
A sign depicting Krampus is seen Tuesday propped up against the gazebo in Veteran’s Memorial Park in Fairfield. Other decorations at the park include a Nativity scene, a winter solstice sign and a menorah. Hannah Kaufman/Morning Sentinel
FAIRFIELD — Two weeks after tension reached a boiling point over the addition of a Nativity scene to the town gazebo, four more signs were added to the mix.
And they won’t stay still.
Sometime after the storm came through central Maine on Dec. 11, bringing strong winds and heavy rain, the Nativity scene was found lying on the ground by the gazebo in Veteran’s Memorial Park. Two signs depicting Krampus, a pagan Christmas antihero, appeared shortly after, bordering the Nativity on either side.
As of Monday afternoon, the Krampus signs had been removed from their original spot in the ground and propped up against the gazebo.
Carol-Ann Bagnulo, whose house neighbors the park, said in a Facebook message that she has noticed the Krampus signs have been moved multiple times since Monday, first leaning against the gazebo behind the Nativity scene, and now to the side of the structure.
Bagnulo also said that the night the Nativity scene fell down, strong winds knocked over a few of her own decorations that had been tied down.
Fairfield resident and Republican state Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, who originally purchased the Nativity scene, said that it would have been difficult for the sign to fall due to wind alone.
“There were stakes in the ground, and they pulled the stakes out, and they actually unhooked the back piece of it and deliberately knocked it down,” Rudnicki said. “There’s no way it could have gone down with the wind, based on what I saw when I went over to pick it back up and straighten it back out.”
The sign celebrating the winter solstice still stands, signed by the Maine Chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the separation of church and state.

A sign celebrating the winter solstice stands next to the town gazebo Tuesday in Veteran’s Memorial Park in Fairfield. Hannah Kaufman/Morning Sentinel
A small menorah has also been added to the unlikely group of religious figures and symbols.
On Dec. 2, Fairfield’s town office had requested that those in charge of the gazebo’s decoration remove the Nativity scene for its strong religious symbolism as part of a public, town-funded display. Other festive decorations at the gazebo, like lights, ribbons, garlands, bows and a Christmas tree, were not asked to be removed.
The town’s request led to volatile debate on social media, with Rudnicki saying that the removal would infringe on her religious liberty.
Following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), which tested laws against the requirements of the Establishment clause, the issue of religion in the public sphere has become increasingly muddled.
In the end, town officials placed a sign next to the gazebo stating that the Nativity scene is a private display, and that any and all faiths should feel welcome to add their own display at the same location. The town attorney advised Michelle Flewelling, town manager, that adding a private display sign would keep the religious imagery separate from the town.
The Nativity scene was the only private display present until the weekend of Dec. 7, when the menorah and winter solstice signs appeared. Rudnicki said that the later arrival of the Krampus signs was an attempt to destroy Christmas spirit.
“I think it’s evil, and I think people are just — if they don’t like the Nativity scene, drive by,” Rudnicki said. “I think what they’re trying to do, it’s just another way of the left to try to cancel us, and to try to take something that is about Christmas and destroy it. I mean, that’s what this is. Christmas is about Nativity. Christmas is about baby Jesus. It’s not about this other crap that they’re trying to push.”
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