How should our HOA board handle requests for religious holiday displays on common area?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 20, 2026

How an HOA board decides on a menorah, nativity scene or other religious holiday display on common area: the options, a neutral policy, and fair housing limits.

Part of the HOA board handbook: residents and communication.

The short answer

Pick one approach for the whole year, write it down before the holidays, and apply it to every faith on the same terms. The common area belongs to the association, so the board has more room here than it does over an owner's front door. Texas says so outright: Property Code 202.018(b)(4) lets an association prohibit a religious item installed on property the association owns or maintains, or that the members own in common. What gets boards in trouble is not saying no. It is saying yes to one group and no to the next, or writing a new rule in December after a display the board did not like went up. Rules vary by state and by your declaration, so read this as general education, not legal advice, and call the association's attorney if a complaint has already been filed.

Why common area is different from an owner's door

Owners will often quote a state law about religious displays, and most of those laws stop at the owner's own property. Texas 202.018(a) bars an association from enforcing a rule that prohibits an owner or resident from displaying or affixing a religious item on the owner's property or dwelling when the display is motivated by a sincere religious belief. The exceptions in 202.018(b) include items that threaten public health or safety, items that are patently offensive to a passerby for reasons other than their religious content, and items attached to a street lamp, traffic sign, fire hydrant or utility pole. Subsections (c) and (d) were repealed in 2021, so an older article that quotes a size or placement limit from them is out of date. Colorado's protection, CRS 38-33.3-106.5(1)(c.5), covers a religious item or symbol on a unit's entry door or door frame, up to 36 square inches combined. Florida's condominium act, 718.113(6), requires a condo association to allow a religious object on the door frame or mantel up to 3 inches wide, 6 inches high and 1.5 inches deep. None of these gives an owner the right to put a display on the entrance median or the clubhouse lawn. On common area, your declaration, your adopted rules and federal fair housing law decide it. If an owner's display at home is the issue, our guide on whether an HOA can restrict holiday decorations covers that side.

Three approaches, and which one to pick

Option one is no religious displays on common area. The association decorates with lights and greenery, and faith displays stay at owners' homes. This is the simplest policy to run and the hardest to attack, because nobody gets the privilege. Most self-managed HOAs with 26 to 150 homes should pick it. Option two is an open display area. The board names one spot, such as the lawn beside the clubhouse, and lets any resident or resident group reserve it for a holiday display on the same terms: same size limit, same number of days, same insurance and removal rules. A menorah, a nativity scene, a Diwali lamp display and a secular winter scene all qualify. This works when residents want it and a director is willing to manage the sign-up and the walk-throughs. Option three is an association display of one tradition, paid for from the budget or put up by a committee. This is the one to avoid. The Fair Housing Act, at 42 U.S.C. 3604(b), bars discrimination because of religion in the provision of services or facilities connected with a dwelling, and HUD's rule lists limiting the use of privileges, services or facilities associated with a dwelling as a prohibited practice (24 CFR 100.65(b)(4)). If the entrance carries one faith's display every year and another resident's request for a different one is refused, the board has handed that resident a fair housing complaint.

Policy wording the board can adopt

Whichever option you choose, put it in a short written rule and adopt it at a properly noticed board meeting, following whatever rulemaking steps your bylaws and state law require. A version of option two the board can adapt: "Holiday displays on common area. The association decorates common area with seasonal lighting and greenery only. Residents may reserve the display area beside the clubhouse for a holiday or seasonal display of their choosing by submitting the display request form at least 14 days before installation. Each display may occupy no more than 10 feet by 10 feet and 8 feet in height, may be installed no earlier than 21 days before the holiday it marks, and must be removed within 7 days after it. Displays may not be attached to the entrance monument, trees, light poles, signs or irrigation equipment, may not block sidewalks or driver sight lines, and may use power only from outlets the association designates. The resident who installs a display is responsible for damage it causes. Requests are approved in the order received, and the board will not consider the content or message of a display in approving or scheduling it." The numbers are examples. Measure your site and set limits that fit it. For option one, keep the first sentence, add that religious or other displays by residents are not permitted on common area, and stop there.

Answering a request this season

Requests usually arrive in late October or November, often before the board has any policy. Work through them in this order. 1. Reply in writing within a week that the board received the request and will decide at its next meeting. 2. Read the declaration's common area section. Some declarations limit what may be placed on common area or reserve that decision to the board. 3. If there is no policy, adopt one at that meeting, then apply it to the request. Do not decide the request first and write the rule around the answer. 4. Record the decision in the minutes. A sample motion: "Motion to adopt the holiday display policy as presented, effective today, and to approve the request of [resident] to install a display in the clubhouse display area from [date] to [date] under that policy." 5. Send the decision in writing. If the answer is no under option one, say so plainly: "Thank you for your request. Under the policy adopted on [date], the association does not place or permit religious or other holiday displays on common area, for any group. You are welcome to display items at your home under the association's rules and state law." Tell every owner about the policy in the next newsletter or email, so the second request does not come as a surprise to the second requester.

Objections, vandalism and the timing trap

Once a display goes up under option two, expect at least one owner to object to it. The answer is the policy: the board approved the space, not the message, and the same space is open to the objector. Do not take a display down because of complaints about its content. Vandalism needs a faster response. HUD's rule makes a housing provider liable for failing to take prompt action to correct and end a discriminatory housing practice by a third party when it knew or should have known about it and had the power to correct it (24 CFR 100.7(a)(1)(iii)). If one faith's display is damaged or defaced, report it to police, document it with photos, tell the owner what the board is doing, and send a short message to the community that damaging displays violates the rules. The timing trap is the mistake with the most case law behind it. In Bloch v. Frischholz, decided in 2009, a Chicago condominium board began enforcing a hallway rule against items on doorframes, and staff repeatedly removed a Jewish family's mezuzah. The full Seventh Circuit held that a jury could find the board reinterpreted the rule to target residents whose religion required the practice, and let the family's claims under 3604(b) and 3617 go forward. A neutral rule adopted in the middle of a dispute, aimed at the display that started it, can look like discrimination even when it is worded neutrally. Adopt the policy in late summer, before anyone asks.

A sample year and the mistakes boards make

- August: the board picks option one or two and drafts the policy. - September: adopt it at an open meeting and send it to all owners with the request form, if you use one. - October 31: the request deadline for November and December displays. - November: approve requests in the order received and give each resident a written approval with dates. - December and January: a director walks the display area weekly and checks removal dates. - Late January: note what went wrong and adjust the policy before next year. The mistakes that come up most: letting a committee put up the same faith's display every year because it always has; approving the first request informally and then turning down a different faith's request; removing a display after complaints about its message; writing a rule mid-season to end one display; and treating the entrance lighting contract as if it settled the religious display question. Our guide on hiring an HOA holiday lighting contractor covers the entrance budget and owner survey.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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