For a select group of D.C. residents, the holiday season begins not with the lighting of the White House Christmas tree but with the less ceremonious arrival, via the U.S. Postal Service, of Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ nondenominational holiday card. The annual good cheer, however, has been lost on Thomas L. Hunter, a Naylor Gardens resident and lapsed Muslim who grew weary enough of the mayor’s tidings to file a religious-discrimination complaint with the city’s Office of Human Rights last year. Hunter’s complaint was dismissed the following day, and within a matter of weeks he received yet another merry mailing—the third in as many years, he says—with a John A. Wilson Building return address. In January, Hunter filed a lawsuit against Williams, wife Diane Simmons Williams, and daughter Asantewa Foster in D.C. Superior Court seeking $50,000 in damages. “I didn’t approve of them sending [the cards] to me,” says the 42-year-old. “They don’t know if I celebrate any holidays or not.” Says mayoral spokesperson Vincent Morris, “The mayor always has more people who want holiday cards than we can get them to. [Hunter] should let us know, and we’ll take him off the list.”—Dave Jamieson