Officials in a Milwaukee suburb have told city workers they should not use the colors red and green or Christmas-themed items to decorate public spaces in city-run buildings.

Instead, city decorators should use snowflakes, “snow people,” non-specific lights and greenery, or the colors blue, green and purple to suggest the Northern lights, according to a widely circulated email from Melissa Cantarero Weiss, deputy city administrator of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

Ms. Weiss requested that city “departments refrain from using religious decorations or [those] solely associated with Christmas (such as red and green colors) when decorating public spaces within city buildings.”

Liberty Counsel, a public policy nonprofit group, has demanded the immediate retraction of the policy, saying Wauwatosa officials have overstepped their authority.

“How absurd is it to ban red and green during December,” said Mat Staver, the group’s founder and chairman. “The Christmas decoration ban by the city of Wauwatosa is Orwellian and unconstitutional.”

Wauwatosa officials, including Ms. Weiss, City Administrator Jim Archambo, Mayor Dennis McBride and City Attorney Andrew Kesner, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alderman Andrew Meindl, who has announced he will challenge Mr. McBride for the mayoralty in 2024, said on Facebook the matter had not been brought before the city’s Common Council and the administration should turn its attention to “maintaining quality city services” and other priorities.

Wisconsin Right Now, a website that first reported the kerfuffle, published an email from Mr. McBride in which the mayor said the policy “was not imposed by the Common Council or by me.”

He predicted the matter would “blow over soon, and then those who have expressed outrage will be on to a new topic.”

• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.