The Festival of Slights?

Happy holidays?

Apparently not for the Town of Huntington where, barring an 11th-hour resolution, a U.S. District Court judge in Central Islip will be asked tonight to decide the fate of a holiday display on the Village Green on Park Avenue and Route 25A.

This after a local lawyer who sued the town agreed to a court-brokered compromise Friday hours before the annual Xmas tree lighting ceremonies apparently had a change of heart over the weekend, making new demands yesterday.

Among the demands reportedly made by Mitchell Pashkin, 39, of Huntington: That the town require the two groups who donated a nativity scene and menorah pay for their installation, maintenance and storage.

The matter now is likely to be decided by Judge Leonard Wexler in a federal court hearing at 6 tonight.

“I think he and this debate have gone too far,” Councilman Mark Cuthbertson said yesterday. “The church-state debate has reached ridiculous proportions … This isn’t what the Constitution intended.”

In his lawsuit, Pashkin argued that the display, which features a Xmas tree, nativity scene, menorah and a sign reading “Peace on Earth,” violates his constitutional rights because of the religious overtones. Pashkin also charged that the menorah is “dwarfed in significance and stature” and “appears as nothing more than a token attempt to be inclusive to the Jewish population.”

On Friday afternoon Wexler, the federal judge, appeared to have brokered a deal that required the town to erect signs stating that the nativity scene was donated by the Huntington Knights of Columbus and that the menorah was donated by the Chabad-Lubavitch of Melville.

But yesterday, Pashkin presented the town a new list of demands, officials said. Among them, according to sources, that a spotlight be used to illuminate the menorah, which would normally be unlit until the start of Hanukkah – starting this year at sundown Dec. 25 – and the town not use taxpayer funds to pay for installation, maintenance or storage of the displays.

Last night, Pashkin refused to discuss the specifics of his demands. He said the lawsuit was never about the Xmas tree. “It is simply about the nativity scene,” he said, “the way it is set up on public property – along with everything else that goes along with that. It comes off as a government endorsement of religion.”

Pashkin said the menorah should be removed as well and denied requesting the spotlight for it.

Town councilwoman Susan Berland said yesterday: “As a Jew, I don’t find that there is a competition between the menorah and the size of the Xmas tree. I think it’s a beautiful menorah – and, it’s a lovely tree.”