But some lawyers did not, and about that, the mayor was candid.
"In this case, we got sued once too often," Mayor Bloomberg said.
"What are we talking about, maybe about 1% of the population and they're allowed to stamp out Christmas? It's insane," said Bill Donohue, of the Catholic League.
There is a nativity scene in Central Park and this weekend, the nation's largest menorah will go up beside it.
Grand Central Terminal has some festive wreaths, though no outright religious symbol.
But at the terminals for the ferry, the decision has been to just skip the whole season.
"You start getting into the whole issue of religion in public spaces and there are plenty of places you can celebrate Christmas, plenty of stores and homes that can have Christmas or Hanukkah," Bloomberg said.
But not everyone thinks the safe path, the one where all of the lawyers are happy but a lot of the people are not, is necessarily the best path.
"There are two ways the government can be neutral, there's the tolerant way which is to let everybody of all of the world religions to have a limited time display their wares on public property, and then there's the intolerant way, the Bloomberg way, which is to ban everything equally," Donohue said.
And the passengers Eyewitness News spoke with seem to agree.
"The Christmas tree is the symbol of Christmas, well I guess the man has to get his priorities in order," said one city resident.
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