CRANSTON — There will be no crèche on the City Hall lawn next month. No menorah, either. No inflatable snowman or moose.

And holiday revelers will not, under any circumstances, find pink flamingos planted in the municipal pitch.

Four years after former Mayor Stephen P. Laffey, a Republican, made national headlines with a garish holiday display that sparked a debate over the separation of church and state — and the boundaries of good taste — the city’s new chief is taking a more restrained approach.

On Wednesday, Mayor Michael T. Napolitano, a Democrat, will switch on 50,000 white lights on the trees and bushes surrounding City Hall.

A high school choir will croon and Santa Claus will pose for photographs with children in the foyer.

“I think this is definitely a little bit more of a sincere approach and more of a real approach to the true meaning of Christmas,” said Ann Marie Harty, a spokeswoman for the mayor.

The differences in the holiday displays point, in less-than-subtle ways, to the differences between the two administrations.

Laffey, brash and combative, relished a First Amendment fight with the American Civil Liberties Union over his display, while Napolitano, a former municipal judge, consulted with the Rhode Island Affiliate of the ACLU before mounting this year’s celebration.

David Exter, chairman of the Republican City Committee, suggested the mayor’s lawerly approach to the holidays was a little Scrooge-like.

“Everything with him is a negotiated settlement,” Exter complained, adding later, “If you’re going to take out the meaning behind the holidays, why do it at all?”

Cranston’s holiday hang-up began in 2003 when Laffey invited residents to place decorations he deemed appropriate on the City Hall lawn.

A menorah went up first, followed by an inflatable snowman and Santa Claus and a Nativity scene.

Scott Bonelli, a set designer and sex-toy creator, added a splash of color with a series of pink flamingos sporting small Santa Claus caps.

Three days before Christmas, the ACLU sued the city, arguing that the display sanctioned an “overtly religious message” in violation of the First Amendment.

The ACLU also challenged a city policy giving the mayor the discretion to decide which decorations were acceptable.

The following year, a federal judge ruled that the display was legal, citing a 1984 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that backed a similar municipal display in Pawtucket.

The Supreme Court, in that case, found that a total separation of church and state is not required — simply an accommodation of all religions and hostility toward none.

But the judge, while finding that Laffey’s display passed constitutional muster, ruled that the mayor could not pick and choose specific displays without violating the free-speech rights of the city’s residents.

The decision left Laffey with two options: open the 2004 display to any and all decorations or sponsor a city-run spectacle complete with religious items and secular holiday trinkets.

Laffey went the latter route and the controversy dissipated with time.

But Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the ACLU, said he was glad to hear there will be no overtly religious symbols in this year’s City Hall display.

“It’s a very positive step in recognizing the importance of religious neutrality by the government,” he said.

And Harty said she hoped Wednesday’s public celebration, scheduled to begin at 6:15 p.m., will focus on more traditional holiday concerns this year.

There will be a canned-goods drive for local food pantries, she said, doughnuts and cider to be tasted and a particularly convincing Saint Nick in attendance.

“Wow, he looks like Santa,” she said. “Real beard and everything.”

dscharfe@projo.com