that now shines green and blue for Christmas.
The day after receiving a demand letter from a national religious freedom litigation group, and after days of national media attention and local uproar, the City of Wauwatosa caved on Christmas and told city workers they were free to decorate how they wanted. City Administrator James Archambo clarified in a new email to city workers that Weiss’s email was not a policy directive.
Dutifully, @WauwatosaWI City Hall has rejected “red and green colors” and opted for #3 on Melissa Cantarero Weiss’ list of recommended “more neutral and inclusive decorations.” Merry Aurora Borealis, everyone. @wisconsin_now @DanODonnellShow @libsoftiktok pic.twitter.com/eZA99tex9S
— wokeatosa (@wokeatosa) November 27, 2023
We previously reported that It turns out that the president of the Wauwatosa Common Council, Meagan O’Reilly, made the only recorded complaint on Wauwatosa Christmas colors, according to the results of an open records request filed by Wisconsin Right Now. They could produce no other recorded complaint.
We’ve obtained an email from Deputy City Administrator Melissa Weiss to other city officials, dated December 20, 2022, which reads:
“I have received a concern from the Council President this evening about City Hall being lit red and green for Christmas. For someone who does not celebrate Christmas, this may create a perception of being unwelcome as they approach the building. I am not sure who manages that, but I agree with the concern. We should discuss more before lighting City Hall next year.”
