An email from the City of Greensboro’s Human Resources Department doesn’t say “Bah-humbug!” but it does lay out so many rules and regulations about how to celebrate Christmas – sorry, the “Holiday Season” – that some city employees may forgo celebrating at the office at all.

The decorating and behavioral guidance, signed by Greensboro Human Resources Director Jamiah Waterman, states “what is and isn’t allowed” when it comes to the holiday season.

“We have some tips below to help guide your directions on how to celebrate the holidays in the offices and other places accessible and whether you can display Christmas trees and other decorations.”

Waterman notes that government cannot endorse any particular religion so any holiday decorations throughout Greensboro city government should be “secular decorations.”

Workers can have religious oriented items in their private workspaces if they are not visible to the public. “However,” the memo states “in public areas, we must be thoughtful and sensitive to the complexities of events with religious (or other protected basis) connotations.”

Here are some of the points city employees are advised to keep in mind…

•Be as inclusive as possible.

•Understand and respect the fact that some employees may choose not to display holiday decorations.

•Consider only secular decorations such as Christmas trees, garlands, snowmen, candy canes, reindeer, etc. (Interestingly, the memo only lists snowmen. It makes no mention of the fact that women are equal to men and therefore snowmen on display should be accompanied by a snowwoman as well. Come to think of it, there should probably be a gender-neutral snow person also to keep from offending anyone.)

•Use inclusive descriptors of our holiday observations (i.e., Holiday, Winter Break.)

So, city employees should mind their PC P’s and Q’s this December while they have a very merry Chis – uh, holiday season.