When a handful of Rollingwood residents complained about a decoration on the City Hall lawn reading, “Have a Beary Merry Christmas,” steps Mayor Dale Dingley took inevitably led to complaints from a second group.

While the mayor has put the hand-made and painted cutouts on the property for the past few holiday seasons, he said this is the first year anyone complained.

“We had about half a dozen calls from people to ask what message we were sending when we only said Merry Christmas,” Dingley said. “We decided to replace the word ‘Christmas,’ with the word ‘holiday.’ There were people who took great exception to that.”

But, since City Hall is a government building supported by public funds, Dingley said the courts have been quite clear on any promotion of religion within that context.

“We just changed the word to holiday,” he said. “From a government facility like this, I think it’s the best thing to do anyway.”

Dingley said he was surprised by the hubbub concerning the decorations since he’s put them up for the past two years, simply as a way to share part of his holiday traditions with the city.

“My mother and father used to live in Kerrville, and as a hobby they would make the cut outs and paint them all year long, then sell them around the holidays,” he said. “They did that for many, many years and then my brother got involved in it. He actually made the sign that was the source of all this. My street is just a short two blocks long between Stratford and Hatley, and I felt like more people would be able to enjoy them at city hall.”

While staff said there had been several calls over the sign, despite recommendations to do so, no one showed up at the council’s regular meeting Wednesday night to voice an opinion either way.