Philly Returns 'Christmas' to 'Holiday Village' Sign

Consider it a Christmas re-birth.

Philadelphia's mayor has acquiesced and returned "Christmas" to a "holiday" sign marking the city's famous Christmas village market. The sign, which originally said "Christmas Village," was altered to say "Holiday Village" earlier this week in order to be politically correct. But not everyone's buying the mayor's explanation.

Wednesday, Mayor Michael Nutter announced the sign would be changed back. Philly Clout reports:

Mayor Nutter, after sustaining two days of controversy, wants "Christmas" back up on the signs at the entrance to the German Christmas Village at City Hall.  Nutter told PhillyClout he spoke with the village organizer and the sign should be back up by tomorrow.

Nutter said the decision came after "personal reflection" on the matter.

"We are an international, multi-ethnic, multi-faith city," Nutter said. "I took some time to step back from all of this to think about it in a larger context."

Nutter said he had nothing to do with the original decision, and stopped short of saying the sign changes national attention factored into Wednesday's decision.

German American Marketing, Inc. issued a statement Tuesday saying that the original change was made in "response to what the Managing Director of the City of Philadelphia asked for."

Richard Negrin, the city's managing director, said that he never specifically asked for the word to be removed, but talked with Bauer about the complaints, Philly Clout reports.

But not everyone is buying Nutter's explanation:

From MyFoxPhilly.com, quoting columnist Buzz Bissinger:

It was a public relations disaster and the mayor is not telling the truth, that it was the guy in Germany who owned the village that made the decision. It’s not true. The city went to him, the city said, ‘you got to take down Christmas, two people are complaining.’ The city overreacts, as usual, and now they change it back because the city looked like an idiot.