The 2025 Ebenezer Award goes to:

MAYOR MIKO PICKETT

WASHINGTON – The most outrageous offender of this year’s Christmas and Hanukkah season, and Becket’s 2025 Ebenezer Award winner, is Mayor Miko Pickett of Mullins, South Carolina, who ordered the removal of a Nativity scene from public property. Combining constitutional confusion with holiday scroogery, the mayor cited America’s tradition of separation of church and state. But the Supreme Court has explained time and again that our law does not require local officials to throw out the baby with the bathwater. America’s law and best traditions protect the right of citizens to celebrate their religious heritage without a government-ordered grinch turning out the lights.  

Mayor Pickett’s order targeted a three-by-four-foot Nativity scene placed near Mullins’ marketplace as part of the city’s Christmas decorations, which also included a snowman, wreaths, lights, and Santa Claus. The display was organized and paid for out of pocket by the Mullins Beautification Committee, which had been preparing the area for the marketplace’s first Christmas season. According to city employees, the mayor said the Nativity scene made the city appear “not neutral” toward religion. When that threatened to turn a festive celebration into a public controversy just weeks before Christmas, Committee chair Kimberly Byrd defied the mayor and kept the Nativity scene, earning this year’s Tiny Tim Toast for her courage. 

“It takes a special kind of scroogery to rob the townspeople of Christmas joy by coming after a Nativity scene,” said Mark Rienzi, president of Becket. “During this season of hope and charity, we should be protecting our neighbors’ right to express their faith freely, not banishing them for it. May this Ebenezer Award help governmental hearts everywhere grow three sizes next year.”

Each year, the Christmas and Hanukkah season inspires outrageous offenses against the free exercise of religion. At Becket, we do Santa’s dirty work for him, delivering a lump of coal as an acknowledgment of scroogery on a grand scale. Previous Ebenezer Award winners include the American Humanist Association, which tried to stop schools from sending care packages to children in need; the Department of Veteran Affairs, which banned employees at its Salem, Virginia facility from saying “Merry Christmas” to veterans; and the University of Minnesota, which banned from campus holiday colors, Santas, bows, dreidels, and even wrapped presents. (See list of previous (dis)honorees). 

Finally, Becket is offering its second-ever Tiny Tim Toast to the Mullins Beautification Committee chair, Kimberly Byrd. Inspired by the enduring spirit of hope, perseverance, and joy embodied by the beloved character from A Christmas Carol, the Tiny Tim Toast celebrates those who inspire that spirit during the Christmas and Hanukkah season. When pressured to remove the Mullins Nativity scene, Byrd stood her ground, making clear that she would not take it down because “The true meaning of Christmas is not Santa, it is The Birth of Jesus Christ.” May we all learn from Byrd’s faith and fortitude this holiday season.

“In the face of increasing government efforts to scrub religion from public life, we should all strive to be like Kimberly Byrd,” said Rienzi. “Her courage to stand up for the Nativity scene was admirable and patriotic. We’re happy to raise a hearty toast to Kimberly and others like her who have kept the faith and brought a little more joy to this holiday season.”

Becket wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a joyous New Year!

SEE PAST YEARS’ EBENEZER AWARD WINNERS

See Past Years’ Tiny Tim Toast Winners

What is the Proper Role of Government in Religious Displays?

1. Because religious holidays are an important part of human culture, governments are allowed to recognize and celebrate those holidays with appropriate symbols.
2. The Supreme Court has long upheld government holiday displays that send “a message of pluralism and freedom of belief during the holiday season,” including displays that have distinctive religious elements.
3. Although public opinion and the law are on the side of religious holidays, some bureaucrats insist on scrubbing the public square of any religious references. This often leads to absurd results.
4. One fairly recent tactic is to try to force local governments to permit displays that mock or belittle religion if the government permits displays that recognize religious holidays. But that’s not the law. Just as the government doesn’t have to include a pacifist memorial next to every war memorial, it doesn’t have to include mockery of religion next to every crèche or Christmas tree.